There is really nothing as mesmerizing to watch as people performing Irish dance routines. This traditional dancing takes a lot of talent and skills not many can claim. Irish people consider this dancing style that demonstrates breathtaking footwork and balance a huge part of their heritage. If you’ve seen dancers performing this style, you were probably enchanted by those moves of high-kicking, stomping, rigid stances, and twirls.
The video below shows how no one can stay indifferent when the famous music that follows this routine is on. The lively rhythm is so contagious that this adorable little girl decided to join in and show this woman who is dancing on the streets of Galway, Ireland, how skillful she is.
Passersby are gathering around this adorable dancing duo and enjoy the sight. Isn’t this sweet little girl an Irish dancer in the making?
Take a look at her in the video below. You are going to love this!
Cancer is one of the most widespread diseases that can affect anyone, despite gender or age. The diagnosis is devastating, and the battle is long and hard, and takes lots of courage and optimism.
Scientists from across the globe do everything in their power to find a cure, and until that day is here, we can only be supportive and pray for those who are undergoing the ordeal.
When a person is diagnosed, it affects everyone around. But what happens when a child is in question? It makes the parents’ world crush, but they have to be strong and overcome those feelings of shock, guilt, anxiety, and sadness, and be there for their little ones. Just as little McKenna Shea Xydias’ mom and dad are.
This sweet two-year-old toddler experienced some belly swelling some time ago and it alarmed her parents Megan and Michael. The doctors, however, put them at ease saying it’s just a result of constipation.
Soon after this doctor’s visit, McKenna’s teacher called her parents telling them how the girl isn’t feeling good, having a fever of 103F and a swollen abdomen.
She was again rushed to the hospital where they got the same answer as the first time, a constipation. This time, both Megan and Michael knew there was something more serious going on so they decided to do further examination in another hospital.
McKenna was brought to Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta where they were told the shocking news of the little girl having a malignant tumor growing on her ovaries. This particular type of cancer turned to be one of the rarest. Luckily, thanks to these devoted parents, it was diagnosed just in time to take action.
The girl had to undergo a surgery that thankfully went pretty well.
She is currently staying at the hospital where she is expected to recover completely after the chemotherapy sessions she has to receive. Her family is sharing McKenna’s story because they want to raise awareness of this rare condition.
This brave little lady never lost her smile and is an example of how we should never give up fighting. Please pray for her!
Scott and Michelle’s happy marriage was like every marriage out there. They were happy and enjoying life, doing their jobs and spending some quality times together. However, life prepared a shocking surprise for both of them, and for their lovely kids.
One day, Scott’s life turned into nightmare. While attending her classes, Michelle got a call that turned her life upside down. The news she got was devastating.
While Scott was staying home with their kids, he suffered a terrible severe stroke. That was maybe the worst piece of news Michelle got in her whole life.
Upon calling her wife, Michelle immediately called 911. About the horrible day, she recalls:
”He called me and he was slurring his words. He said he had an intense headache and that something was wrong.”
She remembers that day very well. The pain and the stress she felt cannot be described with words. She adds:
”When emergency medical crews loaded Scott into the ambulance, his blood pressure spiked, causing fluid in the lungs.”
The stroke threatened Scott’s life. All vital signs were in a terrible condition. His breathing was heavy, the blood pressure was high and he started losing his consciousness. His wife described all of that:
”It was just very, very bad. Sometimes it’s hard to talk about it.”
As soon as they reached the hospital, the medical team started working on Scott. Taking into account his bad health situation, the doctors suggested Michelle to call close relatives because he may not survive until the morning.
Additional reasons for such deadly outcome are his other health problems. Since his birth Scott had aneurysm. This, combined with the stroke, made the doctors believe his chances for surviving are minimum.
Michelle was devastated. Losing her loved one and the father of her kids was too much to bear. However, knowing her husband well, she secretly hoped that everything will be all right. Scott was a fighter and she believed her husband will win this battle as well.
The doctors were not on the same line with Michelle. They suggested her to let him go and say goodbye. They did not expect him to wake up after the surgery, especially not with that low level of oxygen.
Michelle did not do that. Instead of saying the last goodbye, she kissed Scott. Then, a miracle happened. Scott’s still body twitched and he kissed her back. That drastically restored her hopes.
This new situation encouraged Michelle to fight for her husband. She was trying to convince the medical staff that her husband will survive and there was no need to unplug the life support.
The miracle indeed happened. During the next weeks Scott recovered to that degree that he did not need the life support anymore. Soon afterwards, he woke up, feeling pain and helpless. Michelle says:
“I covered his trach and he started talking to me. The first words were, ‘I love you,’ the second, ‘get me pain medication.’ Then, when the doctors asked him, ‘what are you playing?’ he said, ‘an instrument.’ The doctors started to believe in us.”
When the doctors learned about the new development and the unexpected conversation between them, they started believing in Scott’s fight. He spent 16 weeks in rehab.
Since Scott is a musician, music was the additional ‘medicament’ that helped him. The therapists and doctors very often used music and his instrument during the sessions. His strength and coordination was rapidly improving.
Scott returned home after the 16th week. Michelle described Scot’s mood as follows:
“He went in on a stretcher only moving his right hand, and he left walking with a walker with one hand in the air saying, ‘Rock on,’”
The caring wife provided support and help even home. Scott was never left alone and she gave everything she had just to normalise her husband again. Her spirit did not let her fail her husband, and apparently Scott never intended to leave his family.
