Casa Bonita - It's Awesome!

Happy New Year!!!

This picture of all of us is pre food orgy and post first ultra-sound. Sorry it's not clearer.

We are well into our 12th week and just as excited as ever. We've made our list of things to do in the next 6 months including Mexico for a few weeks in December (it's a big house so let us know if you want to visit) and various household projects around here. We'll be busy for sure.

The whole coming out process about having a baby is much like the coming out process of being gay. It ain't easy! I think about T. living in rural Washington and "coming out" as pregnant for a gay couple to co-workers and neighbors, friends and family. Both of us worry about her experience and of course hold her in an even higher regard for being willing to take this on. Can you imagine? I've asked myself, "would I do it?". We are blessed, we truly are.

So, with the Jewish New Year here and the required introspection of the holiday I have asked myself, what will my contribution be this year? What can I imagine? And, what will I do to make this world a better place? T. is an inspiration, a model to us all. So, with that I wonder what kind of parent I will be in teaching our child to give selflessly and lovingly, to help others live better and live fully. One thing I do know and am so happy about is that by having this child, we continue my grandfather's legacy of leaving this place a little bit better. After all he raised my father and my father raised me and taught me how to be the person that I am today working to make our world a better place. As for Tom, well - we both know how much his dad loves him and is proud of him. We just know it. He has had to wrestle with his values to accept and embrace us as a gay couple, and now a gay couple soon to have a child. That's not easy, but we appreciate the struggle and the willingness to struggle and to continue to have us in his life. There are others who are not as fortunate as we are. All of these lessons we will digest, process and teach in our own way to our children and aim towards peace, love and understanding.

After the shooting at the Jewish Federation this summer here in Seattle, I attended my friend and former colleague Pam Waechter's funeral. I was filled with shock and grief and knew not how to express myself. Afterwards, I sat down with my guitar and for the first time in my life wrote a song. Together We Remember became the final product with the help of my friend and guitar teacher Ryan Trager. We sang it with the ensemble at the synagogue last weekend and we will be singing it this Thursday at the Jewish Federation's Annual Campaign dinner. I'm looking forward to sharing the song with the 1000 people set to be in attendence that night.

We'll update soon after our next doctors appt. Thanks.

Let us know you were here.

10 Weeks and 10 Toes

Well, it's official - we are ten weeks pregnant as of this past Friday. We're coming out as pregnant two weeks early since Tom and I went down for the first sonogram on Thursday and saw our little peanut (that was the size of it). It's all too exciting and the sonogram just made it really real for us.

We went down to see T. and be there with her to see the pics of what we affectionetely call phoebe the fetus. Her first Dr. appointment was a week ago Friday which was really the first day in over two months that she actually started to feel like a human being. We felt terrible for T. and somewhat helpless ourselves in being able to do anything for her. Gratefully, she's feeling a bit better this week as well. Tom and I finally got our act together and sent a package of saltines and jello as well as bringing down a box of truffles and papaya enzymes. It's a weird relationship to navigate to tell you the truth and we have been stumbling our way through it. How do you express to someone the utter gratitude in a situation like this? What does "thank you" mean in a situation like this? We are very grateful and both of us feel so fortunate to have one of the smartest, likeable, goofy and of course, hottest surrogates around.

We'll attempt to update more often and log this journey of ours for you to share with us. Let us know that you were here!!!!