mikeandmichael's blog

Women are better parents. Women are better at nurturing children than men. Men are incapable of being good parents. From the perspective of a father, a dad, a daddy, these stereotypes are alive and not so well.

It is time to give dads a shout out! If you read my personal blog post, "My life as a stay-at-home dad" (http://mikeandmichael.info/blog/2008/11/26/my-life-as-a-stay-at-home-dad/), you would understand the inspiration for this blog.

In December, I wrote a blog entitled, “California’s proposition 8 affects families.” In that blog I wanted to illustrate the mere fact that domestic partnerships are not equal to that of civil marriage, an argument professed by proponents of proposition 8. In the end, California’s Supreme Court will decide the validity of proposition 8, but again, I ask the question. Did people know what they were voting for at the time? I doubt it.

Back in December, I wrote a blog related the affect Proposition 8 has on gay and lesbian families.

Regardless of your political affiliation, there is no denying that this past November’s election was historic. For the first time in our nation’s history, we had the choice of voting for an African-American presidential candidate and a female vice-presidential candidate. Future will tell if we made the right decision – I shall refrain from inserting my political opinion here!

A friend in the adoption community recently shared her adoption scam experience with me on Adoption Under One Roof's website (www.ouradopt.com).

Teresa, who shares her story, tells an all-too-familiar account of thieves who are in the business of taking families' money. Unfortunately, the trail left behind is one of mistrust, anger, pain, sorrow not to mention the possibility that one's savings has been depleted.

By the end of Teresa's adoption journey, she was taken for $34,000 (Canadian dollars), still without child, and left heartbroken and desperate to be come a mother.

Not too long ago, I shared only part of our first adoption experience in my blog “The Not So Pleasant Side of Adoption - Being Scammed”. The actual events that led to our first placement, and the events that followed, go well beyond the one scammer. If you remember, the scammer was the first “expectant” mom we met. Though we tried to remain unbiased during both adoptions, we could not shake the feelings that we associated with that experience. Fortunately, for us, our determination to continue building our family through adoption was strong.

We brought our son home in September 2007. We are eternally grateful to his birth mother and to our adoption professionals.

A friend asked me to write a blog addressing an all-to-familiar stereotype that children of gay and lesbian parents grow up to be gay or lesbian. When I look at my myriad of friends, specifically those who are gay or lesbian – and there have been many in my 40 years – I have never met any who were raised by gay or lesbian parents. I am not suggesting that they do not exist; they just do not exist in my world. On the other hand, I have met a few heterosexual friends who had one or two gay and/or lesbian parents.