I wasn’t even going to post this morning as I posted yesterday afternoon. After getting up at 5 and doing my usual morning reading – I had to write before my head exploded and made an awful mess all over my laptop (blogging is my free therapy). Children – the world is about children, whether you have one, are one or or know one, they are it dudes! Seriously world, life ain’t all about you you you Marsha Marsha Marsha, it is about your place in the world and what you are going to do to give back. I would like to say that this blog is filled with humor that fills the Dave Barry void in our world, but sometimes I have to be serious – to the best of my ability (yes I laugh at serious crud).

Last night I posted an alert on one of my other blogs (I am starting to feel like the Sybil of blogging) about a family of heroes who lost everything to a house fire. Today’s Times-Picayune, The Dead Pelican and other various morning reads have these stories:
1. Brit Brits 16yo sister is pregnant – not surprised but sad (that makes 3 more total children who will be screwed up)
2. A toddler was found wandering the streets and the house was in deplorable conditions- child given to Grandfather (where was he before?)
3. Pregnant teen found alive in marsh 2 days after boat capsized
4. teens doing bad stuff in ST. Tammany and New Orleans (bad parenting knows no boundaries- but it is possible these kids have good homes and are just being teens and doing stupid things)

Where the heck is Greta going with all this today? Well, if you don’t know, you now will….we signed up to be Foster/Adoptive parents after our 2 boys were born. I could have had more kids (fertile Myrtle) but we felt this was something we needed to do. Big bonus, you get to pick the sex of the child and we wanted a little Princess. 6 years later we can’t imagine life without Princess Whinalot. She made our family complete. She is our brown beauty- we are in trouble when she gets older.

I’ll let you in on a little secret told to me by an old Grandma I met in a doctor’s waiting room right after we started fostering Princess Whinalot. She told me, “I gave birth to 2 of my children and adopted 2 through the state myself. People always wonder if you can love a child you didn’t give birth to the same as those you gave birth to. I’ll let you in a little secret, you love the ones you didn’t give birth to a little bit more, in a more special way.”

If you have even considered the route of Foster & or Foster/Adoption, this may be the time to act on it. All kids deserve a good, safe and loving home. We were in Texas during our adoption and yes, all social service agencies are broken and overwhelmed across the US. They are, because, there aren’t enough good homes available for the kids removed from the crappy ones. If you would like to e-mail to discuss this I would be more than happy to share our experiences (gretaperry@gmail.com). We have to get over the stigma of having to go abroad or get newborns to complete our families. But seriously, any child from anywhere who ends up in a better situation than when they started is a wonderful thing. Brad and Angelina, if you feel like adopting any more, I am available for adoption and so are many kids from your own country (though I can understand why celebrities might not want to go the US route). Dilemma, my daughter will get free college in Texas – should we stop cheering for LSU now?