"Shout-out Sunday"

I am a total blog nerd.  Not only do I love to write, but I love to stalk read other bloggers as well.  Over the past few years, I have met some amazing women throughout Blogland who inspire me, who write about their foster/adopt journeys, who make me cry, and who make me laugh so hard that I know I can't read their posts while drinking my Diet Coke for fear of shooting it out of my nose...  So I decided to start a new weekly segment entitled "Shout-out Sundays" where I highlight a few blogs or specific posts that stood out to me throughout the week.  These ladies are awesome!  And I'd love to share my Blogland friends with you.  :-)

1)  My first pick of the week has to be this new blogger.  Quite honestly, she is the reason I decided to start this new segment!  Casey is an experienced single foster mom who just recently started blogging about her experiences over at A Single Foster Mom's Diary.  (And by recently, I mean last month!)  She sucked me in, and I am so happy that I've been able to follow her journey from the beginning.  She recently gave into me hounding her agreed to be a part of the "Foster Fridays" panel as well, and I can't wait to get to know her better!  Definitely go check her out.  You won't be disappointed.  :-)

2)  I found my second pick of the week after this week's "Foster Fridays" guest post by Andrea.  Foster Mom - R over at Love's a State of Mind wrote this post on the same topic (How Foster Care Has Changed Me), and I had to share.  She included a great mixture of serious changes as well as had me cracking up because some of her "positive" changes included things that might seem silly to some, but were so true for me as another foster parent (like color coding children and developing an immunity to bodily fluids :-). 


And last, but not least...

3)  This post by Mama Foster definitely touched a nerve with me this week.  It's about that common phrase that all foster and adoptive parents of foster children seem to be forced to use on a regular basis...  "I don't know..."  It's a difficult thing to not be a part of the early years of your child's life.  Having to answer "I don't know" to questions that most children commonly ask is heartbreaking.  It is exactly why I try so hard to take tons of photos of my kids, to send photos and baby books to their birthparents while they are in my care, and to document every little milestone.  Because while I might have to answer "I don't know," I'm hopeful that their birthfamilies won't have to.


So those are my "Shout-outs" for the week!  I hope you'll take a few minutes to check them out, and look around.  Stay tuned next Sunday for another installment of "Shout-out Sundays."  :-)