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“My love is a light Driving away all of your fea

“My love is a light
Driving away all of your fear
So don't be afraid
Remember I made a promise to keep you safe” 💜🌸 - JJ Heller📷 @rachelbetson_photography

I AM NOT THE SURROGATE.case in point when the bi

I AM NOT THE SURROGATE.case in point when the birth certificate is not enough.a Michigan court tried to REMOVE a birth mother from a birth certificate after she and her partner split up. they weren't married but did RIVF for their twins. the judge ruled that she was not the "natural parent" and was only a surrogate, so she could only have visitation rights, not custodial rights, and was ordered to be removed from the birth certificate.this. is. horrifying. thank goodness the appeals judge said, "oh, hell no" (not literally, but a girl can dream) and reversed the decision. but still. this battle has been on-going and this mom and the kids have been drug through all of this.please please please talk to a local lawyer about ensuring BOTH parents have full legal parental rights. visit connectingrainbows.org to find a local lawyer in your area. and follow @connectingrainbowsorg for more info on protecting your family.

how many parents out there are constantly trying t

how many parents out there are constantly trying to hide veggies in their kid's food?#ad well, @greengiant® has done it again, and came up with a tasty way to incorporate a full serving of veggies into easy to serve Veggie Fries®. kid + mom approved.I remember when Parker was little and I would try to make everything. I legit tried making my own zucchini fries and it was labor intensive ... with two kids now, I just don't have the time. Green Giant® did it for me! These Zucchini Garlic + Parmesan Veggie Fries® are quick, easy and so yummy (I may or may not have stolen a bunch while making them). The first ingredient is zucchini - so you know they focused on getting those veggies in for us busy parents.shop at your local retailer to find these veggie fries (they also have Veggie Rings® Cauliflower French Onion) in the frozen aisle and let me know what flavor you try (we are also fans of the Veggie Fries® Broccoli + Cheese over here!).#greengiant

half siblings - I've never shared this before.I

half siblings - I've never shared this before.I haven't spoken about this before and I won't go into detail as it's not entirely my story to tell. when I was 24, I found out that I had a half-sister. it ROCKED MY WORLD. I was confused, scared, sad. It took me time to process it all. I completely understand why - in this situation - it was kept from me. It's definitely more of a Lifetime movie synopsis and that's as much as I'll share right now.Shortly thereafter, I did connect with her and her family. It was definitely emotional, a little awkward, but a positive experience. We don't see each other often or speak a lot -- we have our own families and jobs and we don't live around the corner (although not too far away!) but I'm glad that we connected. Personally, it feels more like a distant cousin relationship than a sibling as we didn't grow up together but we share DNA.I think this has played a part in our recent navigation of the donor siblings and not wanting to surprise our kids one day when they're grown up. to share what we know - at an age appropriate level - and follow Parker's cues (and one day, Josie's).Yesterday, we read him the book, "What Makes a Baby" - it talks about needing a sperm, an egg and a uterus. Just keeping it very factual and science based but has colorful pictures to engage him.One day at a time!

donor sibling update.we bought and read Parker t

donor sibling update.we bought and read Parker the book, Zak’s Safari, which is a story about a donor conceived little boy with two moms. it actually explains that a baby is made with a sperm and an egg and some families need a sperm donor.we explained to Parker that he has a donor and asked if he wanted to see pictures - he did, so we showed him the donor as a child a d adult (what we had from the sperm bank).i don’t think he could really grasp the concept or idea but he seemed interested (for like a minute then wanted to play!). so we’re approaching it slowly for him while fervently educating ourselves as much as possible on the topic!one of the other families has been super open from day 1 with her children, so we’re going to FaceTime with the kids soon once we get to the half sibling topic with Parker.Parker LOVES people and relationships, so we really think he’s going to be allll about this. of course, this is a super sensitive and personal topic, so i know that every family handles this differently. my hope in sharing our journey is that it gives other families who use a donor some insight, information, inspiration, what have you, to make your own informed decision.when we chose our donor, we only considered one who was “open” - meaning, he was open to being contacted when the kids are older. tbh i never really even thought about donor siblings. it wasn’t until recently that i dove into the whole topic + concept and realized it was something that i needed to personally explore. and circling back to why we chose an open donor, i realized that the same logic applies here — it’s not up to me whether my children know where they came from. that is and should be 100% their decision. and it would be selfish of me to keep that from them because i was having a personal struggle.so here we go — what we keep saying to ourselves is there are now more people to love and to love our kids!

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© GENAVIEVE SHINGLE LLC
WEBSITE BY FELICITY & DESIGN INC.