Adoption, Infertility and Loss: How Much do you Share Online?

There are so many paths to identity, to true community, to being a woman, to family, to parenthood and, for many of us, to being called mommy.  For those of us that reach our place in life (and blogging) through untraditional means; we can wear many hats all at the same time.

We are the adoptive parent  bloggers, infertility bloggers, surrogacy  bloggers, birthmother bloggers, same sex parenting bloggers and we are also mommy bloggers. No matter what label sort of uncomfortably fits; personal blogging can present issues that others don't always face. 

It use to be that the internet offered many the opportunity to be open and honest because of the anonymity that the internet provided. Now, with the boom of social media, we can find that our "internet personas" get "outed" and our real life can collide. Adoption, infertility and "nontraditional mom"  blogs focus on something intensely personal, and often involve more people than just the blogger sharing it all on the internet.

How do you find the lines in real, honest blogging about extremely personal issues and feelings?  Where do you draw them, when do you cross them and what are your reasons?  What happens when your cousin "un-friends" you because they don't like your personal issues? How much do you worry about your children reading your thoughts in the future? Where does your personal story end and your children's or another real person's  story begin?  What happens when your neighbor reads your blog and looks at you funny? What do you do if you find things getting more than personal, but political too? Can we all fit in or are the smaller niche communities a subset of the mommy blogging community?

Let's explore these topics in a supportive environment, with a panel of moms (and adoptees) who have blogged the tough issues and lived to talk about it.

Featuring: Marcie Pickelsimer, Claudia Corrigan D'Arcy, Carissa Haning, Judy Miller, Melanie Recoy, Michelle McNally, and Stacey Conner from Grown in My Heart. GIMH is a place where all adoptive parents, adoptees, and first moms know they feel safe to air their opinions, regardless of differences. It is a group of women (and a man) joined, somehow, by adoption, infertility, and loss.