txmomof3's blog

 I think this is great. It is sad that he could not be there to see his daughter's birth, but I bet it was wonderful to see the birth via webcam.

Father watches birth via Web cam

By: Josh Edwards

Like all expecting fathers, Holland Harper wanted nothing more than to witness the birth of his second child.

Harper made all the necessary preparations and even left an important meeting early so he could make it in time to see his new daughter come into this world. In the delivery room, he could be heard soothing his wife, Kelly, and speaking encouraging, excited words.

Witnessing his daughter's first breaths, Holland said it was “almost as good as the first time,” when his son Preston was born.

But unlike most new fathers, Holland witnessed the birth of his daughter, Elizabeth Anne, Monday via Web cam from the dusty desert of Iraq, where he is a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve.

“It made it feel like he was here — not physically, but emotionally,” said Kelly. a pediatric nurse practitioner.

The couple had chatted by Web cam several times before the birth and wondered if Paris Regional Medical Center would be able to provide them with a wireless Internet connection so Holland could see the birth of his daughter despite being half way around the globe. Luckily, the Army Reserve captain moved to a base with a high-speed Internet and good bandwidth shortly before the birth.

“As we got closer, we found out it could happen and military obligations would not be compromised,” Kelly said shortly after her 8-pound, 15-ounce daughter was born.

Shortly before the birth, Holland was in an important military planning meeting but left early to see the birth of his child. A fellow soldier, who has a reliable Internet connection, let him use his quarters to view the birth.

Another soldier, who had experience with Lamaze, joked with him before the birth, pretending to coach him through the process.

Family members said they were all impressed by how technology was able to keep the couple close even while Holland was working to help rebuild Iraq.

Kelly's grandmother and grandfather were married seven days before he shipped out for World War II, and she was lucky to talk to him once a week. But Kelly and Holland, who have been married about three-and-a-half years, have talked on average five times a week since he was deployed to Iraq.

“It's amazing what we can do these days,” Kelly said.

Chip Harper, Holland's father, said the hospital providing Web cam service proved “that the world is flat right here in Paris, Texas.”

This is the first time the hospital has provided a Web cam service for an absentee father, PRMC spokesman George Kimbrough said

“We're very pleased to be able to do this,” he said.

Holland thanked hospital officials for helping him see the birth of his child.

“Without their compassion and flexibility, I could not have been there with my wife in real time, talking to her and watching the birth of Elizabeth Anne Harper,” he said.

The family hopes Holland can make it home on leave during the Christmas season.

“We are hoping he will be home for two weeks leave though the holidays,” Kelly said.

“All I really want is to be home for Christmas,” the soldier said.

Holland is attached to the 420th Engineering Brigade based in Bryan. He is currently assigned to help rebuild Baghdad.  Read More »

 I think this is a really good thing this mom did for her daughter. If the opportunity arose, I would not be able to do it because my doctor strongly advised I have my tubes tied after my last pregnancy (because of how sick I got) and I did.

TOKYO -- A woman in her 50s gave birth last year to a child using an egg from her daughter and sperm from the daughter's husband, the maternity clinic director who supervised the procedure announced Saturday.  Read More »

I know this is a bit old, but as a survivor of domestic violence, it really touches my heart seeing how people help victims of domestic violence.

By: Annie Bishop

COEUR D'ALENE -- The holiday season is a time to celebrate, but for many the hustle and bustle can be very stressful. In some cases, that stress can lead to domestic violence. But the Women’s Center in Coeur d’Alene is helping those victims of domestic violence get through the holidays.  Read More »

Adopted man spends his first Thanksgiving with biological siblings

By MARY ANN ALBRIGHT

Gazette-Times reporter

Watching Yogi Blodgett sit around the kitchen counter with his sisters, teasing and bossing them around as only a big brother can, the family resemblance is clear.

Blodgett, Debbie Abramson and Diana Lancaster laugh gleefully as they talk about favorite Thanksgiving traditions, especially their mom’s glazed torte made with peaches and fruit cocktail.

Though they feel like they’ve known each other since birth, Blodgett only met his sisters in June, and today they have a lot to be thankful for as they celebrate the holidays together for the first time.

“I didn’t get to meet my mom, but I can see her through their eyes, and they can see her through me,” said Blodgett, 52, a data communications technician for the Oregon State University Extension Service.

