Going On Vacation...Yaaaay!!!

Just a quick update to all my readers. Our family will be headed south for the winter...spring..well lets just say it's almost summer. We are headed to San Diego to give our kids a thanks for all that they have had to put up with in the last few months. Having to share their rooms, Dads, School, and lives with other children can be pretty taxing and they deserve something special for being champs through everything that has happened. So...we will be seeing Sea World, LegoLand, The San Diego Zoo, and a handful of kidcentric attractions that are sure to be a blast for all of us. We will miss everyone here on the blog and on YouTube but I'm sure four days will pass so fast it will be like no time at all.

Until next time dear readers....

Texas Shines

Many of you may have seen this ABC "What Would You Do?" segment that aired this last week. If you haven't...then I have to say that it's about the most amazing thing I have seen in a long time and well worth watching it all the way through. In the video ABC sets up a scenario in which a Same-sex family(all played by actors) are confronted with discrimination by a very vocal homophobic waitress(also played by an actress). The intent of the program was to uncover how the average American would act when confronted by blatant homophobia and discrimination. Now...this episode being in Texas, I have to admit that I was bracing myself for the worst. Watch the video and get my reaction below the fold...

Lifeline

"It is in your weakest moments that you find your true strength" - Unknown

O.K....I'm sitting here staring at this screen trying to figure out how to put these words on the page and I am coming to the realization that I will think in circles forever and not get any closer to what I need to say....so I am going to just lay it out there and let the pieces fall were they may...

Today many people are fretting about the end of the world because of the predictions of Harold Camping. But last night we had an all to real reminder that sometimes the world does end for some of us because the world simply will not allow us to be. Last night a young man who watches our family on YouTube..and who we have been communicating with from time to time, contacted us because he was going to commit suicide. A family member had noticed that he was friends with us online and was asking questions. He was fearful that his family would find out...he was fearful that everyone in his town would find out and that his life would be in danger. So...he decided that ending everything on his own terms was a better option...so he took twenty of the first prescription meds he could lay his hands on. He contacted me right after he had taken the pills to say he was sorry and between Jay and myself, we talked for a very long time. In the end, I am very...very thankful to say that he did not die, though I know that is not the end of this young mans problems. There is still much for him to deal with.

All of this came about because of his friendship and communication with us through Facebook. This has my husband and I to wonder, if...in our desire to help others feel not so alone...we are actually placing them at a higher risk of danger through discovery. We feel this way because this scenario has played out before in slightly different ways...

Gay Marriage In New York...A Shifting Paradigm?

Marriage equality in the state of New York has been a contentious battle for a very long time. Long time readers may remember some very bitter and angry posts from me around the end of 2009. At that time, marriage had come up for a vote in the State Senate only to be defeated by a handfull of Democratic Senators who chose to vote against it. Well New York never gave up and after some bitter elections in which a great many of those Democratic Senators lost their seats, we are again coming close to the very real possibility of a favorable vote on same-sex marriage in New York...and for some surprising reasons.  Republicans are beginning to step up in support of gay marriage from some unexpected quarters....yes, you heard me, Republicans....While a certain Democrat from the Bronx continues to be very vocal opposition. It all seems a bit like falling into an alternate dimension where everything is opposite...but could this be the way things are headed?

Foster Diaries....Echoes of the past

Well dear readers...due to issues with blogger I was not going to post today but sometimes things happen in our lives that are too big to keep inside ourselves and this blog has become part confessional for me in addition to being a vehicle for marriage equality....

As many of you know. My husband Jay and I have decided to be full time foster parents. It was not something we planned to do in life...it just developed in the natural course of events. Being a foster parent can be a very rewarding experience however it also comes with some challenges. Many of the kids you will care for will melt your heart and break it all in the same moment and sometimes the pain they feel will bump up against your own pain and the memories of things that happened so long ago you didn't think it could ever reach out to hurt you again. But if you are a thinking and feeling human being you can't help but go with kids down the sometimes painful road that they are forced to walk. This is what happened to me this morning...

New Rites Of Passage...The Cellphone

One of our kids favorite movies is "Horton Hears A Who". Its a very funny movie and my kids have seen it a billion times. One of my favorite and funniest of scenes in the film is when Mayor McDodd's youngest daughter precociously asks him for a "who phone". Being a patient and prudent dad, he responds that surely the other kids in her class don't have who phones yet. Then, to his chagrin, his daughter produces her class photo and all the kids are talking on who phones....except her. It was laugh out loud funny the first hundred times the kids watched it...but little did I know that it was less light hearted entertainment and more a warning sign along the road to tweendom. This is because my ten year old son has been asking me for a cell phone anytime he thinks I don't remember who it is that is doing the asking. This has always been an "out of the question" conversation between him and I...but recently we had our own "who phone" moment that has prompted me to start thinking about kids and social technologies. But first...the background...

Who's Your Momma...

Well Mothers Day has come and gone. I hope everyone had a chance to spend some quality time with their moms to say thanks for all the little things they do for us everyday. Me and the kids got to spend some time with Grandma who turned out to be the only mother who didn't have somewhere else to be on "Mothers Day".....oh well.

I don't know if anyone saw this weeks Modern Family in which they take on Mothers Day. It included a rather funny segment in which same-sex parents Cam and Mitchel get into an argument...well...Cam has a full drama meltdown actually...because Mitchel regards him as the "mom" in the relationship. This sent Cam over the edge because because everyone treated it as if it was his holiday and this was just too much of a threat to
his manhood and it drove him to do those ridiculous things that only people in sitcoms do. It was funny enough to watch on television...until Jay turned to me and said "that is so you. You're the mom in this family. (insert sound of record scratch here).....say what?!

and of course he found every opportunity to drive the point home...including in our Mother's Day video included after the fold.

Google Airs "It Gets Better" Commercial

We all know the "It Gets Better" Project has gotten so large that it has taken on a life of its own. Now, Google is adding it's contribution in the form of a minute and a half commercial airing on national television...and guess what?.....Our family got to be in it!!!!

It's a very small snippet and if you blink at the wrong time you will miss us but we are there at the 0:53 mark. Yaaayy!!! My husband Jay was bursting at the seems to tell everyone but we had signed a confidentiality agreement and so, could not say a word until it aired....AND...even though they used the video that we had uploaded to Youtube, we were still required to join the screen actors guild...lol.

On a more serious note we are grateful that Google took on this project and furthermore that it is airing during a show like Glee...which not only  made Jay squeel with delight...but will likely reach tons of kids who may need to know about the project. We are very gratefull to have been included both in the commercial and that It Gets Better Project itself. Check out the commercial and see if you recognize anyone...