For Scott and Michelle, the road to normal life was way too long. Nevertheless, she says with a smile:
“He’s playing guitar again. He plays the drums. It used to be he couldn’t swallow. He had a feeding tube for nine months, but now he can eat anything he wants.”
Luckily Michelle and Scott will continue living side by side, getting old and hopefully see their grandchildren running around their house.
People who are not accustomed to speaking or singing in public know how difficult it is. Amateur singers, actors and even motivational speakers are usually nervous and anxious just because of the close presence of the audience. Frankly speaking, that’s quite normal. Whenever you have to face up with a crowd you think about not doing a mistake or embarrassing yourself. However, Isaac Bryant does not quite agree with that.
The Division III District Wrestling Championship in Troy, Ohio for Isaac was suppose to be just a competition for showing of wrestling skills. The junior at Mechanicsburg High School has been preparing and training hard in order to be noticed on a sports level, but, he ended up being noticed by something totally different.
As he was trying to relax a bit before his match, the official announcer’s voice caught Isaac’s attention. The announcer informed the crowd that he was looking for a person who is willing to sing the National Anthem. Because the person that was supposed to sing the song hadn’t showed up, the organisers were left with no substitution for her. At that moment Isaac decided to save the day and step up. He sang the anthem and amazed the crowd.
Even after the competition closed, Isaac was still not aware of his actions and accomplishment. He explained:
“I was dazed and confused and I just thought they might just need somebody to do it.”
Luckily, everything was filmed by Mia Richardson’s camera. Isaac’s singing ended up on-line and in just a week his video was seen more than 550.000 times. Isaac’s performance during the competition was also noticed by the media. He and his parents even got interviewed by people like Steve Doocy or Brian Kilmeade. Isaac’s sensational action was even featured on Fox and Friends. This unexpected and spontaneous act gave him a fame-like status. However, according to Isaac, he would not be able to do it if it wasn’t for his friends support.
Fox and Friends, while they were interviewing Isaac, tried to find out more about Isaac’s singing skills. Regarding that, Isaac answered:
“I sing a lot. I guess that’s kind of a part of me. That’s what I do. I’m a little bit of a performer if you haven’t noticed.”
You can image his parents’ happiness. Their proud son was shown on national TV channels and featured in TV shows. As his mother says:
“ I was just so proud. We were used to the voice but I guess it was the heart he put into it. It brought tears to our eyes.”
His father does not hesitate saying good things about his son. He adds that he was not surprised seeing his son singing well since he knew his skills and abilities. Isaac has just confirmed that with his courage to sing for the nation.
That night marked Isaac as a brave young man. Reflecting his own feelings and views, Isaac thinks that TV shows and interviews are more stressful than the actual singing in a full arena. Hm, interesting. Do you think the same?
Take a look at Isaac’s performance below.
Hear the voice his family and friends are proud of with this video!
Acceptance of the others is what makes us humans. In the past, people who were a bit different were also treated as such. Nowadays, however, we are all more open-minded towards those who are not like us, and that’s a good thing having in mind this world belongs to everyone just equally.
If we are about to create harmony, we should embrace the differences, not being ashamed of them, as at the end of the day, it may turn out we are the ones who end up being ‘different’ and not fitting the society’s standards.
The following story is an eye-opener that will make you think about the ways you treat others.
A soldier was finally coming home after having fought in Korea. He called his parents from Los Angeles. “Mom and Dad, I’m coming home, but I’ve a favor to ask. I have a friend I’d like to bring home with me. “Sure,” they replied, “we’d love to meet him.”
“There’s something you should know,” the son continued, “he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mind and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live.”
“No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us.”
“Son,” said the father, “you don’t know what you’re asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can’t let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He’ll find a way to live on his own.”
Hearing these words coming from his parents, the son ended up the conversation and didn’t call them back in the following days. One day, the phone rang and the parents though it was their son again, but it was the Los Angeles Police that informed them their son was dead. They believed he committed a suicide by jumping off a building.
When these desperate mother and father went to L.A to identify their son’s body, they were left in complete shock when they realized the handicapped person was their son himself. He lost his limbs back in Korea.
We assume the parents must have felt devastated knowing they rejected their own son only because he was now different. The thing is that many of us are likely to act the same way these parents did. But I do hope this story will serve as a lesson that we should all be more open towards other people.
The oceans and the seas still remain mysterious places for researchers and people who love marine life. Deep sea hides creatures that look alien and in many cases creepy. We have rare opportunity to see what really happens in the seas and how the animals spend their days in their habitat.
Captian Dave Anderson gives us an opportunity to see how the aquatic animals enjoy their life. We are not going to see deep sea weirdly shaped animals, but very lovely and well-known mammals. Anderson uses his drone to show us the beauty of our seas.
Anderson uses his GoPro camera to film the sea from above. The footage begins in Dana Point in California and at the beginning it’s a normal sea view. Calm sea, small waves and few boats. However, very soon the camera captures a pod of dolphins. The dolphins slowly rise from the water and they peacefully move through the sea. The view is so adorable!
Dolphins are not the only animals captured on the camera. The GoPro camera is filming the waters around Maui, Hawaii. The footage the camera shot in this region is marvellous. Here, we can see a mama whale and her baby calf. Both of them are playing peacefully, while swimming side by side. The humpback whales’ social interaction is once again caught on camera. While the mother whale and the baby calf are having great time together, another whale is watching over nearby. What a sight!
