I REALLY Hate To Do This, But...

After two and a half years, and 457 posts, a situation has come up that requires me to make the blog private.

Hopefully, this is just a temporary situation, and I REALLY wish there was a better way of controlling access than Google's private setting, and I've even had some ideas that might work, but I have no time to try them out...

My hope is that this will just be a temporary lockdown, and that in a few months we'll be back to all-access to everyone.

What in the world is going on??

Kate, who you may recall is Danee's birth mother, is NOT doing well.  She has decided that she shouldn't have given her baby up, and that she should get to have her back.  This issue has been bubbling under the surface for a few weeks now, and unfortunately one of the biggest problems is that she has easy access to all the fun, happy, lovable moments that we've posted here.

That means she hasn't seen - and therefore doesn't believe in the existence of - the middle of the night feedings, the colic and its relentless, agonizing screaming, the acid reflux and the accompanying always being covered in partially digested, fully disgusting formula.  Just as I typed that last sentence, she went from smelling like wonderful lavender baby wash, to rancid pukies.  Oh, and she's screaming again.  I'm holding her while typing this, because when she's like this, she won't stand for being put down.

None of that exists in Kate's imagination.  Remember, she has fetal alcohol syndrome, and is similar to a 12 year old in her mental capacity.  All she knows is that Danee loves her baths, Danee is cute, and that Danee is not her baby.

FACT:  If we hadn't adopted Danee, the state (DSHS, CPS, etc) would have taken her and put her into the foster care system.  Kate keeping her baby was NEVER an option.

Today we received a phone call from Kate's mom Cami, in a panic, saying that Kate had disappeared from her group home 36 hours ago.  They found evidence that she had tracked down her former boyfriend (originally thought to be Danee's sperm donor) and has possibly asked him to marry her, because in her mind that means she would get Danee back.

Obviously, and for several reasons, that ain't gonna happen.

But to isolate my family from the insanity brewing there, I'm going to make the blog private for the foreseeable future.  

If you haven't ever encountered a blog going private, here's what it means:

If you haven't been specifically authorized to view this blog, you will see nothing.  An error page will tell you that we're private.  Unless you know how to contact us, you can't even ask for permission to see it.

So ASK NOW!!

Please email me - mike@thebrinkerhoffs.com and I'll pre-authorize you.  I'll be flipping the private switch Friday.

If you receive the blog by email, nothing should change.  I say "should" because I've never done the private thing, so I don't know how it'll work.

Google Reader likely won't work anymore.  The blogbar on other blogs won't show our updates anymore.  You'll have to either subscribe by email, or remember to manually check in.  

Did I mention I hate doing this?

Hopefully things will blow over soon, and we can be back to normal.  I also hope to hear from all the background "lurkers" I know visit on a regular basis.  Yeah, talkin' to you, Provo, Utah...  Oakland, CA, and Athens, GA.  

Thanks for keeping up with us - see ya on the other side of private land.