Rainbow Families Conference

We attended the Rainbow Families DC conference on Saturday, which luckily for us, was in Takoma Park and not far from our home. We were amazed at how many people we know at the conference. Our lawyer stopped by and said hello. We ran into a couple that we met last year at the conference and later had dinner with because they were adopting a baby from India and we were interested in learning more. This year we met their adopted little girl - very cute. We ran into the folks at the blog 1 in Vermillion, who we know through A&C. A actually showed up, which surprised all of us. She looked so tired! Our friend I came to learn more about surrogacy and after we had dinner with him (if eating at Chipotle really counts as having dinner with someone). Our fertility doctor led the session called Donor Insemination 101, with charts and diagrams and models, very detailed informative. She also ended up sitting next to us during lunch. All of these people we know really shows how much a part of this community that we are now. We've lived in this area for five years, and on days like this, we realize how much this really is our home.

We were able to ask our doctor about our burning question - what if you can't find Rh- sperm? She said not to worry about it because you can get a shot after you are pregnant. What a relief - now it's back to picking sperm, and we can take into account more criteria than simply Indian with the right blood type.

The DI session was co-led by the woman who will be leading our DI support group, so we introduced ourselves to her. Her criteria for leading that group is, I guess, that she has been through it before. Her experience was not good, and I hope that our goes much better. I guess we'll find out soon.

We also attended a panel discussion about bi-racial families that was really interesting. One thing we found at is that all of the white people on the panel have racist parents, so we're not alone in that! One woman who is married to a black woman and they have a bi-racial baby said that her Irish father is just horribly racist and close-minded. They take him in small doses and with clear boundaries set. And then they tell their children "grandpa's old and hasn't had a lot of experiences. he's going to make us angry. when we go home, we'll yell and scream all we want." and if they are staying at grandpa's home, they will take breaks, like to go out for ice cream without him, and they will all yell "GRANDPA'S DRIVING ME CRAZY!" and when they feel calm again, they will go back to his house. I think this is a great plan. I don't want to shut my family out completely because they are my only link to my culture, but we need to equip our children to deal with them.