Thinking Blog Award

Process nominated for The Thinking Blogger Award! There are a lot of awards or memes out there that I don't especially care much about, but I confess that I wanted this one. So thank you Process.

Now part of the obligation is to nominate 5 blogs. That is a difficult task, because there are so many. It is made easier by the fact that the meme has been floating around for a while and so many of the blogs I might have had to debate about have already been "nominated" and I decided that I would not nominate anyone who already had been. So if you are surprised that someone is not here, that may be why.

Part of me hates doing this because I get the junior-high feelings and I don't want to be the cause of them. I decided by being pretty literal about the question "who makes me think." My first draft of this list was made entirely by going through my posts and seeing which bloggers I had most often mentioned in sentences like, "Process' post yesterday got me thinking..." Except I looked at that list and knew it was not quite right. So here is the list:

Bart, A Whole New World
Though Bart blogs irregularly every single one of his posts is thoughtful in every sense of the word. Bart will write in response to a event in his life, but every post is an essay. If he had written nothing other than his post "A Victim" I would have had to nominate him.

FosterAbba, Navigating the Maze
Perhaps because we started blogging around the same time, there is probably no other blogger with whom I have exchanged more thoughts. FosterAbba, among others, has made me think about love, safety plans, and religion. Those links are are to posts that I wrote, but everyone contains a link to a post of hers.

Gawdess, all gawdass, all the time

Gawdess, previously Gawdessness, has been blogging for a long while. She is honest, funny and inspiring. She manages to capture both how difficult and how rewarding caring for traumatized children is. The very thoughtful way she responded to one of her children's behaviors prompted me to write Recalcitrant Behaviors in Foster Children

Lionmom, From 0 to 5.

Lionmom was one of the first bloggers that I read from beginning to end. It was because of her that I went back through Ann's entire story (on the private blog). Her story, her honesty in telling it, changed the way I think. I don't have as many posts on the blog that mention her, but if I am going to make a list of bloggers who "make me think" she has to be on it.

My next problem is that there are at least four bloggers who parent truly difficult children, children who perhaps have RAD who have made me think a lot about what it means to measure success in foster care. If you read that post you will see one blogger that obviously made me think and who perhaps I should have nominated. But I think I am going to take the somewhat dangerous move and assume that she will get nominated, just not by me. Though there are many bloggers who make me think about what we are doing simply by their carrying on, today, as representative of them all, I nominate Marelow of Spotted Dog Turn.

And so now all of you are tagged and must ask yourselves, who makes you think?

The participation rules are simple:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

To the rest of you, especially my beloved lifeguards, experienced parents who teach me, and newbies whom I adore, I wanted to nominate you all. I really did.