Jimmy Fallon again blew our minds with his extremely amusing “The Tonight Show”. Just by watching him and his comical acts, the laughter is guaranteed. Adding to all of that another funny man, you get a mind blowing comedy show.
Who doesn’t laugh and enjoy with Jamie Foxx talented acts? I bet no one. This time the forces are joined, Jimmy’s prepared games and tasks and Jamie’s multi-talent abilities amused the crowed like never before. Once again we could see that Jamie is not only a great actor, but very good singer as well!
Jimmy’s famous ‘Wheel of Musical Impressions’ has never been more entertaining. He didn’t have to say twice to Jamie to step up and take the microphone in his hands. And man, he sings! Starting with Mick Jagger’s song, Jamie nailed all songs planned for the game. Loads of laughter, positive energy and jokes fill up the studio. For sure, Jimmy has to expend the list for the next time when Jamie is a guest in the show.
However, the real final spin is the later part of the Jamie’s performance. He impersonates a female. Nothing more humorous than that. Jamie made sure your smile is on your face. Both comedians did a great job! Their plan is working, we cannot stop watching and laughing at their extremely funny performances.
‘ThrowAwayForPancakes’ is the Reddit nickname of a guy who posted a very uncommon story on-line. His dinner at the restaurant turned out to be very eventful. While he was enjoying his meal, he overheard a conversation between a nicely mannered young woman and a complete douchebag of a guy, who by the way must have been on a date. Since the conversation was heading to the worst, ‘ThrowAwayForPancakes’ planned to step up and settle the things down. As soon as he got up from the chair, an older man stopped him and everything went in a completely different way.
Being a single unattached person means that you have to work and earn just to satisfy your own needs and luxuries. When you get married and when you have your own family, then the things change quite a bit.
You have to work very hard and earn enough money to satisfy everyone’s basic needs. However, we have witnessed cases where some people do not do that and they are actually misusing the system just like that they claim their bread and butter.
The US soldier Patrick Gibson, a father of two kids, witnessed a situation similar to that one. He got so frustrated that he had to share this event on his Facebook page.
One day, on the way home, Patrick stopped at the local Walmart. This normal and usual daily routine was supposed to be nothing special. After he got the basic products that he needed, such as few food items and diaper, he stood in line in order to pay. But, he saw something quite unexpected.
The couple that stood in front of Patrick looked like a normal married couple that earn quite a lot. This notion was triggered by the fact that the couple had two full carts, and two full carts nowadays cost a lot. This would have gone unnoticed if it wasn’t for the thing the couple paid with. Patrick got angry and took some photos of this couple’s carts.
Once Patrick got home, he could do only one thing – post on Facebook about his story. Patrick posted two pictures, one of his cart and one of the couple’s cart.
About his own cart he wrote:
“The picture you see on the left is the amount of groceries including diapers that I was able to afford this pay period for my family.”
About the other picture, he adds:
”The picture on the right is of the purchase in front of me in line. If you can’t tell in the picture there are 2 full buggies of groceries including such items like steak and some other very nice choices of food.”
However, according to Patrick, the problem is not in the carts, but something else is very problematic. Patrick paid for his little amount in cash, money that he has earned by working long hours in the Army. On the other side, the couple paid all those groceries with food stamps. However, that was not the only thing.
The couple also used EBT card in order to pay for the $800 bill. The impression you would normally get is that both of them are physically or mentally disabled so they use some state’s benefits. But, that was not the case. They were totally fine and physically fit.
The last drop that spilled the cup is the couple’s private vehicle. Believe it or not, the EBT card and food stamps owners drove brand new Hyundai Genesis. The car costs up to $20.000. That fact finally frustrated Patrick. Patrick also adds:
“I just thought I would take the time to tell this person/family that you are very welcome from all of us hard working/struggling to buy food Americans that have to foot the bill for your fancy steak feast while I skip breakfast and lunch every day (so) that way my wife and children have food to eat every day because $50-$75 dollars doesn’t go very far. So, you enjoy your $800 free grocery purchase.”
Patrick’s post reached many people out there. Large number of the people who saw the post agreed with Patrick and expressed their support. One of them wrote:
“I agree with you Patrick 100%. There are a lot that really need it, but as you said, there are a lot that abuse the system and a lot like yourself that need them and can’t get them, especially you and your family.”
However, not everyone agreed with Patrick. Many stated that he is judging people without even knowing them for real. One comment stated:
“Do you really know their backstory? Don’t be quick to judge someone because you’re angry. How do you know if that person works and their spouse doesn’t work because of problems? That all the money in their pocket is to pay their bills that the new car was a gift? How do you know that’s not the case?”
To this, Patrick responded like this:
“Let’s just call it what it is. We can all sit around and believe in sunshine and rainbows saying the old don’t judge a book by its cover crap, but the reality of it is that so so so many people are abusing the system that was put in place for struggling families. If we can’t even acknowledge that there is a problem, then how can it ever be corrected. And a brand new car as a gift? Really? If they have friends or family with money like that, then its a shame they still need $800 a month in food stamps.”
What do you think? Do you agree with Patrick? Would you also be frustrated and angry like Patrick? How would you react?
As societies are slowly but surely changing concerning the way they see and treat those who are a bit different, the question of whether Down Syndrome is still a social stigma rises. According to new parents of children with Down Syndrome, things do look brighter regarding the full acceptance of these young individuals as valuable members of the community.
