Saturday, November 22, 2008

Was It Something I Said?

I was doing a little surfing, killing time until the master came home from P*p* John's, and since Debbie has a HUGE blog role, I decided to try out some blogs that I don't normally read. Quite by accident I discovered a post from a blogger named JOY (never visited her blog before) that was addressing a negative commenter. Do you remember the sad situation I mentioned earlier in the week--where the adoptive parents had just found out that the birthmother was having second thoughts? Well, the adoptive mother's name is Adrienne, and the birthmother did decide to parent. Anyway, Joy was saying that a commenter--ANNIEMAC--had used both Joy's and Adrienne's blog as a platform for her views. Intrigued, because ANNIEMAC is a first/birthmom, I decided to find out what "views" these were. I must really have too much time on my hands....
After reading ANIEMAC's comment on Joy's blog, I clicked over to see if I could find the offensive comments on Adrienne's blog, because, quite frankly, ANNIEMAC's writing was not completely coherent, and I hoped that in reading her other comments, I would better understand the point she was trying to make. Long story not so short, I noticed while skimming the hundred's of comments on Adrienne's blog, that my two comments--one of congratulations and one of condolences--have been removed. Or at least, I'm assuming they have been removed. I can't find them anywhere. I know for certain that the first comment I left published. On the day I posted it, I went back to read the string later in the day and it was there. I'm not sure about the second one.
I can't remember exactly what I wrote on each one. The one I left when they were waiting to hear if the birthmother was going to parent was something to this effect:
"I am so sorry you are going through this. I'm praying that the birthmom will be given wisdom to make the right decision."
Do you see anything wrong with that? The first comment (from when everything was going great), might have been a little more controversial. Adrienne kept referring to the baby as a "gift" and saying that the birthmom was "giving" them a baby. I gently (or so I thought) shared with her what I have read and heard directly from birthmothers first: this adoption language is inaccurate at best. They don't "give" adoptive parents their babies; they give their babies the gift of adoptive parents. I said how that change of perspective had been meaningful to me as an adoptive mom and made me feel very special. I hoped it would make her feel special, too. Hmm...guess it didn't.
I'd like to get some honest feedback on this. This family is in a crisis situation and I would feel terrible over saying anything hurtful. If ya'll think I have written something insulting, I would like to apologize to Adrienne. But presently, I'm at a loss to know why my comparatively mild comments (to my way of thinking) were trashed, while other comments--like ANNIEMAC's rants--were left.

4 comments:

Deb said...

Knowing Adrienne and reading some of the comments left on her posts I really don't think she is deleting comments. With as many as she is receiving I wouldn't be surprised if your comments were eaten up by a blogger bug.

But I don't read anything wrong in your comments at all. Perhaps if you want leave her another comment letting her know you are still thinking of them.

ArtworkByRuth said...

Most likely a mistake, I hope? If she has an email addy attached to her profile I would send her a personal note. Besides, if she was really offended she'd go private...or at least have to approve all comments before they are published.

Tami said...

Since they were getting somewhere around 900 comments on some of those posts, I tend to agree with Debbie. I have a feeling she either hit a button accidentally or it was eaten up by blogger. I don't see anything wrong with your comments either...maybe you should just send her a quick note of encouragement.

mary grace said...

Just a misstep, I'm betting.