This month's "Motherfest" column -- which posted today on OnMilwaukee.com in the newest story section -- talks about the stressful waiting process involved when you're adopting internationally. (I know domestic adoption is very stressful, too, but not having that experience, I can only comment on what it was like to adopt from another country.)

Anyway, a woman e-mailed me this morning in response to my article. She lives in Gardiner, Maine, with her husband and young daughter, whom they adopted from Cambodia in 2000.

After going through the hellish waiting process, she started a group called "Adoption Ally," a company that gives emotional support to adoptive parents who are separated from their child because of unfinalized legal issues.

"While the adoption agencies mission is to facilitate the process, screen prospective parents and place children, there are very few resources out there to help the parents understand what they are going through and will go through when they bring their children home," reads her e-mail. "It's awfully hard to explain to someone who has never been there the pain and loss you feel when your child is somewhere where you can't get him/her, and you're at the mercy of some government or bureaucracy or whatever, and you can't do anything about it."

Adoption Ally's Web site is under construction, but if anyone is interested in more information, e-mail adoptionally@aol.com.