I have searched the blogsphere looking for foster care blogs written by people who kinda sorta are like me. And so far I have found bumpkiss. Oh I have found a few blogs written by people who are fostering/adopting older adolescents, but those are few and far between. I have even found blogs written by heathens like myself, but the one characteristic I have that seems to be missing from the blog world is blogs written by Black foster care parents! Where oh where are you? Cause I know you exist.
For the record, I am:
- NOT religious--God did not call me to do this work or if god did it is not the Christian God. I have been know to show up to church, an open and affirming UCC church, which I like to say are UU's who believe in Christ through that is not a requirement. I association with this church because of their social justice work. I believe in the philosophy that you can be part of the problem or part of the solution. I choose to be part of the solution.
- Black, or African-American or person of color or whatever the current PC term is. The titles may change, I however, stay the same.
- Single
- Gay
- and a foster parent to two teenage boys
Now I know that it would be a miracle to find another blogger with all those same attributes so I'm willing to settle for the important ones, fostering teens and Black foster parent. And those two don't even have to be in the same package!
Hi, I just discovered your blog from a comment you left on, um...someone else's. I don't meet your criteria (I'm single and fostering, but white, straight, young kids). I want to recommend motherissues.wordpress.com (not religious but goes to church with her partner, gay, white but her partner is African-American, in the process of adopting an older kid). I also just met a single, African-American almost-foster-parent (young kids); she's not blogging yet but plans to.
ReplyDeleteHey... I just found you through Love Isn't Enough.
ReplyDeleteDo you know atlasien's blog? http://atlasien.blogspot.com/ She doesn't fit your criteria exactly, but she might know people who do...
Do you know Yondall from Thoughs from a Foster Family? http://pflagfostermom.blogspot.com/ She's neither Black nor gay, but she's got a long history of adopting teen boys, several of whom are gay.
ReplyDelete@Debbie--Yes! I'm familar with Youdall's blog! In fact I am eagerly waiting the next installments on adult adoption because FS#1 and I are starting that conversation.
ReplyDeleteI don't meet most of your criteria either (white, straight, married, and Christian), and you probably aren't loving my blog right now since I'm mostly talking about my 16th wedding anniversary and a bible study I'm doing with my kids, but...
ReplyDeleteI did however adopt teens from foster care, one of which is male, and I used to be an atheist, does that count? *grin*
I do understand your frustration. It seems so many bloggers have younger children and the issues just aren't the same - your blog list has some good ones though.
I'm going to a seminar (Katharine Leslie) this week so I'll keep an ear out for anyone else that might meet your criteria.
Mary in TX
Yup, as Foster Ima said, I can meet a lot of your standards if you're willing to accept the whole household! My black partner Lee has zero interest in blogging and she's a Christian, but I'm an atheist and we're both women. After doing respite for two teens, we've just switched our house from being adoption-only to being a regular foster home. I imagine our first placement will be a teen or preteen (or two brothers in that range), though there's no way to know for sure.
ReplyDeleteI only know of one other black single mom who fits some of your categories, and Mommy to the Monsters adopted her three. I know Eva from The Egg Drop Remix is interested in discussions of race and adoption, though she and her partner are trying for a domestic infant adoption.
I'm so glad I found your blog and look forward to reading more!