I'm Coming Back to Adopting Fatherhood—With a Different Voice

This blog started before we finalized the paperwork to become parents in the eyes of the state of Michigan. Back then, I was thinking of this as a way to share some of the cute things The Kid was doing while she was growing up.

So much has changed in my life since then. We moved to a different neighborhood in Detroit years ago. Our beloved dog Barney passed away, and we adopted our sweet border collie Sailor almost two years ago. The Kid is starting high school and is as sassy as you would assume a child of mine would be. I have hardware in my body that is quite literally keeping me going -- hardware that I didn't need as recently as six years ago.

For the past eight years, I have been blessed with the chance to learn about my birth father through his family. My grandmother (his mom) passed away in February, and I was given slides of him as a kid that she had kept through the moves from Michigan to Texas and back again.

For these and many other reasons, writing regularly became too much.

Looking back on the depression that weaseled its way into my life, I would have been well served to keep writing, as it is the one thing that has always helped me cope at every stage of life. Sure, I have been journaling but more sporadically than ever. This blog also suffered from me flat-out ignoring it for the past five years.

It is time to change that.

But change it with a twist. For starters, The Kid deserves to tell her own story when she's ready, not when Papa wants to share things. Readers who have stuck with me from post one will notice that I have removed many of my old posts. I've archived them intentionally, so I still have the memories, but she has her privacy.

I will also be more disciplined in keeping things more topical. My personal experiences will still come through, just in a different form. As a friend reminded me over coffee a few weeks ago, I have a voice that could be helpful to someone should I choose to use it. I've decided that I want to use it again to be a stronger, more focused advocate for ethical international adoptions, breaking the stigmas that keep people from adopting from the foster care system, and giving all adoptees access to their original birth records, among other things.

It will also be my voice. I'll be using AI as an editor, not as a creator. There is enough AI slop in this world!

So, I look forward to writing again. I look forward to connecting again. I look forward to sharing what it's like to adopt fatherhood again.