OK.  I give up.  Twitter has defeated me. After repeated attempts for months to access the Daily Bastardette Twitter account  I’ve thrown up the white flag. First I don’t exist.  Then I do, but my password doesn’t.  Sometimes my Twitter email account for Bastardette doesn’t exist. Sometimes I don’t exist, but then I’m adopted. I’m keeping Twitter since I get hits from it, I’ve been forced to open a new account. I can’t delete the old account because it won’t let me in.  For those so inclined please go to the left Twitter thingamajig and subscribe. I can also be found under marleygreiner in the Twitter directory.  I wanted to use “Daily Bastardette” but Twitter wouldn’t let me.  Figures. Now if I can just figure out how to add the new Google “share this” icon. It went up automatically on one of my blogs, but not the rest.

Someone posted this on the Facebook Adoption News and Events page: 10 Keys to Using Positive Adoption Language   The original positive adoption language spiel was bad enough, but Rachel Wallace Reid, Certified Montessori Teacher and Parent Educator, author of this piece of drivel, has raised the ante to a whole new level of prissy absurdity. Perhaps she read too much Ionesco in college. Take  Rule Key #1: The adoptive parents are the “real” parents.  The real parents are the grown-ups who will take care of the child every day and for the rest of their lives.  When referring to who gave birth to the child, simply say birth parents or birth woman.  A biological father is not referred to as the real father, but the biological one. Birth woman?   It makes me think of Big Foot in a dress dropping babyees in the woods  I am  birth woman, hear me roar! And biological father?. Why not Birth Man?   We wager that the Birth Man population is greatly undercounted, and if a proper census were taken, would far outweigh that of Birth Woman who just happens to be a handy recipient of Birth Man’s love. It only takes him a few seconds to accomplish his task;  it takes her nine months not Continue Reading →

The Ohio Birthparent Group is celebrating its first anniversary next month. To celebrate, on Sunday, November 13, the group is holding a special one-day event: Living Adoption: Life-Long Issues in the Birthparent Experience here in Columbus.  The morning session is for parents only; the afternoon session, and educational workshop is open to professionals and the public,  Both  sessions are free, but CEI credits are $20.00 (pre-registration). Brenda Romanchik is guest speaker and facilitator.  Brenda is one of the first persons I met in online AdoptionLand nearly 20 years ago (yikes!).  I’ll be there and I hope my Ohio readers can join us. OPG is not affiliated with any religion and is not sponsored by any adoption agency or facilitator. Here’s more information: LOCATION:   Camp Mary Orton 7925 N. High St. Columbus, OH 43235 In recognition of our First Anniversary, Ohio Birthparent Group invites you to a special National Adoption Month event exploring the experiences of women and men who have placed children for adoption in the U.S. Living Adoption: Life-Long Issues in the Birthparent Experience with guest facilitator Brenda Romanchik, LMSW, ACSW, CTS Sunday, November 13th, 2011 9:00am-12:30pmBirthparent Support Meeting (For Birthparents Only) 2:00pm-4:00pmEducational Workshop for Professionals and Community Members (Open to the Public) / Continue Reading →

Earlier today on FB, Hanne Andersen linked a 2009 Motherhood Deleted post, The Myth of the Triad. In  that entry, blogger Robin Westbrook (one of favorite bloggers, btw),  linked to one of my first pieces on the triad myth–a copy of my presentation at the oxymoronical  2006 Ethics in Adoption Conference in Arlington, Virginia where adoptees and moms suffered through bastard moments and shut-up Q & A sessions. Re-reading my short presentation got me thinking about  the pretty shapes-of -adoption deformers like to toss about at hearings while they’re being polite obedient children asking for a cookie. ADOPTION:  CIRCLE, TRIANGLE, PENTAGON, CONSTELLATIONWhat next?  Decagon? So I did a Google search on geometric figures to see if there is anything that actually fits adoption and the complicated and secret relationships it invents. I like Adoption Trapezoid, with its scary implications, but it’s just a four-sided  “triangle.” The Cone of Shame is tempting. Personally, I favor  the Metatron’s Cube model,  but  it’s something only adoption nerds can enjoy, and impractical and irrelevant to politicians and frumpy bureaucrats who hold the key to the locked cabinets. WARNING:  :  For internal use only! This  leaves only one symbol  The cross.  (I know!) But think about it.  A big horizontal plank with two little planks nailed to Continue Reading →

I  have not blogged for the last two months or so due to an extremely stressful situation in my life which has made sustained concentration virtually impossible. I’m not going to discuss it here, but things have improved (I think) and hopefully I will be able to put together a coherent sentence from here on out, and get back to business. This month, I’m dedicating some of my posts to Ohio Right to Life. I’ve adopted (sorry!) the new Blooger interface. You can see obvious differences now,  (still having some problems) but I plan to make some more when I have the time.

(NOTE:  I switched to the new Blooger interface and I’m not sure how well my links are showing up on the screen.  Can a few people let me know if they can see them well.  It may just be the computer I’m working on.I’m also having trouble with spacing.) It’s that time of year again! Voting for the 5th Annual Demons of Adoption Awards is at hand.   Pound Pup offers us a fine selection to chose from this year, and as usual, what’s a girl to do?  So many choices; so few votes! .  Nominations have been expanded  this year into separate categories:  The Industry; The Regulators, and my favorite,  The Mouthpieces. My hometown industry  favorite is Adoption by Gentle Care whose been begging for  the award for years. They’re the ones who handled the notorious Baby Grayson placement. ( I’m mean!  I’d planned to nominate Grayson’s PAPs, but came up a day short and a dollar late.) This years nominees are: The IndustryA Act of Love Adoption Agency:  for purposefully finding ways to curcumvent fathers consent (and me:; not to mention bad grammar)Adoption by Gentle Care:   for keeping a young boy (Thad Wyrembek aka Grayson Vaughn) from his biological father Lifetime Adoption:  for predating Continue Reading →

Today is the 100th anniversary of my mother’s (a) birth. Jane Hunt was born at home on August 2, 1911 in Columbus, Ohio.Her mother was Alice Thoman Hunt. Her father Charles O Hunt. Alice’s parents Emerson Thoman and Elizabeth Jane (Snyder) Thoman (who I was named for), were transplants from Leetonia, Ohio (Columbiania, Ohio) in northeast Ohio, close to the Pennsylvania line. The Thomans had been in America since the around the mid 1700s when the settled in the York County, Pennsylvania area. The Hunts came to America in the early 1700s settling in Sussex County NJ and eventually moving southwest to Perry County, Ohio. Emerson and Lizzie owned a grocery on S. 17th Street in Columbus. The family, and as far as I know, lived above or behind it. Alice graduated from Columbus East High School in 1906, with a diploma in Latin and Literary Studies. She took a job as a clerk in the shoe department of The Bee, the second largest department store in the city. tHAT same year, Emerson Thoman (l) died at the age of 43. Alice was devoted to her father and was grief stricken. Five months later she ran off to Newport, Kentucky Continue Reading →