So this is a follow up for those who attended my SEO workshop at the American Adoption Congress Conference:
“While the internet has been an amazing tool to bring the adoption community together, there are basic best practices to utilized to really amplify our voices and reach a wider audience. Whether blogging, sharing or tweeting, knowing what Google wants and how to use SEO can benefit us all.”
I mean thank GOD that I had at least a warning that they were going to be there. Can you image if you didn’t expect your agency and they were in your face! They are just lucky that I HAD mentally prepared or the emotional side of me might have taken hold and I might not have been civil and gracious. In fact, the right thing to do on their part would have been to send me a email or note before hand, explaining that they were going to be there for their CEUs and that IF I was open to it, then they would like to take the opportunity to say hello face to face. At least that would have considered my needs and treated me like a valuable person worth of an opinion and having valid feelings. Instead, I somehow feel again like “just a birthmother” whose feelings come last and just don’t matter. That will not work for me anymore!
I felt 100 time “lighter” immediately. I actually DO feel likeit’s over. We have managed to break through the hold and restrictions that adoption has tried to put on our mother son relationship and it can’t do any more damage, Adoption, as a real threat to me and my son, is done. It’s over. It cannot hurt us anymore. The adoption industry might have tried and maybe it’s not the way I wish it had been, but that just doesn’t matter anymore because we are OK. Our connection is still there and we value it and it works.
26th Annual Adoption Conference Uniting Families in Albany New York
WHEN: May 8-9, 2015
WHERE: Albany Marriott Hotel 189 Wolf Road Albany New York 12205 USA
WHAT: NYSCCC 26th Annual Conference
WHO: The NYS Citizens’ Coalition for Children
BONUS: I have been invited to present a birthparent perspective
Fellow birth mother and researcher, Dr. Gail Hanssen Perry would like to know more about today’s betrayed open adoptions. She wants to compare today’s experiences with the findings of her doctoral research, “Extending Families: How Adoptive Parents Transition to Openness”, now 20 years old. This will not only enhances the CUB Retreat, but it could become part of a document CUB prepares to alert vulnerable pregnant couples to possible pitfalls. Gail and CUB Founder, Lee Campbell, have collaborated on a handout that includes a few questions for those who have been betrayed. I am happy to be able to make this into a online version for CUB and to help gather the information for them. If you are a Betrayed Birth Parent who was Promised More in Adoption than You Received, PLEASE Take the Survey!
Join the AAC and AdoptionLand Community in Cambridge, MA in March of 2105 for Educate, Advocate, Legislate! Calls for presentation proposals and a conference logo contest are now open!
Registration is Open for CUB’s 2014 Retreat
What: Concerned United Birthparents annual Retreat
Where: Safety Harbor Resort and Spa 105 N. Bayshore Dr., Safety Harbor, FL
When: October 17th to 19th , 2014
Save the Date for Children’s Rights
When: Friday, October 3, 2014
Where: The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library at 40 Presidential Dr, Simi Valley, CA 93065
Who: International Children’s Rights Institute
Bonus: I’m there presenting with Cathi Swett AND the CBC’s Jennifer Lalh will be speaking too!
When I really look at my own attitudes towards racism, then I am no different than the white adoptive parents who refuse to see the racism that their children experience because they are also “not racists.” Just because a person refuses to see it, doesn’t mean it is not there and, in this case, doesn’t mean that they can’t blunder into it. In fact the refusal to even think about the impact of my own words because I was so above it meant that I did, in reality, contribute. I can’t even say it is a silence that created my complicity, but a refusal to even consider the possibility that made it possible.
The National Council For Adoption will host the 2014 National Adoption Conference at the Buena Vista Palace in Orlando, Florida. I will not be attending but I DO implore that if anyone CAN, to please DO so. Our voices cannot be heard if we do not demand a seat at the table.
So Much Adoption in Just Five San Francisco Days. After going to more than a few adoption conferences, it might seem silly to say that they are life changing events. I mean, really, how many times can one’s life really change? But I have to say, that I did walk away with one giant realization when I got home.
“Building Bridges for Change”
When: April 9th to 13th, 2014
Where: Parc 55 Wyndham San Francisco – Union Square 55 Cyril Magnin Street San Francisco CA 94102
Who: American Adoption Conference
Bonus: I’ll be there!
Adoption Support and Healing in Florida
When: March 28th to 30th, 2014
Where: Celebration Church Tampa Florida
Who: Deanne form Adoptee Restoration and other real therapists!
Register: Right here on InnerHealingConference.com
Fee: 10$ Yup! TEN!
What: Annual Adoption Conference
Where: Amway Grand Plaza, Grand Rapids, MI
When: August 2nd to 4th, 2013
Who: Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Families Network
WHO: Riverside Community Care After Adoption Consulting and Training and PACT (Pre/Post Adoption Consulting and Training)
WHEN: June 23, and June 24, 2013
WHERE: Provincetown Inn, Provincetown, Massachusetts on Cape Cod
BONUS: Joyce Maguire Pavao