Month of National Things...

You may (or may not) have been wondering why there has been less frequent blogging going on as of late.  Several reasons...

1.  NaNoWriMo...aka National Novel Writing Month.
It's a challenge to write a complete novel in one month.  Or, to be more exact, to write 50,000 words in the month of November.  The rules stipulate that it is to be from scratch and to be fiction.  I am breaking those rules a bit as I am working on "the book" that I seem to have been working on forever, namely a memoir regarding how God brought Henry into our family.  So it looks at infertility, assisted reproductive technologies, and bed rest.  (Yes, there are notes in place for a book about our adoption journey as well, but Maria said to start at the very beginning...it's a very good place to start...)  So it doesn't really fit the fiction criteria.  But I am pretty much starting from scratch, working from my outline that I had finished, emails, and my old blog posts.  Well, I'm sure I'll look at the blog when I get to the bed rest portion of the book.  As it is, I'm 24, 432 words in and I'm not even pregnant with Henry yet.  I've just had my second miscarriage and am pretty loopy on fertility hormones. 

I don't feel too bad about breaking the fiction rule.  For a couple of reasons.  A) This really isn't a rule that has much to do with integrity, character, or God's law, so I'm pretty sure I can break it with a clear conscience.  B) I think the whole point of the NaNoWriMo thing is for wanna-be writers to get off their butts and actually write rather than just write about writing.  So in that regard, I am keeping the "spirit of the law".  C) I just read What is the What.  It is a memoir of one of the lost boys of Sudan and yet it calls itself a novel because the narrator readily admits that he can't remember all of the details.  Can't remember word for word conversations.  But that we as readers can expect that it is a true story.  It should also be said I think this book should become required reading for high schoolers.  And, as such, required reading for all those who read this blog.  D) I am calling the genre "Fictionalized Nonfiction" and am quite certain there are entire sections that are fiction.  Not that they didn't happen, just that I'm pretty certain I've edited out a lot of f-bombs that were tossed in Sloan's direction during this era of our marriage.  I think I may have also made myself look cooler in the section where Sloan and I first met.  If you think this is unfair, write your own book!

Lest you worry I've cleaned it up too much dear reader, I have written in the episode where I yelled out my car window "F-off!" to a pregnant teenager walking down Broad street smoking a cigarette.  And the episode where, after our second miscarriage, I single handedly in an afternoon drank a magnum of Red wine, smoked a half pack of cigarettes and ate a family sized bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos.  Because let's face it, those are both funny, if not good, stories.

2. National Adoption Month...
I've spoken at Orphan Sunday.  We've gone to a fundraiser for Bethany Christian Services in NC, and I've been working on an article about Gracie's birthday party for a Bethany newsletter. 
My heart has been in overdrive; there is such a crisis!  But let me just share with you a couple of exciting things I learned this past weekend while at the Bethany fundraiser.
Bethany Christian Services has a program in place in Africa that seeks to care for orphans by reducing the number of them, as in, as a part of orphan care they provide support to families where the head of the house is a single mom who is HIV+.  They provide monies for the mother's medication and also for the children's school tuition.  I think this is awesome as it seeks to keep the families together.  This is in addition to the orphanages they also fund, support, and run in various African regions.
The second thing that I think is awesome about Bethany Christian Services is that they have recently been granted permission to set up a foster care system in China.  There is NOTHING of this nature in place in the country.  Bethany is currently training and setting up a system where 250 children will be placed in loving homes to be cared for rather than growing up in orphanages.  Yes, there are far more than 250 children in need of such care, but it is a start.