360th Friday Blog Roundup

A very simple roundup today to bring order to a very chaotic, emotion-filled week.

Second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week as well as the week before.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “On the Night of my 33rd Birthday” (Mrs. Spit)
• “The Limits of Empathy” (NYT)
• “Waiting and Ready” (Hannah Wept, Sarah Laughed)
• “2 1/2 Years” (Caring for Carleigh)
• “Dear Embryos” (I’m Very Far Away)
• “Good Enough” (The Oregon Tail)
• “Mexico Here We Come!” (Starfish Kitty Dreams)
• “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the REs Office” (A Single Journey)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Family Building with a Twist has a post about her fear of the passive Internet Shut-up, which is essentially, the Internet Ignore.  How does not having your words read or commented on affect how you write, how you express yourself?  Does it seep into the face-to-face world and how you communicate — or stop communicating — with others?  It’s a beautiful post about choosing to write and tuning everything else out.

I Lost a World talks about that desire to keep your child from sadness.  She writes, “I hurt for the fact that she was born into this particular sadness, into the loss of a brother, and that I can’t protect her from it. I can try to help her come to an understanding that works for her, and I can be honest, and I can try to create a sense of safety so that she can tell me how she feels and can ask questions as she has them … But I can’t bring him back for her, can’t erase what his loss has done to us or the fact that it’s helped shape who we are as a family.”  It is a gorgeous, aching post.

A Fertile Mind has a post about people craving the happy ending.  Listen to this brilliant observation: “We have inadvertently joined a club and those who were unwilling to hear of our struggles previously are now ready to listen to the story of how long it took us to have a baby.  Even though the baby isn’t even here yet.  Our story now gives them hope that things really do turn out alright in the end.”  Or this incredibly powerful statement: “I think I just wish that people had listened to our story when I needed them to.” Which begs the question: what do people do who don’t have the happy ending in sight?

Lastly, Battlefish has a post about feeling like a broken record in discussing her mother’s death.  I think this is a powerful post because it’s a reminder of how we don’t know what is happening in another person’s head.  She writes, “I am finding it hard to believe that no one seems to notice how sad I am on my really down and melancholy days. Am I really that good of an actress that no one sees it?”

The roundup to the Roundup: No big wrap-up needed; just lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between September 30th and October 7th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.