When they first heard about Blodgett earlier this year, any disbelief Abramson and Lancaster experienced melted away as soon as he e-mailed his picture.

“He looks just like mom,” Abramson said.

Blodgett and his wife, Gail, live in the northwest Corvallis home in which he grew up. Blodgett, whose full name is Williams Ronnie (he goes by his childhood nickname Yogi), was born in Friedberg, Germany.

He was adopted by the late James and Margaret Blodgett when he was 1 year old. The family moved from Germany to Corvallis about five years later.

Blodgett still remembers the room in which he was standing when his parents told him, around age 12, that he was adopted.

The news was difficult to hear.

“You think you’re not loved, and it’s hard to swallow. I didn’t believe it at first,” he recalled.

But since that day, Blodgett has been curious about his birth mother. His birth certificate and adoption paperwork list her name as Ingeborg Dauth, and Blodgett and his wife searched for her without success for 20 years.

Last spring, a coworker of Blodgett, who knew about his quest, read an article by Oregonian columnist Margie Boulé about Angela Shelley, a woman who helps reunite adopted Americans with their German birth mothers.

“She said, ‘You’ve got to read this. It’s about you,’” Blodgett recalled.

At first skeptical, Blodgett contacted Shelley and gave her Dauth’s name and copies of the birth records he had. A couple days and $200 later, Blodgett found out he has five biological siblings, in addition to his sister Joyce Blodgett, who lives in Philomath.

Unfortunately, Dauth died in 2000. This Friday would have been her 73rd birthday, so Blodgett, his wife and his two visiting sisters will have a bratwurst dinner in her honor.

Blodgett doesn’t know who his biological father is. He suspects it was an American soldier. According to Shelley, whose parents live in Albany, many babies were born to German mothers and American fathers after World War II and were adopted by American couples.

Blodgett thinks his father was a soldier who was shipped out after Dauth became pregnant, and that his mother couldn’t afford to raise him on her own. Williams may have been his father’s last name, Blodgett said.

Although he’ll probably never know his birth father, Blodgett has no doubt about who his dad is.

“Jim (Blodgett) is my dad. There’s no other way of looking at it,” he said proudly.

In addition to Lancaster, 46, and Abramson, 43, Blodgett’s newfound family includes sisters Marion Gruschwitz, 54, and Pam Reed, 38, and brother Michael Toland, 31.

“My brother’s a month younger than my oldest son,” Blodgett said. The Blodgetts have two sons: Kelley, 28, and Eric, 31.

At a family dinner Tuesday, Kelley got to meet his visiting aunts, and Blodgett realized he’s gone from having no nieces and nephews to having 12.

“Christmas is going to be expensive this year,” Blodgett said.

Blodgett’s birth siblings are scattered across the country. Lancaster lives in Virginia, where she works as an accountant for a regional parks and recreation department. Abramson is visiting from Wisconsin, where she’s an auditor for a fitness center.

The date 06/06/06 is burned in Blodgett’s mind as the day he learned of his birth family, and Shelley sent him a picture of Dauth taken in 1956.

“It brought tears to my eyes. You’re always curious to see what your mother looked like. She’s beautiful,” he said.

Just a couple weeks later, he met all but Gruschwitz in Virginia.

“We actually felt like we’d known him forever when we met him,” Abramson said.

“It’s amazing how things just clicked. It’s meant to be. After we spent a few days together, they said it’s like I was always a part of their lives. I was just on an extended vacation,” Blodgett said.

Gruschwitz still lives in Germany, and Blodgett hopes to visit her in the spring and see the town where he was born.

All of Dauth’s children, except Blodgett, grew up together and were raised by Michael’s father. Marion has a vague recollection of Blodgett as a baby, but none of his birth siblings knew he existed, Blodgett said.

“If we did, we’d have been looking for him,” Abramson added.

Abramson and Lancaster are making up for lost time this week, going with the Blodgetts to the Civil War football game, the beach and the mountains.

For today’s Thanksgiving dinner, Gail, a semi-retired OSU student loan manager, is serving two turkeys, a ham, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and all the other holiday favorites for a gathering of 14 of the Blodgetts’ closest family members and friends.

Gail is enjoying meeting her husband’s biological family, and seeing his dream come true.

“I just listen to them and they’re all squabbling back and forth like they grew up together,” she said.

