What was IN that coffee!?

It's important to honor the journey of those on the path of infertility and to occasionally mark the progress and triumphs.

It can be sticky to do so, though, because when navigating IF, we move forward at different speeds and on different sub-paths. Still, if I were to put off a Status Check until everybody was fulfilled, we might wait indefinitely, due to the revolving-door nature of the beast.

So here is a status check, mentioning by name those ColoBloggers who have found the exit, and acknowledging those whose time is yet to come.

Fourteen months ago, I blogged about the first meeting of the ColoBloggers, a coffee klatch. Here we were back then, not a zygote in the bunch. There were some tears shed that morning about that fact.

Here's an update of those ladies in attendance, from L-R.

• Heidi: her daughter was born a few days ago
  
• Nancy: Karl was born in January, 2009
• Denise: Twins Nathan and Bayla born in December, 2008
• Meg: is in her 29th week with Sprout, a boy
• K: is in her 25th week with a daughter
• Me: no family additions (except for Molly, who now goes by "Fishie")
• Duffy: Zane was born in January, 2009

Other ColoBloggers with family updates:

• Jen: Son "O" was born in February, 2009
• Maryanne: Twins Carley and Caitlyn born in March, 2009
• Melissa: Is fostering (with the hope of adopting) 4 year-old twins Jack and Jill

At the same time we honor the good fortunes of these women, we also acknowledge the ongoing journey of other ColoBloggers who continue to hope and wait. Who knows what will be announced in the coming 14 months?

I close with the same dedication I made after that first coffee get-together.

The latest from the ColoBloggers

**UPDATED with new donations!**

We ColoBloggers* are angling to bring Melissa Ford to a book signing this summer when The Land of IF is available. We've got some of the expenses covered, but we are looking to raise airfare for her and her family to travel to Denver.

We hope to raise $1000 ourselves and another $1000 through sponsorship (anyone have connections with a company/clinic that would like to give back to the community?).

Regarding our portion:

• MaryBeth has donated her photography services. (Leave a comment on her blog if you'd like to talk portraits with her, or if you'd like to buy some of her stunning photographs.)
• I am donating an adoption profile review. Contact me if you'd like to purchase this for yourself or for someone else going through the process of domestic infant adoption.
• Kristin is donating proceeds from an Obama DVD she's compiled. For just $5 plus shipping, she'll send you a DVD of the inauguration, the first speech, and the festivities of Inauguration Day. All $5 will go toward the Melissa fund. Email her for YOUR piece of history.
• BattyNurse is donating proceeds from a 10-pack of hand-stamped cards, at $15 a pack. You can see her fabulous selection here. Such talent! Email her to order.
  

Got something to donate? Let me know and I'll highlight here.

As for sponsorship: got contacts with a clinic that would like to hear the following sentence?

"The Tattered Cover is delighted to welcome Melissa Ford.
Melissa is brought to you by the super-duper reproductive endocrinologists at
Get-You-Pregnant, LLC."

Let me know.

* Check out our baby boomlet: Nancy, Spicy Sister, Jen, Meg, Denise, Heidi, and Maryanne. Fertile thoughts going out to our other members.

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Because of the response to my pottery painting post, I am organizing a pottery painting day for all of my local readers -- bloggers or not, fertile, infertile or otherwise, artistic or not.

It's tentatively scheduled for Sunday February 22nd at 2 pm here, so mark your calendar.

Please leave your email address in a comment (or send it to me) if you'd like an Evite.

Yes, we can bring our own wine. Which will help the creative process immensely.

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I'll have mine in June 09.
Want yours, too?
Just click through.

Expozay

Any excuse to put a flasher on my blog.
If you haven't already, expose yourself to me!

This is the day when I ask those of you who read here (and I'm ever so grateful you do) but who haven't introduced yourself to pop up just for a moment and say hey. If you're feeling particularly exhibitionistic, you might also tell me (1) why you read here and (2) what you'd like to see here. Bloggers LIVE for feedback (well, needy ones like me do.)

As Luna said during her Coming Out Party, "don't be shy -- just say hi!"

Please? (You, yes, you, the fidgeting one with the sudden dilemma.)

=================================

OK. So I realllly want to go to BlogHer09 in the summer. But it's a tough sell with Rob (and even in my own mind) because so far, this little hobby of mine, blogging, actually costs our family money.

