RELAUNCHING MY LIFE

I recently logged on to my old blog -- I haven't been here in years!  And I have over a thousand views.  This shocked me.  I had no idea that anyone was really interested in what I was writing (back then I was writing a lot about adoption, because that was what I was living).  Well, that got me to thinking, maybe I should just do this.  Maybe people will be interested in what I have to say.

I have to say that I have been working really hard to turn my life back on.

A little background here -- I used to be a playwright with an MFA and teaching credits loving my NYC single life in an amazing apartment in Chelsea, and then my grandmother died, and then my father died four days later, and then as I was grieving all that, and trying to move to pay my father's estate taxes, and then 9/11 happened, so yes, we're talking history here, and I moved uptown, way uptown to where I can see the Harlem River meet the Hudson River, and I fell in love with my gorgeous new 'hood called Inwood (which is in Manhattan, even though many NYers don't believe me), and I met my husband, and we got married and had a baby.  And then we couldn't have more, so we adopted a little boy from the Congo.

Long story short, we unadopted our little boy from the Congo.  Even though he was (and is) amazing and wonderful and lovable, he could not live in our family because everyone in a family must be safe in their home, and our older son could not be kept safe with our little one around.  Izzy is now living with his new family, and he is fine.  There are no little ones anywhere near his age for him to compete with, and he will thrive and be loved as he deserves.

Turns out that many adoptions don't work out (almost 25% according to Child Welfare Information Gateway), and I have spent the past twenty months or so trying to grieve our loss and move toward living in a family that I love in a joyful, positive way.  We have been healing and helping each other to let go of the worst of the reality of what we lived through.  And this holiday season, I am finally feeling as if we are done with all that.  Maybe this year I will send out holiday cards once again (I didn't last year -- I couldn't).

So here I am, still married to the same amazing man, still mom to the same amazing child I birthed just over a decade ago, but no longer working to get back to my playwriting -- instead I am actually doing it!  I am happy to report that I completed two full-length plays this year, and three short plays, and I am sending them out to theaters/directors/friends, whoever wants to read them, let me know!  I am thrilled to get feedback!  (Wish list -- I could use a group of writers interested in sharing and caring uptown on a monthly basis!  I am even happy to host us.)  

What I want to do with this blog is write about many different things.  I am thinking FOOD (cause I love it, and I want everyone to know how to eat more healthily and with ease, because cooking can be simple if you get prepared and have some tips).  I am thinking KIDS (because I have one, and I ponder issues relating to him all the time, like how can I protect him from everything without denying him his independence???  I am thinking HORMONES -- I have been reading Dr. Sara Gottfried's book, The Hormone Cure and loving it!  On Day 3 of my Vitex and Vitamin C solution, because apparently I have high cortisol, low progesterone and high estrogen, and I will be working on all that as I move closer and closer to the big M of menopause, and I want to do it as JUICILY as possible!  And other stuff will crop up, so please keep reading and responding, and I will try to stay on top of my NEW BLOG!