Adoption Connection Poll Results

I struggled with the decision to search.  A lot.  I found my non-identifying information in August and didn't sleep for months.  I ran a few late night Google searches and got nothing.  I didn't really pursue it though.  I didn't understand when it started to take over my life.  Going to the doctors and being told that I couldn't be diagnosed because of the lack of a family medical history and my trip to New Orleans finally sparked action.  I started to read blogs and I started to gather as much information as I could.  I'm all for education and I educated myself like you wouldn't believe.

Things didn't turn out so well the first time around.  Whatever.  They started to go better the second time around.  Yay!  And I started to think about writing a blog around the time my first father and I started talking on the phone.  Naturally, I started doing research about blogging.  All the sites I read suggested figuring out how often I wanted to post (I wanted to try to post everyday because I liked those blogs a lot and liked having something to read all the time, plus this was sort of going to be an online journal so it made sense to blog everyday) and to have about a months worth of blog entries stored up before you start publishing.  So I started working on writing down my story in the middle of finals.  It helped.  A lot.  And then I started posting.  I never dreamed that people would actually really want to read it.  I figured I'd see how things went.  And then I got a reader.  And then another.  And then another.  I'm not the most popular blog out there.  Nowhere close in fact.  But I have way more people following me than I ever dreamed possible (and only three of them know me in real life!).

So when I started blogging I figured that only adoptees would want to read my posts.  It was about my search and reunion, and how an adoptee felt about adoption.  Why would anyone else want to read that?  And then a few first mothers started commenting.  I guess I could sort of understand that.  So I started to read their blogs too.  And I started to really enjoy reading the other side of things.  And I started to "get it" more.  Cool.  And then I got a few comments from APs.  Weird.  A lot of them didn't leave links back to their blogs, but for the heck of it, I started to read a few AP blogs.  And weird, I actually liked a few of them.  There are some APs out there who really "get it".  Sweet.

Then I went semi-private.  And told readers to email me for a password.  The majority of people who emailed me?  APs and PAPs.  I don't have one iota of an issue giving them the password.  But it surprised me.  Were those most of my readers?  I've also noticed that sometimes I get a lot of comments and other times I can go a long time without any.  There's lots of reasons for this (mainly that my "good" posts are usually close together and my "bad" posts are grouped together too!) so I wasn't concerned, but that meant I couldn't figure out who was reading.  So maybe those were my main readers.  That's... different.  Not what I expected.  And while I'd like to think that wouldn't change the way I blog, I do take a certain approach when dealing with adoptees verses first parents verses adoptive parents.  Adoptees usually "get it" so I don't always explain things fully.  When dealing with APs, I tend to explain things more and put on more disclaimers to be clear.  Some posts I write with adoptees in mind, others I write with first parents in mind, and still others I write with adoptive parents in mind.  And most of my posts I write with nobody in mind.  But I still wonder about who's reading...

So I put up a poll.  What's your adoption connection?  And I'm sorry I forgot to let people choose more than one answer.  That was my bad (because I do have a few readers who identify with two or more groups).  And low and behold, the majority of readers are adoptees, followed closely by first parents, with a small number of APs and Friends/family (probably mine) and nobody who didn't have a connection (Quelle surprise!).  So that was interesting.  I feel like my world has been re-righted.  And I was also blown away that at least 25 people have visited this blog in the past few weeks and voted in the poll.  Wow.  Pretty amazed at that!

So thanks for reading!  And for taking my poll.  It's provided me with some food for thought and some new blog post ideas!  So thanks for that!  I might put up another poll at some point, who knows?  Thanks again!