My brain has been exploding for approximately three days.

As you know, I review things over at the family blog and on the family blog’s review blog. I enjoy it. I like stuff. I also review things that we purchase, so it’s not just about the free stuff. It’s about sharing my experiences with other people. Which is, in case you missed that one, a main point of blogging.

Anyway, I’ve rarely reviewed anything on this blog. The stuff that has been reviewed is solely adoption related. Why? This is an adoption blog. That’s why this blog is not on “Moms.AllTop.com” and is, instead, on “Adoption.AllTop.com“. It’s an adoption blog. The rest of the world doesn’t want to give me the title “Mom” and this is where I write about it. Got me?

I’ve been spammed over the past three days by three different PR spammers who haven’t taken the time to read one lick of information on this blog (also on the birth/first parent blog which made me laugh harder). When I emailed one spammer back, asking her not to spam me with her Las Vegas travel guide (!!??!) again, she said that she thought it would be of interest to my readers. Well, sure. Maybe my readers want to go to Las Vegas. But what in this blog, at any point, gives this money-hungry-spammer the idea that I care about Las Vegas? Or that I want to write about anything on this blog other than adoption content?

I would be less upset if these emails were coming into the family blog. But for some reason, those that contact me over there seem to have a basic idea of what our interests, likes and dislikes are and what a family of our makeup might need. Very rarely have I gotten something that was so inappropriate or just not right for our family over there. Apparently this blog’s ranking isn’t high enough to warrant the good PR representatives with enough sense to actually get to know the people that they are pitching to?

Whatever the case, let me spell it out for the PR reps that happen across this blog: Unless your product has something to do with adoption, I will not review it on this blog. Thank you and have a swell day.

A birth mother friend of mine from the Baby Scoop Era was recently verbally assaulted via e-mail. She shared the contents with me and I was absolutely flabbergasted. She was cussed at and insulted. There was no respectful tone, no wish for understand dialogue. All of this, mind you, was delivered unprompted. Just a fabulous random attack from someone on the internet hiding behind the guise of anonymity.

The best part? Once she finally let my friend know her true identity, it turns out that this woman, who said horribly awful things about birth mothers and young parents in general, apparently runs an adoption agency and counsels young pregnant mothers.

Every time I hear of something happening like this, I think back to my “counselors” at the agency through which I placed. I was initially shocked that they had such little care for me but… every time something like this happens, I am just further made aware that the majority of those working to help place babies have little respect for the mothers who are possibly relinquishing.

It breaks my heart. While I know I’ll never get an apology from my agency, I wonder sometimes if they have any guilt at all. Did they care that they lied to me? Why did they pretend that they didn’t know open adoptions weren’t legally binding in my state? Was it to cover their own rear ends or to make me hopefully not be angry with them so I wouldn’t speak out? Or are they so used to giving half-truths and blatant lies to expectant mothers that they don’t even notice or care anymore? Are they that jaded?

I don’t know the answers. But I think it stinks that people like these are causing people like me, generally positive people, to lose faith in humanity in general. What happened to respect for another and their journey? What happened to wanting to learn from another’s experience, even if your opinion differs? What about the internet gives people big, strong finger muscles that lets them type things they would (hopefully) never say to someone’s face?