Source: Flickr user moodboard
For some adoptive parents, the community that surrounds them is supportive, but not necessarily made up of other adoptive parents. Having a community as parents is incredibly important and pivotal to success. From swapping stories about parenting trials, to sharing techniques and information about illnesses, nothing can replace a strong community of parents. If you find that the other parents around you are not adoptive parents, don’t lose hope. There’s no reason to feel alone with the connections that the internet can provide today.
In previous posts, we have mentioned some local options for parent support groups along with another post about adoption education resources. Be sure to check these out as many will help introduce you to other adoptive parents who can become your community. But if you are looking for support – sharing tears, frustrations, and the joy of raising an adoptive child – then you might consider an online blog.
Privacy and security are certainly concerns, but you can create and run a personal blog without giving away personal information or contact details. The level of anonymity is entirely up to you. Once you decide what you are comfortable with sharing, consider the possibilities: open sharing of information, connecting with adoptive parents across the US (maybe even the world!), and having a vast community right at your fingertips, nearly 24 hours a day. Many adoptive parents have blogs that you can read right now. A quick Google search turns up hundreds! Here are a few that you can peruse as examples:
Adoptive Parent Blogs
Confessions of an Adoptive Parent
A Mother on the Road Less Traveled
My Real Kid
Mama Mem
The Big Long Wait
Parents can treat a blog like a journal entry, sharing and speaking things that are perhaps too hard to share in person. It’s also a chance to virtually meet other parents and build connections that can last. Many of the blogs above have a vast blogging community with regular readers. Additionally, when you put your story out there for other adoptive and foster parents to read someone may just take comfort in your story one day. Consider how much better you felt when you realized your fears were not just your own. Sharing your story not only relieves stress for you, but it also connects you to others. One of the greatest aspects of the internet is its ability to connect us all, and there’s no reason it can’t do the same for you and your family as you embark on your adoption journey.