Private Or Not?

This has been an ongoing discussion in our household for almost a year now. I compromised by changing my blog address and taking out our last name last fall. That has appeased until recently.

My wonderful husband worries about the whole world being able to see our lives. I really don't feel like we are interesting enough for the whole world.

I feel that it is my fault that the subject has been brought up again in the last few weeks. I've noticed that on day's I post I have anywhere from 100-150 people reading; which to me - is flattering. But to Jaren? Terrifying. He just see's tons of strangers. I know that majority of the people reading are family and friends. People who don't like to comment or are too shy to comment so we know they are there.

So, I would mention random places over the globe that I thought was interesting. Or google searches that brought up our blog. Each time he would say, "Do you want to go private?" Or, "When the baby comes, can we please go private?" It doesn't make me nervous, but it does him.

My issue with this is that I think there is a lot of family and friends who read, but don't let us know they are there. And we go private and they lose that connect with our lives.

Well, today I think the line was drawn. He has some friends who have had a terrible experience by posting pictures of their baby. I married a very, very private person, if you haven't noticed already. So this, to him, is re-justifying what he has wanted all along - privacy. He knows blogging is good for me - the connections I've made have been wonderful. I've made some really really good friends from this that I think will be around for quite some time. This is also something I really enjoy doing.

So, we talked about it and I am going to make a new blog that will have lots of pictures and stories and I can post whatever I want - but it will be private. I think I'll get it all set up in the next few months, but the whole point of it will be for family and friends to see what is going on with our little girl and us. I will keep this blog and will still post some pictures and stories, but it will all be pretty generic and safe.

The point of this post is to let everyone know that once I have this baby there wont be a ton of her in this blog - but the private blog will pretty much be all her. I am willing to add anyone who wants to be added to view it. Of course either one of us will need to know you somehow - but please, let me know. We want to keep family and friends updated on our lives and our growing family is the biggest part of it. And in Jaren's words, "I'm just worried about the safety of my two girls." So, this is calming his troubled heart. Which I want to do.

What to do?
You can either leave a comment in this post with your email address or send me an email to whitneykathleen at gmail dot com. If you have been reading and want to be a part of the new blog and we know you but your a little shy to let us know your reading, it's fine, send me an email, we don't mind!

This blog will still be up and running even after the private blog is started. Just less info about the family as a whole.

Why I love to blog:
I have found a lot of joy going back and re reading my posts. I forget about some things and I definitly forget exactly how I'm feeling during certain events. This is why my posts have gotten longer and a bit more detailed. I want to document our lives and this is the best way. I also keep a private journal, but I update this a little more. I'm going to start getting each year made into a book and it will be a sort of journal/scrapbook. I have noticed that since I've been pregnant my mind is leaving me. My memory especially. So I'm trying to keep up to date on events so I will remember. So I don't mind making an entire blog for our kids. It will just make for another book just for them :)