I had every intention of blogging in depth about my experience at the FSA conference last month. I even have several posts in draft form on the first 2 classes and the first panel. However, as I wrote I began to doubt myself and my ability to translate my thoughts into words. And as I read back through them I felt that I was coming across very condescending and judgemental. This made me wonder if I might not be the worst kind of ignorant that Melissa from Yoon's Blur mentions in her post titled "When you think you understand, but you really don't..." (Great post, BTW!)
Now, I'm certainly not far gone enough to try to tell anyone on the other two sides of the adoption triad how they should or shouldn't feel but I find that I am often super critical of other adoptive parents when I feel they make ingorant statements. How quickly I forget that I too have made and will continue to make ignorant statements along my life's journey. And not just in adoption.
So I've decided to instead just hang out with my thoughts on the conference. Together we have been gardening, writing copious notes and making good progress on the Adoption Reading Challenge. Another item on my blogging to do list! But I do want to thank everyone who participated in the conference as you have all given me months, perhaps even years, of food for thought :)
Adoption Ain't For Sissies: “We read to know we’re not alone.” ~ C.S. Lewis
3 comments:
Just stopping by from Mel's blog list and wanted to say 'hello' from a fellow engineer and hope to be adoptive mama.
I would love to hear more about the conference when you're ready. I can only imagine what kind of experience that was.
I am curious, what do you mean by this:
"but I find that I am often super critical of other adoptive parents when I feel they make ingorant statements"
Adoption Paradox - When I hear another AP make a comment I feel is ignorant (for example at the FSA conference I attended in April one of the AP's made the comment, "Adoption is just another method through which we grew our family. Our first two children came to us through c-section while our third came to us through adoption.") I find that I look down on them as if I am so much better and would NEVER do the same thing. Unfortunately I am not and my hypercriticism is probably just a symptom of my insecurity.
Thanks for asking the question! It made me think about that statement much more than I had before.
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