Busy, busy Saturday

Maggie at her soccer game today!

Busy, busy Saturday. Today, Maggie had karate and a soccer game. Lisa took her to both so I could get ready for a work seminar. Maggie is becoming quite the little athlete!

I spent the afternoon hosting a seminar for gay people who are interested in becoming parents. I love this part of my job--getting to talk with people about the options available to gay people wanting to add children to their family, and helping them figure out the best option for their family.

One of the reasons I enjoy doing this so much is because when we first started thinking about having a child, there was really no information out there. We just assumed that since we were lesbians, we should try to have a biological child. We wasted $15,000, and a year of our time before some friends educated us about open adoption.

Having a biological child was never important to either of us, so adoption was clearly the best route for us once we learned about it. Yes, I am biased--I love to help people learn about open adoption, but I do try to do my best to educate everyone about the option that is best for them. For some people, it is important to have a biological child or to be pregnant (I was never looking forward to getting pregnant, I am too much of a baby!), and so I help them figure out the best course given their situation.

It's an exciting time in their lives, and I feel lucky to teach them what I know to help them figure out their journey. It's fun to help people build their families. Well, at least to me it is :-)

Today, a lesbian couple in their 40s walked in the door thinking they had to try to have a child biologically--this would have been difficult and super expensive given their ages. They said, "we didn't even know gay people were allowed to adopt in Georgia." I was glad to help them, but thought it was so sad that they were thinking this was the case. So, my crusade continues...

Now if I could just teach Maggie's dog to stop barking at the neighbor's dog, life would be great. She is from the Caribbean, so she doesn't understand that in Georgia, we act neighborly to everyone--even the dogs!