Monday, April 11, 2011

So I'm little niave...

Even though we have a public blog, and we have told 'everyone' we know about Luisa's HIV,  I do enjoy the fact that the vast majority of the people that I pass on a daily basis know nothing about Luisa's health.  Imagine my surprise when last week, we were featured on several online news sites including MSNBC, and FOX.    I had no idea that was going to happen!  Let me explain...

We were asked to do an interview by Bethany Christian Services about families adopting HIV + children.  We agreed, and soon we were contacted by David Crary of the AP.  Well, I am now embarrassed to admit that I had no idea what the AP exactly was, yes, the Associated Press, but I figured it was A newspaper in New York or something, no big deal.  We both did separate phone interviews with David, and  he told me it would run the first weekend of April.  Okay...

Well, I was curious as to how I was going to get myself a copy of the AP so we could see it, but was too embarrassed to ask him{THANK THE GOOD LORD} so, I asked my brother in law...

He told me that the AP was not, in fact A paper, but rather sold their stories to MANY papers or news organizations!  Oh dear.  Well, I googled our name and the name of the reporter and came up with nothing, so I forgot about it.  Until about 2 days later when I started getting emails about us being on MSNBC...What?

Sure enough, then on Fox news and other sites as well, I thought, "maybe no one else will notice"  But....Soon, it was all over facebook!  It wouldn't have been so bad, but, I really hate that people can comment on those articles and I knew from my experienced friend Carolyn, that there would be plenty of haters out there!  So I decided not to read them.  Ryan on the other hand, wanted to read them all...I asked for only a briefing on the percentage of negative vs. positive.  It was weird, but then...

When I was shopping at Meijer the next day, the check out lady recognized me, and told me that we were on the front page of the local paper!  *Nice*{Not!} Then, the next day, it was in yet another local paper. 

Everyone has been asking how this all came about...well, now you know "The rest of the story!"
{I am just super naive, and had no clue!  But, it was a decent, well balanced article and I guess it did get the message out there...it was just a little weird, and way out of my comfort zone!}

2 Corinthians 5:19b-20a ~ The Message
God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives.

7 comments:

Norma said...

aww i hope you don't mind that i laughed :/ but, i'm so happy it happened because it definitely brings light to an issue that needs to be de-stigmatized. i am in awe of your family and the kind hearts you all possess :)

norma

Anonymous said...

This is hilarious. God works in ways we could not imagine!!! .....No mind can comprehend, what God has prepared for those who love him!!

All praise goes to Him!

May you be blessed for your faithfulness.

Karen Minnema

Amber said...

Regardless of how the article came to be, I'm glad that you did it and I hope that you don't experience any negative reactions from it.

Stephanie said...

I meant to tell you that I read the article when I saw you, but I totally forgot! I thought it was an excellent article and was amazed that you made the big headlines! Luisa is so adorable, and I am glad that I finally was able to see her in person. Loved everything about that article, too.

Anonymous said...

I LAUGHED VERY HARD THEN I

REALIZED I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE AP

IS EITHER!! SO I AM WITH YOU STACEY

Sophia

Jodie said...

It was a great article and by reading it, if at least someone somewhere learned something and has spread the knowledge (hopefully many someones), it will make a different in how people view HIV

Jill said...

I read the article. Funny how it all came about :) Our heart is for HIV children too so I can imagine it was a shock to be all over the news :) It was a great article!

Jill