I’m big on Community. Maybe it’s because of how I was raised — in a small agricultural community in Texas, the kind that almost doesn’t exist anymore. In our world of today, we move. Our children move and when they have their family, they move.

Now, we connect through the internet. We look for places we fit into, and when we are lucky, we find Community there. Similar experiences, similar goals, varied backgrounds – we unite around a topic that we are passionate about.

I’ve worked in the field of adoption for 35 years. I see the value of online groups that band together with similar interests – transracial adoptive parents looking for help with raising their children from another country, another race. On the internet, they seek answers from those who were raised in a similar family setting. They find adoptees, now grown, who tell them what it felt like to be raised in a place where no one looked like them. The adoptees reach out to suggest ways to make it better. The many variations in adoption alone lead to people reaching out to learn and share. They build Community.

Birth mothers and adoptees connect using the internet and share their experiences with others who are timidly waiting, hoping to be found. The timid gather courage from the stories of others who once felt shy. They share their stories with each other. They find support; they build Community.

And because I am a Texan who landed in Arizona, where I retired, I reach back in my memories toward a simpler time. And I write about the people I’ve connected with; some of us have found each other on the internet. We rebuild Community.