1,000

This right here, this is my 1,000th post. Can you believe that? Wow. That's some kind of milestone. And it's perfect for today.

Because I'm devoting this post to World Aids Day.

I was going to write something but I'm having problems finding the words. Because, truly, I want to yell. And I want to scream. I don't want to be pleasant about the fact that so many people are still dying, that so many kids or orphaned because of this preventable disease.

So I'll link you to Erin. I always link to Erin on December 1st. She has good words. :)

But then there's Amanda. I love Amanda. I traveled to Ethiopia with Amanda when she was picking up Teshome and I was picking up my Tariku. She and Matthew are the same age as my hot husband and hotflawedmama-which is pretty young compared to most adoptive parents. Read this post of Amanda's. I think every person can relate to her mama's voice.

The truth? Zach and I were on our way to adopt a babe before we saw the two boys. This babe was going to be HIV+. For many reasons, this didn't happen. But my heart's still there. Because it's all freakin loss. It's all really ugly, really shitty loss. AIDS, malaria, malnutrition, pneumonia, dirty water (and the various issues that arise from it). It's all loss. It's preventable. Seriously, there should be no difference in the way you react to any kind of loss.

If you get pissed about water, you should be pissed about the AIDS epidemic. Plain and simple.

So it's my 1000th post. And I'm so thankful you guys have come along with me. This blog is really fun for me. It's so fun to read back on where our family was at any given moment (I started this when I had just one child! What?!?!?)

I'm really excited for the future.

When I can look back on this post and read in disbelief how far we had to go to remove the stigma, on raising awareness about AIDS.

I can't wait for that.

But today we celebrate (the 1000th post) and we educate (AIDS). You can do both.

Thanks for coming along, thanks for spreading the message.

Thank you, thank you.