Not much, mind you. But at some point, I should get a "real" job, one with a paycheck that compensates for the fact that mommy isn't available to cook and clean as much as she should because she is working and contributing financially to the family.

Which I am not by blogging.

(Do you detect guilt? Yes.)

So. I've done something brazen, about which I have mixed feelings.

I have put a Tip Jar in my sidebar. Think of:

• the tip hat in front of the strummer on the street, they guy singing Hey Jude while you stroll by
• the brandy snifter on the piano in that little Italian restaurant, where the tenor sings My Way as you twirl your spaghetti on your fork
• the tip basket passed by the juggler at the end of her act during the street festival
  

I blog gladly; I blog for myself as much as for you. Blogging has become who I am -- I can't not blog. I work to hone my craft, and I aim to entertain, inform and engage with you.

And I accept tips. Like the strummer, the crooner, the busker, I will continue to offer my art whether the jar is clinked or not -- (and as long as the aforementioned guilt is manageable).

But with THIS tip jar, you can also get something extra. If you click on Get in my Top Spots you'll also get a little real estate here, in the form of a link.

Have an Etsy shop? Or do you sell your wares on CafePress? List it in my Top Spots. Want more linkage to your own blog? Have a website that could use more traffic? Get into my Top Spots.

It's super cheap -- $5 minimum (via PayPal).

I humbly thank you.

=============================================================

I'll have mine in June 09.
Want yours, too?
Just click through.

Sex and the Business Card

#1 item on today's agenda is an open invitation for any lurkers, readers or bloggers who are in the area on Sunday, June 8, to join the ColoBloggers at a showing of Sex and the City. We aim to see the 1:10 show* at Belmar, and will gather at 12:30-ish in front of the theater somewhere. Look for these faces if you come.

Afterward we'll head somewhere close for cosmos in our pink stilettos. High heels and high fashion are optional.

Me, in heels? Not a chance. 'Tis better to feel good than to look good, I always say. Besides, spiky shoes don't go well with yoga pants. Do they??

* make sure to check show times closer to Sunday...this is our best guess at the moment.
_______________________

I'm getting ready for the BlogHer conference next month. While Mel is busy stocking up on Ati.van and Pamela Jeanne is smartly preparing her notes for our panel, I am working on this:


Yes, I'll be passing out business cards like a fiend. I hope to embarrass Mel and Pamela Jeanne with my blatant blog whor.ing.

But not in stilettos.
__________________

Find out what big-ticket item I LOVE. I want to MARRY.

Thursday's episode of Oprah AllThumbs.

Miss Elaine E

Andy from Today's the Day is running her own Childhood Trivia contest, a visual one. Pop on over and take a guess.


_______________________


The next meet-up for the ColoBloggers is coming up. We are planning to see Sex and the City at a Sunday matinee on June 8, to be followed by -- what else? -- afternoon cosmos! (Manolo Blahniks not required.)

Please contact me (or other ColoBloggers, listed on the left link below) for more specific information as theater schedules become available.

________________________

If I am feeling exhausted after this holiday weekend, just think how Mel must feel. In the last few days she:

• Launched NaComLeavMo
• Organized our second week of Show & Tell during Circle Time
• Held a book club discussion in her virtual living room and interviewed the author.

Looking for new friends? Feeling like you'd like to get more involved? Pop on over to our "hub" for some great ideas, some wonderful resources, and some loving energy that she always has in abundant supply.

_______________________


Have you checked out All Thumbs Reviews yet? Chicklet and I steer you toward great shoes, great legs, and great wine -- and that's just the first week. Another entry is coming on Thursday, so bookmark the site and check back in.

So many of you have been so supportive already. We thank you from the bottom of our thumbs.
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ColoBloggers. And a new Google thingy.

LJ's post about this weekend's meeting of the DC Metro Stirrup Queens (Order of the Plastic Uterus) prompts me to announce the upcoming gathering of the ColoBloggers.

Attention bloggers, readers, lurkers, and anyone able to be in Denver on April 19. Here are the deets:

• When? Saturday, April 19 at 10 am
• Where? Taza de Cafe at 44th & Lowell

Please drop me a quick email to let me know that you're coming (bestlightlori at the gmail place). Our group is open to anyone blogging about our experiencing IF or any of the myriad ways one can get through IF.

