The Daily News

LFCA Latest Issue: Friday, September 25, 2009.

Latest Post on BlogHer: Parenting after Infertility.

My Status: Fed Josh's almonds to the squirrels. They needed them very badly.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Friday Blog Roundup...a day early

I know this is ten kinds of confusing, but I'm writing and posting the Friday Blog Roundup a day early as well as the latest IComLeavWe list (later tonight) because...well...tomorrow is Halloween and I intend to spend the entire day consuming candy. I will have some Snickers bars by the bedside for when I awake and then I'll roll downstairs to grab some Kit Kats and finally, I'll have a bowl of M&Ms for breakfast.

Oh--and then I'll have a nervous breakdown at around 5 p.m. when I realize we are now out of candy and trick-or-treaters are on their way.

I am a big fan of Halloween and I know tomorrow will be a strange mish-mash of preparing for Shabbat, painting clothespin dolls (please don't ask), and getting ready for Halloween. Something had to give so the posts are going up early so I can use my one post-writing time tomorrow to put up the Lost and Found. See, priorities.

*******
We have kicked the UTERUS (um...ouch...) by which I mean that we hit our fundraising goal. The money will be forwarded to Vee, Max, and Mary this week. We still have some eBay auctions and etsy fundraisers going for a while to (1) make sure we have all fees covered and (2) get a head start on the next fundraiser. We started out this one with $200 that we had raised in between the two fundraisers and it's nice to have a springboard start.

We are a fantastic community--from our anonymous donor who kicked everyone into action with her matching fund challenge to everyone who gave a direct donation or item for sale.

Thank You
A Sense of Humor is Essential
A Sibling for Celia
Addition Problems
All Things Deb
Angry Canadian Nurse
arabella cucumber
Bee In The Bonnet
Creating Motherhood
Evelina Sterling
Henry Street
Hoping for Another Lovebug
Insert Metaphor
ISO the Golden Egg
It Could Take 3 Months
It's Either Sadness or Euphoria
It's Not the End of the World
Just My Ramblings
Kats Beads N Baubles
Katy Knits
Kicking You From The Inside
Kwynne
Life as a Dad to Donor Insemination (DI) Kids

Loving Thee...and More
Mrs Spock
Oh Emily
Out On Good Behavior
Peace of Mind is All I Want...
Slaying, Blogging, Whatever
Stop the Train, I Wanna Get Off
Tales from My Dusty Ovaries
The Sweet Life
Third Time Lucky?
This is my Truth, Tell me Yours
We Are What We Repeatedly Do
Who shot my stork?
There are a lot of people who gave a direct donation. Unfortunately, I could not always match the name to a blog. Please write me if your name is below and you'd like it linked to your blog.
Val
Angela
Liz
Jamie
Emily
Maureen
Ashley
Denissa
Melissa
Elizabeth

And, of course, the most massive thank yous to the chickies who worked behind the scenes to do everything:
Who shot my stork?
Creating Motherhood
Here We Go Again
and
Everyday Stranger

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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And now, the blogs...

Is Conceiving Conceivable? had a post this week that began with more details that came from surgery and continued into a story about her brother's baby. When she was a few months into trying, her brother got his girlfriend pregnant and the woman just gave birth. Starr wrote: "She called me when she left the hospital talking about how little and sweet and soft she was...She kept talking about her little granddaughter and I tried to be excited, but I just kept crying. I felt like I was grieving, grieving for a lost dream, grieving that my Mom was there in the hospital with a new mom that she doesn't even know, visiting a granddaughter she will probably rarely be able to see." It is such a raw, heartfelt post. You truly need to click over and read the whole thing.

Punch Drunk played with a question that doesn't need answering in a post this week. Her husband's simple question:"We’re not having any more kids, right?" is woven between paragraphs of internal thoughts on what it means to be finished with family building. The heart hasn't always caught up with the head, even when you intellectually know that you're finished. It's just a gorgeous post.

Portraits in Sepia had a post about her second homestudy visit. She wrote: "I kind of got emotional listening to my husband describe what he found attractive about me when we met. After so many years of marriage you don't often hear your spouse talk about those things." It is a post about the hidden silver lining in the process; how the scrutiny forces you to also look closely at what you have and notice the hidden gems inside your marriage.

Lastly, Vintage Mommy had a post about how we respond to another person's post. On one hand, she is asking about dealing with the emotions of family building when adding to the family isn't truly an option. On the other, it is about an earlier post that had readers responding in a way that dismissed her feelings. She wrote: "I have to confess that the comments didn’t make me feel a whole lot better. Despite the fact that parents presumably have more energy and resources (financial and otherwise), for an only child, I’m not convinced. And I guess the bottom line is that I simply wanted more children." I liked this post because it was a reminder of how we sometimes need to read a post closely in order to listen to what the other person needs in the moment.

The roundup to the Roundup: I will be eating lots of candy tomorrow. The new IComLeavWe list opens tonight so join along (only the last two days overlap with Thanksgiving and I'm giving an bye for those days). So many thank yous for filling the UTERUS. And a lot of excellent bloggage. Catch you back here on Saturday night for Show and Tell where I will be showing off my new clothespin dolls. Pure love.

10 comments:

Searching for Serenity said...

Just in case no one has told you today...you are amazing! The commitment and love you put into you daily posts helps so many in this community. I think I'm addicted because I eagerly wait for your post and the daily LFCA.

Thank you, Mel, for all that you do.

BTW-I'm sitting at home with the pounds of candy DH insisted we buy. It's not safe for me to be here alone with it all.

Have a Happy Howlin' Halloween!

HereWeGoAJen said...

No, Mel, you've got to do what I do. Buy a couple of bags of Halloween candy just for yourself! Don't even pretend they are for trick or treaters. Then there is some for everyone. And several bags for me. I do this every year. In fact, I am going to go out tonight and get some more because I am not sure we've got enough. (Plus, new neighborhood, not sure how many kids we are going to get.)

Io said...

Mel, I can't tell you enough how happy I am that you have invited us all to join you in your amazing mission to save the world. Yay UTERUS!

Go ahead and eat the candy. Al bought some even though I was trying to wait until right before so I didn't eat it all. Maybe I'll eat this and then buy more...

And I totally had a moment of pure joy when for a second I thought - it's Friday!

Kristin said...

Wow...you know you really are fabulous! You do so much for all of us.

Jamie said...

I am getting ready to dive head first into making frosted sugar cookies for Halloween. I am almost dreading it because I know more frosting will land in my stomach than on the cookies!

Anonymous said...

You ARE amazing! Excellent work with the fundraising.

Thanks for all that you do for this community.

Happy Halloween!

Paula Keller said...

We started the sugar induced coma tonight!!!

Enjoy your Halloween. :)

Paula Keller said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Mel, I really can't express what it has meant to me to find you and your community. Even though my fertility treatment days are several years ago, I just feel at home here, and your readers have left such thoughtful comments. THANK YOU!! and eat some candy for me . . .

ColourYourWorld said...

We have been blown away by the generosity of every one. Max and I are very grateful!

A humongous THANK YOU to you all !xx