Sadly, there are still those moms and dads who are said “I am sorry” by random people when they hear of their special kids. But why should they be sorry? Children with Down Syndrome are likely to enjoy all the benefits other people do.
The stares are still present, but as time goes by we witness greater inclusion and acceptance for people with Down’s, and that’s something that let’s a few rays of hope shine through the life’s dark clouds and assures us that things can be done the right way.
Jessica Egan and her husband were over the moon with the news of becoming parents. However, 11 weeks into the pregnancy, doctors informed them the girl had Down Syndrome.
“When we decided to have a baby, of course, we hoped that it would happen right away,” Jessica said.
“When it didn’t, we found that it was easier to bear because there are so many resources available for people who are struggling to get pregnant. I joined a local infertility support group and made a lot of great friendships with other ladies going through the same thing. When our first round of IVF failed it was disappointing, but we decided not to get discouraged and to keep trying. It was from our second attempt at IVF that our daughter was born.”
“We found out when I was 11 weeks pregnant that our unborn baby had been diagnosed with Down syndrome. At first, we were devastated but it was because we didn’t have any experience with Down syndrome and it was something we were not expecting at all. We grieved very deeply for about three days and then my husband and I decided that we wanted to educate ourselves so that we could be happy and look forward to the birth of our baby.”
What they needed to do was learn about this condition as much as possible so they could prepare for becoming the most supportive parents to the sweet little lady they were about to welcome in their life.
Jessica explained: “Education was the biggest factor in changing our feelings about Down syndrome. We realized that we simply didn’t understand this diagnosis because we didn’t know anyone with Down syndrome. It is natural to fear things that we don’t know or understand, so we reached out to people in our community that had children with Down syndrome and we made some great connections.”
“We began to see that this truly was nothing to be afraid of and that instead, we were lucky for being chosen to have such a special and unique daughter.”
Two months after the loveliest bundle of joy came to this world, Jessica felt like she should share her happiness and her feelings with her family and friends. Her Facebook post, however, took the Internet by storm and was seen by a great number of people.
“When I placed my order I said, ‘Regular amount of chromosomes, please!’ That’s what everyone else got and what I wanted too. They called me shortly after my order was in production and said ‘Great news, we went ahead and upgraded you to extra chromosomes for free! You’ll receive the extra chromosomes with your completed order in 9 months.’ What?! I was mad!
“All the other orders I had seen displayed via perfect Instagram posts did NOT have extra chromosomes. Well, I decided that receiving my order with extra chromosomes was better than not receiving an order at all, so I settled in to wait for this surprise upgrade to arrive. I have now had my order for two months and am writing this review to let others know the upgrade to extra chromosomes is amazing!! If offered, definitely take it! I posted some photos below of the finished product and you can see the extra chromosome is so worth it – it is extra cute, extra special, and extra-ordinary! So much extra joy. Would purchase again for sure.”
Everyone was praising these new parents for their vibrant spirit and how they accepted that extra chromosome as a gift, because not everyone gets to receive it.
“The feedback has been so full of positivity, love, and acceptance that it is overwhelming. I have heard from multiple people who also recently have had a baby with Down Syndrome but are still coming to terms with it and have been in a very dark place. Hearing that my post touched them so completely and helped heal them is humbling, and truly something I will honor for the rest of my life.”
She continued: “When you receive a diagnosis of Down syndrome it is scary simply because it is not what you expected. It is important to let yourself grieve and then realize that this is not bad, it is just different. But all children are different, and there are no guarantees that any child you have won’t suffer from some sort of illness or differences.”
“Children with Down syndrome are more like other children than they are different, and it is important not to spend too much time grieving because in the end, you will be so in love with your child!”
The post:
I hope this mom’s post will make more people open-minded when it comes to even greater Down Syndrome acceptance. We should all know how they are all unique individuals with their own features, their own likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. Down Syndrome is just a small part of their individuality.
No one can predict with whom you will fall in love with. In some cases it is the right person, and sometimes we do fall in love with a person with whom we cannot have a long stable relationship. Life surprises us all. Following your passion, lust and romance-driven feelings may bring you enormous happiness, but will it last longer?
The following personal account may give you some insight in these ‘forbidden love affairs’.
“Mike” was a devoted family man with two kids who loved his wife.
The email came from out of the blue a few months ago. It was from the wife of a man I had been secretly involved with. “How long did your affair with my husband last?” she demanded to know. “I’d like the date range of the years, please.”
I always wondered what she knew, if anything. Why was she confronting me now? I hadn’t communicated with her husband — I’ll call him Mike — in more than five years. We live on separate coasts now.
“The least you can do is respond truthfully, given what you’ve done,” she wrote. Was she accusing me of turning her husband gay? Of breaking up their marriage?
That fiery email may have been written in haste. Still, it was years in the making. I now know that deception has a long life span and often returns to claim its guilt.
I never told anyone about my affair with her husband. Too much at stake. Not so much for me ― I was unattached, and my sexual orientation wasn’t a secret. Mike, on the other hand, was a devoted family man with two kids who I know loved his wife.
He was my next-door neighbor, and I did not seduce him, even though I was 20 years older than he was. I’m certain I was the first man he’d been intimate with, while I had, as they say, been around. Our affair wasn’t a sudden, passion-filled trip to the moon on gossamer wings. It was more like a long train ride. It started slowly and lasted some five years.
