Three cheers for social media

Where would we be without the Internet? Me, I'd probably would have imploded right now into a sticky mess, having already developed a large lump on my head from too much wall banging.  I didn't put 'the Internet' on our Support Network spidagram when we did this for our home study - it didn't even occur to me to do so and I would probably would have been questioned if I had.  Little did I know that that the Internet would prove to be one of our best forms of support over the last couple of years.

I love social media. I'm not active on everything the internet has offer, preferring to stick with Facebook, Twitter, the odd foray into Instagram and, of course, blogging.  I started my blog as a way of keeping family and some friends updated with our adoption process and as a diary for us.  I then discovered other adopters on Twitter and started sharing my blog there too.  I'd been on Twitter for some time under my own name and business, amassing several thousand followers in the process, and knew how good it was for conversation and connected with like-minded individuals.  However, I need to keep my blog confidential and so set up another Twitter account.

Soon I found many other adopters and prospective adopters and over the last couple of years we have built quite a nice little community.  Some followers I have now met in 'real life' thanks to the recent Open Nest conference, some I know because they are local adopters to me and others I feel I know so much about even though we have never met and may indeed never meet!  What I love is that if I'm having a bad day I can tweet a comment and somewhere out there in Twitterland will be at least one adopter silently nodding their head as if to say 'yes, I understand'.  In Twitterland there are people who 'get it', who understand why I'm feeling the way I am or get why Missy might be behaving the way she is.  Likewise, it's great to support other adopters out there, many of whom are still on the journey to approval and matching. Twitter is also great and helping things go viral, like the Kids Company campaign 'See The Child'.  I bloody love Twitter.  If you are an adopter or prospective adopter reading this and not yet on Twitter, then join! Now!  Come and say hi.

Facebook is pretty good too.  I don't put too much info on my personal account but have a Facebook page linked to this blog, on which I post my blog udpates and also other adoption related news that I see.  Facebook also helps me keep up to date with other adoption bloggers and there's two great support groups too.  I don't always post on them but just reading some of the posts and knowing there are others experiencing the same issues is comforting.  Obviously it's not nice we experience these problems in our families but at least we aren't doing it alone.

And of course, I'm linking this blog post up with the Weekly Adoption Shout Out #WASO on The Adoption Social, a brilliant online resource for adopters and umbrella for adoption blogs.

Three cheers for social media and for all my lovely friends, real and virtual, on Twitter.