Mmmm. Music!
My Mumford and Sons station is seeded with Edward Sharpe, Trampled with Turtles, Belle Brigade, Abigail Washburn and the Civil Wars.

My Grace Potter and the Nocturnals station is seeded with Ben Harper, Ollabelle, Alabama Shakes, and Rosie Thomas (who doesn't really fit....)

One more...
My Weepies station is seeded with Lizz Wright, Ingrid Michaelson, and A Fine Frenzy.

Sadly, I'm too cheap for Sonos. I'm still looking into wireless speakers - right now I just have a little portable one attached to my mp3 player.

This is a fabulous post. Those of us who think that adoption and transracial familes are simply GOOD, NORMAL things want to be part of the solution.
Thank you for helping me to be a kind, encouraging stranger at Costco. Now I know to smile, say "You've got a beautiful family," and let you in front of me in line if you've got tinies. And leave it at that.

"The journey homewards. Coming home. That's what it's all about. The journey to the coming of the Kingdom. That's probably the chief difference between the Christian and the secular artist--the purpose of the work, be it story or music or painting, is to further the coming of the kingdom, to make us aware of our status as children of God, and to turn our feet toward home."

— Madeleine L'Engle (Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art)

Ha. Me too.
I'm so comforted.

Whoops.
Never mind.
You already made a fan page on Facebook....

Sigh. You know all the supportive comments you got?

This isn't one of them. My inbox is currently empty.
Part of that is that my life is not nearly as interesting as yours, but part of it is also that I am FIERCE about what ends up there. So this is an un-asked-for advice comment instead. I'm sorry!

Do it. Archive everything! Get it out of your inbox. It will be beautiful and freeing and you can dance around the house and celebrate. Ninety-five percent of the emails will not have any negative consequences, especially if you blog about the experience. The other 5 percent will make for very entertaining blog posts.

Then you can start tackling some of your other drama. Here are ideas that occurred to me as I was riding my bike home from work (I know, I should get a life):

For Facebook
Facebook simple: Go to account: privacy settings. Under “Connecting on Facebook,” click “View Settings.” Change “Send you messages” to “Friends Only.” Hire Jafta to delete all your FB messages. Then post as your status, “I am hereby never going to check my Facebook messages. Please email me if you need to reach me.”

Facebook hardcore: Unfriend everyone that you have never shared a meal with, and set up a “Fan” page for those people who want to know about your blog/parenting/orphancare info. Fans can’t message you, and your “real” friends can be trained to email you instead. I know a fan page sounds stupid, but how many of your FB “friends” are really people you can ask to run to the store for peanut butter?

For Email:
Gmail simple: create a template response that is a loving answer to all people you would LIKE to respond to but just REALISTICALLY don’t have time. It will say something like, “I truly am grateful that you have shared your story / asked my advice / sought my support. I have tucked your email into my ‘someday’ folder, but I cannot promise a reply until my children are all over 10 years old.” Then you get an hour a week to answer them (or create blog posts out of them).

Gmail moderate: Create several new addresses within your gmail address. If your email address is Kristen@gmail.com, you can tell the water company your email is Kristen+bill@gmail.com, and your blog peeps your email is Kristen+ratm@gmail.com and the newspaper your email is Kristen+column@gmail.com. Then set up filters to direct these into folders to check whenever.

Gmail hardcore: Change your email address. Create an autorespond for the old email address with text that says your new email address is ___. Humans will be able to adjust but the newsgroups and coupon sites will not. Go check your old email once a week.

Finally, decide how much time a week you really want to spend on your email. If there are still things triggering your guilt-meter, how can you stop them from landing in your inbox, or send them right back to the sender? Remember, your life is more important than these things.

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you.
As someone who is more "liberal," I tend to disagree with you on the practicalities of politics.
But I want to thank you for writing so honestly and passionately about how you see the world.
I want to honor your perspective as one that is carefully thought out and informed.

I want to apologize for times when we on my end of the spectrum think that you are somehow less worthy because you disagree with us. That is wrong of us. You are just as loving, and just as loved.

Thank you for your words, and for the sacrifices you make. May we both be able to love God and love others, side-by-side, for the sake of the God's kingdom above all.

Kinda spooky that 99% of your readers are women.....

I live in Orange County, attend RockHarbor, and have followed you since you were trapped in Haiti.

Desperate to contribute something useful, I thought these two views of Christian civility might interest you:
Sojourners: https://secure3.convio.net/sojo/site/Advocacy?pag...

CNN: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/11/leading-...