Mike wasn’t the only married man I’d been involved with. But the others were one-nighters or friends with benefits ― eager conspirators.
Mike was another story.
We were opposites in many ways: I was a magazine editor. He was a master carpenter. I liked the arts. He liked sports. I splurged on nice clothes and twice-monthly haircuts. He dressed in whatever was handy, usually cut-offs, T-shirts, Birkenstocks and a tool belt.
One night when his wife and kids were away, we went to see a movie about a giant meteor heading for Earth. He told me that he was 16 before he ever saw a movie. He had seen it on the sly because his parents were evangelicals and movies, TV, and pop music were all considered tools of the devil.
What we shared was a passion for the past. One night Mike took me to a fire station that was about to be demolished. We broke in. He wanted me to see what was going to disappear: a cast-iron farmer’s sink, a pulley for hauling ice to the second-floor window. He explained to me the building’s ingenious post and beam construction.
I once showed him a wood inlaid jewelry box that depicted a family playing cards around a kitchen table. My great-grandmother brought it from Germany. “It’s beautiful,” he told me, gently running his fingers over the different woods. “Don’t ever give it away.”
My Victorian flat always needed repair. I had no idea how to install ceiling fans or fix doorbells. Mike did. He once spent a week patiently refinishing the beadboard in my kitchen. He made the century-old wood glisten like new using only sandpaper and baby oil.
We were friends for several years before becoming lovers.
He was my next-door neighbor, and I did not seduce him, even though I was 20 years older than he was. … Our affair wasn’t a sudden, passion-filled trip to the moon on gossamer wings. It was more like a long train ride. It started slowly and lasted some five years.
With his wavy black hair, cobalt eyes and droopy eyelashes, Mike had no idea how sexy he was, or could be. Yet his lack of vanity only enhanced his allure. I once stuffed him into my tuxedo when his wife insisted he accompany her to her workplace’s black-tie event. Put a martini in his hand and he could have been James Bond.
Mike would drop by my place after his wife and kids were in bed. We would watch baseball games, make popcorn. Sometimes we’d share a joint, which deepened our enjoyment of “Antiques Roadshow.”
I agreed to let Mike set up his saws and tools in my attic after he told me he couldn’t afford to rent a workshop. That meant seeing him at all hours.
There were signs, some blatant, that he was struggling with his sexuality. Like the time he told me he had gone on a porn site to see how gay men “do it.” He confided to me that when he was in college, he had been attracted to another male student but didn’t act on it.
It usually took a few beers for him to start opening up.
A mutual hug in my attic one afternoon changed everything.
Even after our relationship became physical, it took months for Mike to feel comfortable kissing. I’ve known couples, gay and straight, who were in open relationships. Many made a pact that they could mess around with others as long as they didn’t kiss. Sex can be a purely tactile, pleasurable experience. But kissing is up close and personal.
My nights were as free as his. I was in my 50s and I had outgrown discos and late-night bars. There was no Grindr back then. Craigslist was in its infancy. I could no longer bear meeting faceless strangers from newspaper ads.
I didn’t know Mike’s wife well, despite our being neighbors. She wasn’t the social type. Books, cats and gardening were her pleasures.
“What if she finds out about us?” I asked Mike.
I’ve been cheated on in several relationships, so I know how it feels.
“I wouldn’t worry about it. She’s not a confrontational person,” he said. “The other night, she told me she was tired and suggested I go hang out with my butt buddy.”
“What did she mean by that?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” he replied.
I was, or so I thought. I figured that on some level, she was OK with this good-neighbor policy. That helped ease my conscience.
Besides, I wasn’t out to steal her husband, even though same-sex marriage did become legal in our state in 2004.
I wasn’t being completely honest when I said I never told anyone about Mike and me. My downstairs neighbor, who I had become close friends with over the years, figured it out. She could hear Mike’s footsteps coming and going on the stairwell, the squeak of bedsprings. “Mike’s a good person,” she told me. “You’re helping him become his true self. You should feel no guilt.”
I’ve never had children or wanted them. Mike’s, however, were a joy to be with. I worked from home, so it was easy for me to babysit them on school breaks and summer vacations. I’d take them to their swim lessons. We’d go bowling, miniature golfing. They introduced me to “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
Mike was always struggling to make ends meet. Yet not having money didn’t matter when it came to his boys. He gave them something dollars can’t buy: his time and attention. He once spent a day with them riding the subway lines. He got them memberships to a science museum. He taught them to Rollerblade and play hockey. I would go with them on weekend hikes. I would bring my dog and lunch. His wife never wanted to go along.
I lent Mike and his wife a down payment to buy a house. It felt good to do something positive for his family. His wife worked out a payment plan, which she stuck to. Mike converted the basement of his new digs to a workshop. Despite living in a different neighborhood, he still came by.
My downstairs neighbor figured it out. She could hear Mike’s footsteps coming and going on the stairwell, the squeak of bedsprings. ‘Mike’s a good person,’ she told me. ‘You’re helping him become his true self. You should feel no guilt.’
I can’t give a precise date when it all came crashing down. All I know is there were no more late-night visits, trips to Home Depot or those delicious foot rubs that he voluntarily gave. Mike simply disappeared without a goodbye. My phone calls went unanswered. He blocked me on Facebook. We never argued, so it wasn’t as if he stormed off in a huff.
Desperate for an answer, I bravely — and foolishly — called his wife. “What’s going on with Mike?” I asked.