With November being National Adoption Month, Blodgett is encouraging other people in situations similar to his to not give up searching for their birth mothers.

“Even in my town of 55,000, I bet there’s a few others like me. Time is running out, since the birth parents would be in their 70s and 80s, and people probably don’t know where to turn,” he said.

 Read More »

NEW YORK - Mothers deciding to place their infants for adoption deserve better counseling, more time to change their minds, and more support in trying to keep track of the children they relinquish, a leading adoption institute recommends in a sweeping new report.

The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute said its report, being issued Sunday, is the most comprehensive ever devoted to birth mothers, whom it described as “the least understood and most stigmatized participants” in the adoption process.  Read More »

What I mean by that is how many people in the world have your name? According to the how many of me website,

There are 299,968,595 people in the United States of America. If everyone in the U.S. lined up single file, the line would stretch around the Earth almost 7 times. That's a lot of people.

The U.S. Census Bureau statistics tell us that there are at least 88,799 different last names and 5,163 different first names in common use in the United States. Some names are more common than others.  Read More »

Author Sharon Shaw Elrod’s powerful memoir “Shar’s Story: A Mother and Daughter Reunited” reveals a remarkable adoption story. Shar tells her real-life journey through the guilt and shame of giving up her daughter in the 60’s, and their incredible reunion nearly thirty-five years later.

Palestine, TX October 16, 2006 -- It was the summer of 1965 and Sharon Elrod did the worst thing a young girl could – she got pregnant and wasn’t married. Deserted by the father and abandoned by her family, Elrod went into hiding. Checking herself into a home for unwed mothers, she waited out the pregnancy alone and unsupported. Upon the birth of her baby, Elrod immediately relinquished parental rights, and her baby was adopted. She walked out of the home hoping to forget the shameful experience. She vowed never to reveal her secret, and returned to civilization pretending nothing had happened.

Sharon Shaw Elrod’s astonishing one-night book “Shar’s Story: A Mother and Daughter Reunited” (ISBN 1932196722) reveals her deeply painful experience as a young unwed mother in an unforgiving generation. It tells of the devastating effect of keeping her experience hidden from the world, and offers an intimate look into the joy and fear she experienced reuniting with daughter Rachel Ann, almost thirty-five years later.

Remarkably, in 2002 on a trip back to Iowa to say goodbye to a dying uncle, Elrod decided to tell the family about her daughter. Completely stunned by the news, her family embraced her with love and understanding. Elrod’s heart and soul were set free that day, and after 36 years, her healing process would begin. Five months later, the telephone rang at Elrod’s home. It was an adoption reunion agency – her daughter wanted to contact her.

“Shar’s Story” is more than a reunion story. This deeply moving account is an authentic testimony to the transformative power of love and forgiveness. And, it is the profound healing journey of two brave women. Elrod’s sensitivity to the reunion process will be of great interest to others in the same situation. From deeply sad to incredibly joyous and funny, this reunion reads more like a redemption story of the human spirit. Inspiring, genuine, and honest, “Shar’s Story” is guaranteed to touch hearts.

Dr. Sharon Shaw Elrod was born and raised in New Hartford, Iowa. She received degrees from three universities: B.S. in Education; M.S. in Social Work; and Ph.D. in Education. Her professional resume includes work at United Methodist Community Centers; Nebraska Psychiatric Institute; private practice in counseling and psychotherapy; and positions in Arizona's Children Association. Her teaching career included appointments at the University of Nebraska and Arizona State University. Elrod is an avid volunteer in community groups and organizations, usually focusing on children's and women's issues. Elrod lives with her husband in the Piney Woods of East Texas.  Read More »

I get emails from Ask Yahoo where people contact Ask Yahoo and ask them a question and they choose some of them to answer and send them out to their email recipients who signed up to get the ask yahoo emails. A couple of months ago someone asked How many miles does someone walk in their lifetime? This was the answer yahoo answers said:

The average person walks, in a lifetime:

• 43,538 miles (the equivalent of twice around the world)
• 65,000 miles (three times around the world)
• 115,000 miles (four times around the world plus several million trips to the bathroom)

Of course, where you live can greatly affect your walking distance. A web worker in Silicon Valley for instance, probably walks a lot less than a Sherpa in Tibet. This article from South Africa states that the average American "walks less than twenty minutes in a week, including walking up stairs...around the office, etc."  Read More »