Birth Mother’s Day has been celebrated on the day before Mother’s Day. I am not sure why and at times have felt that it should be celebrated on the same day. However, in speaking with some natural mothers they feel that a separate day recognizes their motherhood as one of loss and separation as well as love and connection. So many natural mothers were treated like criminals, abandoned by their families, society, and the child’s fathers. This is not a traditional experience or the sentiments associated with the Mother’s Day traditions. I now understand that a separate... more

The second Sunday of this month millions of people in the United States will be celebrating Mother’s Day. This is a holiday that occurs annually in the United States and dates back to ancient Romans. I believe it was made a national holiday in the United States on May 8, 1914. Woodrow Wilson was president and he signed a resolution directing government officials to display the United States flag on all government buildings, and the people to display the flag at their homes or other suitable places as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our... more

Over the weekend I learned that Adoption Network Cleveland recently received the 2005 Anisfield-Wolf Memorial $20,000 Award from the Center for Community Solutions and the Cleveland Foundation.

Adoption Network Cleveland was recognized for its work in finding permanent adoptive families for children and teens in Cuyahoga County. The annual award recognizes outstanding service by a nonprofit organization serving Greater Clevelanders.

Adoption Network Cleveland was founded in 1998 and is an educational, advocacy, support and search group for people affected... more

The American Adoption Congress and Pacer are sponsoring a one day event in Sausalito, CA on May 20, 2006. The conference theme is The Changing Picture of Adoption: Voices of Adotees, Birth Parents, and Adoptive Parents.

The details of the conference are

Saturday, May 20, 2006 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. The Headlands Institute* Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Building 1033 Sausalito, CA 94965

This is a one day conference featuring keynote speaker, Jean Strauss, filmmaker and author of Beneath the Tall Trees, and Birthright.... more

A couple of times I have had the pleasure of hearing Father Tom Brosnan speak at a couple of adoption conferences. The most recent was in July 2005 at the National Conference of the American Adoption Congress (AAC- www.americanadoptioncongress.org) The other was an Adoption Forum conference a few years ago (www.adoptionforum.org) I thought I would share a bit of what he spoke of in one of his keynote addresses.

For those of you who don’t know who Father Tom Brosnan is, he is a roman catholic priest of the Diocese of... more

The photo above was taken at an event called RegDay(Registration Day). RegDay is an annual event to increase public awareness of the International Soundex Reunion Registry; a free humanitarian service better known as ISRR. This event happens once a year all over the country in different sites. RegDay sites are coordinated and run generally by triad members. Included in this photo are three birth moms, including me at a bookstore where our RegDay event was held in 2003. We also had an equal number of adoptees volunteering at our site.

ISRR is a non-profit mutual... more