“I have no idea,” she said. “He never mentions you.”
Our train ride had come to its final station.
I had to take an honest look at myself. What I needed was a real boyfriend, one who I could go to the theater with. Or to restaurants. One who wouldn’t leave me waiting for him to come by on a Saturday night, only not to show up. One who I could tell my friends and co-workers about.
One who was available.
Then one afternoon, four years later, I saw Mike. I was taking my dog for a walk, cutting through a baseball field that abuts a wooded area. He was lobbing softballs over home plate to his boys. Seeing me, he trotted over to where I was. He took off his Red Sox cap. “I’m getting a little gray,” he said. I said nothing.
“I’m sorry,” he said, shaking my hand. “Really sorry.”
“C’mon, dad,” his boys yelled, and with that, Mike jogged back to the pitcher’s mound.
I finally had my explanation. His boys were becoming young men, old enough to ask questions and figure things out.
I should have foreseen this scenario. During the 1990s I lived in the Deep South. The steam room and sauna at my local Y served as a kind of after-work social club for men who were gay ― and for those who had wives and kids.
I would sometimes ask these men why they got married. “I wanted a family. I wanted children” was the usual reply. I asked one devoted father why he stayed in the South when he could have moved to a blue state. “I couldn’t live more than a few miles from my mama and daddy,” he said.
I knew a gay impresario when I lived in San Francisco in the 1980s. One night he threw a dinner party for his gay circle of friends at Trader Vic’s. Over tropical cocktails, he announced that he had just gotten engaged to a divorcée with two girls. “I’m going to have a family now, “ he told the table. “I can no longer see any of you again.”
I would sometimes ask these men why they got married. ‘I wanted a family. I wanted children’ was the usual reply.
I didn’t respond to Mike’s wife’s angry email. I figured that was Mike’s job, since he’s the one who came out to her and told her about us. He knew the dates of our affair as well as I did.
But I did need to know what was up. So I nervously texted him. We hadn’t communicated since that day on the baseball field.
“We’re going through a nasty divorce,” Mike texted back. “I decided to finally be honest with myself. I needed to be who I am. I told her about us. She blames you for everything. She wanted to know how many men I’d been with. I said there was only you, and that’s the truth.”
“Every time I pass by your place, I think of you,” he wrote. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too,” I replied.
“Do your boys know?” I asked. They would be young men now.
“I told them. They were fine with it.”
“You were a great father to them,” I told him.
“Now you’ve got me all teared up,” he replied.
Mike volunteered that he was in therapy. He said he had joined a bisexual men’s support group. He met a man there, he said, whom he found attractive and who had asked him out.
I felt a twinge of sadness. I didn’t tell Mike that. Instead, I wished him all the best in his new life, and I meant it.
I had a new life too. I had sold my place and moved to the California desert, where I knew no one. A few weeks after buying a small condo, I went to a paint store to check out color samples. A younger salesman waited on me. He looked to be in his early 40s.
I could see there was a gold band on his ring finger.
He intercepted me in the parking lot as I was heading toward my car. He handed me a piece of yellow paper that he had hastily scribbled his cellphone number on. “If you ever need anything, just call,” he said. “And I mean anything.”
“You’re married,” I said. He shrugged his shoulders.
Nights can be lonely. His invitation was tempting.
I took the piece of paper out of my pocket, wadded it up and deposited it in the nearest trash bin.
If you are a fan of Garth Brooks, you expect nothing less than a perfect concert night. He is known for the blend of rock and roll elements with the country music. This mix of genres amuses us for years and he never fails doing so.
His concert in Lafayette, Louisiana was very eventful and a pleasant happening to be part of. His repertoire of songs thrilled the crowd and the emotions that he sent was just unbelievable. His well-known interaction with the audience during his performance was once again a key element of his concert’s success. People just adore such kind of attention given to them by their music idols.
However, Garth’s emotions and his near to perfection performance were not the only surprises he prepared for the crowd. While singing one of his songs, he noticed a big sign written in bold on a cardboard. His curiosity made him stop the song. The owner of the sign “Elvis was my last concert” was an old lady. She was delighted to be noticed.
Miss Laura’s ordinary night turned out to be a night to remember. She and her daughter and granddaughter decided to go to the concert, a gift for her 89th birthday. Nevertheless, her birthday surprises did not stop with them coming to the concert. Garth made sure she got additional one.
Intrigued by the sign, Garth approached the lady and found out that she indeed was 89 years old. Upon learning this, she told the story behind the sign itself. It turned out to be true. Miss Laura’s last concert was indeed Elvis’. She saw the music legend in person and she remembers that night very well. Garth was about to make this concert equally memorable for Miss Laura.
Garth started to serenade her. His voice started singing ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’ and instantly evokes wonderful emotions on Miss Laura’s face. The birthday present she got from Garth is one of a kind and rarity that few people had pleasure to feel it. The crowd was enjoying this touching moment.
Play the video and feel the emotions. Such a great moment.
We are constantly being surprised by kids and their abilities to do special things. With their confidence, straightforward thinking and innocent behaviour, they just steal our hearts. The cute little musicians, artists, sportsmen, actors and actresses never stop amazing us. Kids tend to try everything, to find their right hobby and just the perfect means for expressing their views of the world. Such an expression, very often, is so adorable and cute.
