15 Years Of Waiting For/Life With Briana

I realized something kind of amazing yesterday (at least for me). 

My blog turned 15 years old on July 30th, 2021. This is my 2,575 post according to Blogger.

I guess I didn't make the connection earlier because the end of July and the beginning of August is always a super busy time in my life with our family day anniversary, Bri's birthday and the start of a new school year. This year was especially crazy with Briana starting her sophomore year in person during a pandemic, having never been physically being in high school before. Oh - and throw in her getting her learner's permit on top of it. Things were kind of busy.

This was my very first post written on July 30, 2006...

Little did I know that exactly one year later, July 30th 2007, Doug and I would meet our daughter for the very first time. I also didn't know that my daughter would be born just six days after I started sharing my life online. 

Life is really something, isn't it?

I wasn't sure I wanted to start a blog in the first place. I mean, who was going to see or care about what I had to say? A couple of friends urged me to do it anyway (including my friend Kathy who I am still super close with). Here I am 15 years later. I'm quite sure that I am now one of the last bloggers still blogging from the China adoption community. You can't say I never stick with anything. Heh.

This blog has changed so much over the years. It started out simply as a waiting China adoption blog and a way for me to connect to people who were dealing with a similar situation. It then morphed into a blog chronicling my crash course of becoming a new parent to an internationally adopted child. It then became a journal of our family's life events and milestones. You've read along as my daughter grew from a toddler to a tween to a full blown teenager. I've shared a lot of our good times and our bad/sad times. This blog became a major outlet and therapeutic device for me when a major pandemic hit the world full force and allowed me to become more vocal about things that I had held within myself for a very long time.

Thank you to all of you who have read and followed me for so many years. Thank you to those who have started reading more recently. And thank you to those who know me personally who have allowed me to share a piece of their lives/their families on this blog too. 

Briana is older now and I only share with you what she approves. I find myself writing more about myself now than about Briana - which is the way it should be. And though I have shared quite a lot of myself on this blog, I of course haven't shared everything - because I do deserve a bit of a private, personal life. In time, I will most likely shift away from this blog (which will be so incredibly tough) and start a new blog focusing more on my thoughts and feelings because I don't think I can go through life without some sort of social outlet. Facebook and Instagram just doesn't cut it for me - it's not enough.

So, happy 15th anniversary (a couple months late) to "Waiting For Briana/Life With Briana." This blog truly changed my life - for the better.

(If you haven't commented on my blog in a while, I'd love to hear from you again.)