Babie here, and babies coming....
I was in Toronto at the end of November for the launch of Rainbow Health Ontario. It's a new province wide initiative, based at the Sherbourne Health Centre, to improve LGBTT2IQQA health in Ontario. I'm working for them, part time, as the member of their community outreach team in my area. I'm excited about the project, but it was also really great to have a weekend in the big city, and to get put-up in a downtown hotel.
The meetings were to end about mid-day on Sunday, and i wanted to arrange a late brunch with some Toronto friends that i don't get to see as often as i would like these days. I invited three couples, people who don't know each other, but people i thought would like each other and get along well. They were also three couples all trying to get pregnant, all of whom had found this difficult. Wouldn't you know, none of them were pregnant when i invited them, and all of them are now pregnant. They are all at the beginning stages of pregnancy, when hope and prayers are important, when people are nervous, when the possibility of hope and despair both seem possible. At the part of pregnancy when i don't want to name them, as it is their news to share or not, as they choose, but i am so excited for all of them. They are all pregnant, all of them who had tried for so long, and in so many ways are pregnant. They will be a very fabulous cohort of new parents and new babies and i am full of gladness for them all.
Perhaps i should try to organize more brunch gatherings.
We are not pregnant. We did a full cycle of monitoring, and apparently all things look good, but we did not try to inseminate on that cycle, so i can say, with confidence that we are not pregnant. We are planning. We are hopeful that it is our turn next (and soon). Perhaps someone else should invite us for brunch?
We have other good friends who are much further along in the whole pregnancy thing. I'm giddy with excitement for a particular couple in Boston, and a particular couple in Toronto. I've been so glad to hear their stories, know how they are doing, listen to their worries and get to follow along from here. More friends are just embarking on trying to get pregnant, D and M-C in Quebec have such a charming little person already, and i look forward to hearing news of a second. Other friends and family are either trying to get pregnant or talking about the possibility.
My very fabulous Kingston family welcomed their newest member in early November. An earnest and charming young transman I met this summer welcomed his first child last weekend. Suddenly my social circle feels full of babies, babies who are here, babies who are on the way, babies who are hoped for, wished for wanted. Babies who are culturally queer, babies with heterosexual parents, babies of trans-parents who will not be quiet and transparently disappear. I have secret fantasies of the co-op child care program we could form if we all lived close enough together to make it work. We all share strong values of social justice, environmental stewardship and more. It would be a great group to share parenting and child rearing with. I wonder if this is what it means to be this age? It feels exciting, celebratory, full of possibility and risk, full of potential growth and change.
A toast to all the babies, all the new parents, and all the perspective new parents. The news is good, the pictures charming (be they baby pictures or ultrasounds), and there is so much still to come.
The meetings were to end about mid-day on Sunday, and i wanted to arrange a late brunch with some Toronto friends that i don't get to see as often as i would like these days. I invited three couples, people who don't know each other, but people i thought would like each other and get along well. They were also three couples all trying to get pregnant, all of whom had found this difficult. Wouldn't you know, none of them were pregnant when i invited them, and all of them are now pregnant. They are all at the beginning stages of pregnancy, when hope and prayers are important, when people are nervous, when the possibility of hope and despair both seem possible. At the part of pregnancy when i don't want to name them, as it is their news to share or not, as they choose, but i am so excited for all of them. They are all pregnant, all of them who had tried for so long, and in so many ways are pregnant. They will be a very fabulous cohort of new parents and new babies and i am full of gladness for them all.
Perhaps i should try to organize more brunch gatherings.
We are not pregnant. We did a full cycle of monitoring, and apparently all things look good, but we did not try to inseminate on that cycle, so i can say, with confidence that we are not pregnant. We are planning. We are hopeful that it is our turn next (and soon). Perhaps someone else should invite us for brunch?
We have other good friends who are much further along in the whole pregnancy thing. I'm giddy with excitement for a particular couple in Boston, and a particular couple in Toronto. I've been so glad to hear their stories, know how they are doing, listen to their worries and get to follow along from here. More friends are just embarking on trying to get pregnant, D and M-C in Quebec have such a charming little person already, and i look forward to hearing news of a second. Other friends and family are either trying to get pregnant or talking about the possibility.
My very fabulous Kingston family welcomed their newest member in early November. An earnest and charming young transman I met this summer welcomed his first child last weekend. Suddenly my social circle feels full of babies, babies who are here, babies who are on the way, babies who are hoped for, wished for wanted. Babies who are culturally queer, babies with heterosexual parents, babies of trans-parents who will not be quiet and transparently disappear. I have secret fantasies of the co-op child care program we could form if we all lived close enough together to make it work. We all share strong values of social justice, environmental stewardship and more. It would be a great group to share parenting and child rearing with. I wonder if this is what it means to be this age? It feels exciting, celebratory, full of possibility and risk, full of potential growth and change.
A toast to all the babies, all the new parents, and all the perspective new parents. The news is good, the pictures charming (be they baby pictures or ultrasounds), and there is so much still to come.