Nowadays, kids surprise us not only with their talents and performances, but also with their creativity of implementing technology while ‘doing their things’. Many kids out there take the camera and film their singing or acting, while others grab the microphone and the computer and record their own songs. The imagination of the kids is enormous, but their creativity is just marvellous.
Claire Crosby, a young talented girl, possess all of these. She’s extremely talented musician with charming voice and huge courage. Not all kids, even those that sing like angels, grab the camera, record themselves and show the others what they actually do. Claire did not think twice, actually, she was eager to record the show that she prepared for all us.
The happy introduction and the calm voice say all. Claire is more than prepared to present us what she can do with her ukulele and her voice. This pretty little girl with two ponytails and in a normal setting that does not promise anything, turns into a real talented performer. Her brave choice of Elvis’ ‘Can’t Hel Falling in Love’ is stunning. You would not even considering this kind of combination on that age. Simply awesome!
Without a bad tune, without a single forgotten word or a beat, Claire proves that she is a possible future music star. She is not just a kid that tries to be noticed on-line, but she is a kid that got all of our attention.
Take a look at the great performance, listen to the excellent ukulele and enjoy Claire’s marvellous voice. Well done Claire!
Starting up a new business can be challenging. Looking at your business plan and taking all those things such as the perfect location and your expertise into consideration, it looks like a picture perfect idea, but then things don’t really turn out as expected and you are left wondering what your next step should be.
Billy By’s dad opened a doughnut shop in Missouri City and couldn’t wait for people to try all those delicious products he made. But his excitement died down when only a few customers showed up at the grand opening that took place on Sunday.
Looking at his dad’s disappointment, Billy twitted how his father was “sad” because of the lack of people and added a few photos of the empty place. And then boom! His tweet went viral and everyone learned of the new shop in town.
Amazingly, the Texas community stepped in and all those mouth-watering doughnuts and pastry were sold in no time. And what’s most, everyone loved them and promised to come back.
The tweet was retweeted more than 264,000 times and liked double that number. Around 60,000 people started following Billy Donuts Instagram page too.
Some celebrities got involved in the mission of making this owner happy. Actor James Woods asked his 2 million followers to make Billy’s dad dream come true writing: “Come on, everybody. Let’s do this.”
All this resulted in many satisfied customers, and now the owner says he’s filling a bunch of orders. The photo KPRC took on Sunday shows long queue at the business.
The photo Billy posted this time shows the proud father and a son posing behind the counter with huge smiles on their faces.
“Just wanted to update y’all! We completely sold out of donuts and kolaches! You are all amazing. I can’t thank everyone enough for coming out and supporting local businesses. This means too much to my family,” By wrote.
Just wanted to update yall! We completely sold out of donuts and kolaches! You are all amazing. I can’t thank everyone enough for coming out and supporting local businesses. This means so much to my family ❤️ pic.twitter.com/o3GQcKvVnG
We are glad this business story turned into a successful one and we hope they’ll have their hands full all year round. It’s just amazing what the social networking sites can do.
Another story, another fighter. The incredible and very intense life of Elise Roth Tedeschi is woven with pain, fight and positive thinking. She managed to beat the odds and still fight for her life.
The peaceful harmony of her life was destroyed the moment she found out she has pancreatic cancer. In 2012 the doctors informed her that her disease evolved into stage four, leaving her little chance of survival. When most people learn that they have several months to live they usually prepare for the worst, but Elise was different.
The terrible news did not depress Elise. She decided to fight. She started a long and difficult battle with the disease and her willingness to keep on going and enjoy the life paid off. Besides the strong will and her family and friends, Elise took targeted genetic treatment. All these thing combined resulted with Elise being still in great condition and among the people she loves.
About the beginnings of the disease Elise says:
“I felt that, no matter what, I was gonna beat it. I didn’t care what the doctors said.”
Furthermore, Elise explains the genetic code that helps her fight the cancer. The doctors explained her that the genes that caused the cancer to affect her organ also help her fight the disease. This made her believe that they are somehow more effective than the chemotherapy that she has to go through.
Since she was born fighter, she still does not give up. She is happy that she is able to live through every new day. Elise also adds that even in the worst periods since her disease affected her pancreas, she was still feeling joyful and happy. That even amazed her own family members.
What’s even more amazing, her fight with her own health problems is not the only battle she is involved in. She joined the PCAN, or the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
Elise and the other volunteers, survivors of the pancreatic cancer, join the forces in defeating the deadly disease. Their actions support, motivate and help thousands of cancer patients. In addition with their motivational approach they try to level up people’s awareness about the pancreatic cancer. Elise explains:
“Our stories are so important. They give hope.”
Elise’s unconditional support is evident through her work as PCAN activist. She goes public and provides support and tries to help other patients with their fight against this illness. Just recently, Alex Trebek, the host of ‘Jeopardy’, has publicly announced that he is suffering from the same disease as Elise.
In his public announcement, Alex said:
“Under the terms of my contract, I have to host ‘Jeopardy’ for 3 more years. So, help me! Keep the faith. And we’ll win.”
Upon seeing this, Elise contacted Alex via mail sent to The Daily Mail. Among the other things, she expressed her unconditional support, she shared her experience and encouraged Alex not to give up. She reminded him that it is worth fighting the battle.
Elise concludes:
“You may wonder how I stayed positive. My answer was always the same: ‘I didn’t choose to get cancer and I didn’t choose to go through this, but I do get to choose my attitude. So I choose to be happy and live my life!’”
