So I’m breaking the rules just a bit to tell you all about Looking For George. How is this breaking the rules? Because I think everyone might already know about this blog and I do comment on it (not enough, but sometimes!) and I even got to meet this incredible family in real life. So it feels like favoritism. But too bad.

E. is super SUPER funny. I love her blog, I love her writing style and sense of humor and honesty. I love her Blue Barb. So that, alone, is enough to keep me clicking on her blog whenever she updates.

But there’s more! Oh yes, so much more.

E. is adopting her fifth child. She has experience as both a Bio-Mom and an A-mom, which means she has depth of knowledge that many people don’t. She has been around for awhile, both in terms of parenting prowess, and also in terms of the adoption wait. But she has not yet received her referral which means that you - YES YOU, dear readers - can still tune in and catch her entire journey from beginning to end. Intriguing? I thought so. If that isn’t intriguing enough, she is currently running an illegal gambling ring a referral pool with PRIZES, people!!!!

You won’t learn that much about E’s family - she is very private, choosing to conceal her family’s names and location and any other details that stalker-types might use to hunt her down and lay claim to Blue Barb. But this makes her blog so much more interesting! Really, it is the rest…the details she can be free to share BECAUSE we don’t know where she lives or who she REALLY is, that make her blog so “real”. She strikes an awesome balance between privacy and reality.

And who is George, you might wonder? Well read on and find out!

So go on over and check out Looking For George - you’ll become addicted, just like me!

This blog is one of my very favorites. Another one I don’t comment on often enough but I click on right away when I see an update. Where do I begin?

• Laurie and her husband adopted the Adorable Action Jackson from Vietnam. He recently turned one and I think he may be one of the most photogenic kids on the planet. It helps that his mama takes brilliant pictures and knows how to dress a kid! They are DTV for their second child and awaiting referral hopefully sometime this summer (says I!)
• I have the utmost respect for this family because they have really thought a lot about their first adoption experience and have been honest with themselves about it and made changes to improve their experience this go-round. It sometimes feels like it is the rare parent who can be honest and introspective about their experience and willing to make changes.
• Laurie parents in a way I really respect. She is going to try to breastfeed her future baby and she carries Jax in a Hotsling and really seems to respect his needs as a Mama. She is a truly thinking Mama. She is a total natural!
• Laurie is a doctor and her husband, Travis, is also in medical school. I really respect Laurie’s willingness to help where it is needed most. Their goal is to move to underprivileged and impoverished areas of the country and eventually, the world, to offer their skills as a resource to those who have nothing.
• They are currently in Peru where they have a non-profit that aims to help provide for a rural town called Cachiccata. They are spending six weeks this summer working a new birthing clinic (something I am particularly interested in reading about!) and doing needs assessments for the surrounding area. Reading about it is absolutely fascinating. And also? GREAT WAY to pass the time while awaiting a referral, I bet! Plus it is totally awesome to me that they took Jackson with them and just found ways to incorporate him into their work and their world. What a gift for him!
• Laurie talks about the hard stuff. Difficult days, the good AND challenging parts of adoption. Stuff that few other blogs want to touch on. She keeps it real which is a benefit to us all.

So don’t delay, go on over and check out Pho For Four today!

As promised, today is my first in a weekly series of posts highlighting some of the adoption blogs I frequent. Ii don’t keep a blogroll because, if you recall, I follow over 169 blogs and that would make for a very busy page So I ‘m going to try to highlight those that I don’t comment often enough on, that’s my way of saying “sorry”, ok?!

This week’s blog is Looking For Lulu, kept by Emily.

First of all, I love this blog because of the photography. Photography has become a sort of obsession for me lately. Why? Because I can’t figure out how to do it. After spending years trying to “develop an eye”, I think I’ve mastered that part. But I can’t figure out how to get the camera to do what my eye wants it to do. I am the type of person who decides they want to learn a craft and just dives right in and does it, teaching myself along the way. But I can not figure out how to learn to use my camera and that is making me crazy. And Obsessed. Along the way, though, I’ve learned to discriminate good photography from ordinary photography. And Emily’s stuff is definitely Good Photography. I am so anxious to see what kind of photos she will capture of her future daughter although I know I will be sick with jealousy over her amazing skills and those that I lack :-).

Emily is expecting a referral Very Very Soon. To me, it seems like she has been waiting forever! She has been blogging (and paperchasing) for over a year now. When someone blogs that long, you feel like you have become part of their journey. I can not wait to read about Lulu and the portion of her journey that is just about to begin!!!

So go check out Looking For Lulu and drool and wait anxiously along with me!