***

image from Bloomberg News

Want to peek into the blogs I read? Check out my lower left sidebar for my new Blog List, currently titled Keeping up with the Joneses.

It's a new feature in Blogger, now being tested. If you use Blogger, you can simply import your Google Reader feeder. You can choose to arrange alphabetically, or as I have by last updated. It will list the blog, the latest post, and how old the post is.

Since Blogger is still prototyping this, I'm giving them this feedback: How about giving me the ability to group my list? For example, in Google Reader I've got my blogs tagged/filed Adoption, Infertility, Birth/firstparents, Adoptees, and Misc. I would like for the blogroll to be similarly arranged.

If you'd like to check this out for you blog, or the other new option of scheduled post publishing , just log in instead to draft.blogger.com.

I'm not usually considered an "early adopter" (haha). So it's fun to be on the cutting edge of something.

***

I'm working on a new edition of Lori's Childhood Trivia. Tune in later this week to play.
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Uterii, syringes and coffee, oh my!

We ColoBloggers had our very first meeting this weekend. We regaled the other patrons at Nordstrom's Cafe with our animated talk of hoohahooterii, sharps containers and RE chatter. Next time we'll bring flip charts and maybe a PowerPoint presentation.

Here we are, from left to right: Heidi, Nancy, Denise, Meg, K, me, and Duffy. Don't we look well caffeinated and well understood?


Each of these amazing women bring an integral piece to the IF mosaic. Each of us will find our own way through the infertility maze. I once dedicated a song to the Barren Bi+ches Book Brigade, and I now want to share it with my fellow ColoBloggers, about the constant craving we share.

***

That's the news from the West Side. As for the East Side, we have a very important message for the Order of the Plastic Uterus, especially for Bernardo:

WE'VE GOT SPIRIT, YES WE DO!
WE'VE GOT SPIRIT, HOW 'BOUT YOU?

Love always, Riff.

Getting (mile) high with ColoBloggers

Meeting the DC Bloggers was so fun and fulfilling! But why should Washington DC -ers have all the fun? Every locale should have the chance to meet fellow bloggers face-to-face, don't you think?

Meet the members of the Colorado Bloggers.

If you live in Colorado and blog about infertility, pregnancy loss, adoption (any part of the triad), pregnancy-and-parenting after infertility, assisted conception, living child-free after infertility or loss, and if you'd like to be included in this listing and on emails about gatherings, click on the icon to send me an email (bestlightlori at gmail).



If you ever travel to Colorado, let us know and we'll try to set up a meeting in your honor.

Here is our list of ColoBloggers:

Lori blogs about conscious living & life after adopting at Weebles Wobblog

Lori (same one) blogs about her IF/adoption stories at Drama 2B Mama
Denise blogs about unexplained IF at Freezer Buns

Nancy blogs about secondary IF at Infertile and Sarcastic
Jen blogs about IVF with PGD at Mama Wannabe

Meg blogs about building a family after pregnancy loss at On the Wrong Side of Statistics

Heidi blogs about IVF at Wombmates Wanted
Kidlicious blogs about parenting after IVF at Never Too Late
Spicy Sister blogs about IVF and beyond at Spicy Sister
Maryanne blogs about IVF at Colorado Butler Baby

Mary Beth blogs about parenting after IF at In the Painting of Chaos
Tori blogs about IVF at The Winding Road to Parenthood

Denver Laura blogs about her fertility journey at Fertility Alphabet Soup

Melissa (an adult adoptee) blogs about foster/adopting at Full Circle.

Nicole is a member.
Denver Jen blogs about her adoption journey at Waiting for Bambino.
DenverNanny blogs about her fertility journey at The Crazy See-Saw.
Caitlin blogs about life after HSG and onto IVF at IF You Only Knew.
Fishsticks and Fireflies blogs about neonatal loss and parenting 3 children.
Geo-Chick blogs about her adoption wait at Adventures of a Dam Engineer.

We had our first get-together in Feb at the Nordstrom's Cafe in Park Meadows.
We met in April at Taza de Cafe in NW Denver.
We met for Sex and the City in June.
We met in Meg's living room in August.
Next meeting....?