Elise’s motivational speech is so powerful. Her positive energy and hopes are just wonderful. What a great person with wonderful spirit. We hope there are many other people just like Elise – people with positive attitude towards the life.
When two people decide to call it quits, things between them may get ugly, especially if there is a child involved. Fighting for the custody of the kids, feeling resentment towards one another, and even saying things you may later regret saying, splitting up is never easy.
And if the exes aren’t really on good terms, just imagine what happens when a new partner enters the life of one of them. Many times, the relationship between one and their ex’s partner are superficial, unnatural, and full of bitterness. It might be because of the fact that now another person is involved in the process of bringing up their child.
The kids, however, may simply find their parent’s new relationship strange and refuse to bond with their mom’s or dad’s new partner, but it may also happen for them to accept them. I personally believe this depends on how the other parent feels about their ex’s new person.
Audrey Loving and Corey Henry first met whey they were just 18. The two loved each other so much and had a daughter. But as time passed by, they struggled keeping their long-distance relationship on track and eventually broke up. Audrey got full custody of their daughter Riley, but her now ex partner is still part of the girl’s life.
After spending some time being single, Henry got involved into an emotional relationship with another woman. And if you think this is where the real trouble started, you can’t be more wrong. After learning how her ex moved on and met someone, Audrey was determined to teach her daughter to love this new person who was now part of their life.
Audrey was brought up in such a family herself and knows how hard it was for her to keep balance between what she had with her mom and her step-mom and didn’t want her daughter to experience the same thing.
It turned out sweet Riley listened to her mom and gave her dad’s girlfriend a chance and now the two are very close. Audrey is proud of her daughter and at the same time she is grateful this woman loves her little kid so much.
This is the thank you letter Audrey shared on her Facebook page:
“This is my daughter’s father’s girlfriend. The sweetest thing ever! I’m super thankful for her because when she visits her dad she feeds her, takes care of her, buys her gifts, and basically takes care of her like her own. Why do all these moms act so spiteful and jealous towards the other women? NOONE said it was easy trying to be a mother to a kid you didn’t have. So when there is someone trying, don’t push them away! Because they DON’T need the drama they WILL leave and then you’re stuck with someone who is the evil step mom. Yes they exist! I see them everywhere! A kid can have two moms because in my eyes the more people that love her I’m happy! I would never make her feel like an outsider; I’m extremely thankful for this girl.
Ladies, grow up and focus on being a good mom. Love more hate less!”
People who found themselves in a similar situation believe Audrey is a great parent who’d do anything to see her child happy. We hope this could serve as an example for others struggling to come to terms with the relationship between their kids and their ex’s new partners.
For too long the modelling agencies have been extremely selective when their models are concerned. The market was looking for models, men and women, that have the perfect shape. Young body, fit and zero fat, with sharp lines and body posture that is more than perfect. The marketing managers were not even considering hiring models that do not meet all of those rigid criteria. People’s view of these ideas for ‘perfect body’ were mixed, some appreciated it, but many others considered that kind of imagery as unrealistic and ‘photoshopped’.
Nevertheless, today we can see something is changing. The drastic changes that are quite commonly seen these days were not even imagined back then. The inclusion of plus size models and models with physical or mental disabilities is not a taboo any more. People have been fed up with seeing models that have ‘the perfect bodies’ and therefore these new models and changes are more than welcome.
Oldushka, a model agency from Russia founded in 2016, may be the best example in the process of refreshing the fashion industry. Led by the notion of establishing model agency different from the already existing – they have decided to offer modelling services with mature models. These professional models tend to show the beauty of life and human nature as it is and they are dedicated to prove that older models have valuable qualities as well. The founder of the agency, Ivan Gavar, for Vogue says:
“Beauty—it’s a quality that becomes more valued with years. I met some very interesting faces, and I wanted to do a separate project with them. A modeling agency became that sort of project.”
In addition to all of these, these models and the agency itself hopes that this project will be an additional motivation for older people to improve the quality of their lives.
We present you some of the gorgeous models
Tatyana Lukjanova
Lyudmila Masaleva
Sergey Arctic
Marta Jersey
Sofia Alexandrova
Julia Boyarina
Viktor Afanasyevich
Larisa Mikhaltsova
Yuriy
Valentina Yasen
Lyudmila Marmur
Valentina Yasen
Olga Kondrasheva
Lyudmila
Victor Stolyarenko
Aren’t they great? All of these models remind us that people are beautiful no matter the age or race. The values we all have emit the positive energy that we need.
Just think about how our music idols from ‘80s and ‘90s, and even earlier, have been pursuing their music career. It must have been very difficult, a task that involves pushing a lot of boundaries and hoping that one day you will meet the right person who will help you conquer the stage.
Nowadays, with the technology and the TV shows, showing to the world what kind of skills you have is simpler. The TV shows like ‘American Idol’ give us a chance to express ourselves and to show to the audience what vocal potential we have. These shows produced even some very popular contemporary singers and performers. The opportunity ‘American Idol’ is offering is priceless.
‘American Idol’ has not only entertained the audience with excellent music and performances. It gave people chance to take a closer look at candidates’ lives. Very often the show briefly talks about candidate’s problems, successes and failures and even some personal things. This is the case with the talented candidate Shyy.
When Shyy stepped on the stage, in front of jury, it looked like every candidate that passed through the process. Her beautiful face, casual look and modest appearance did not make her different from the most of the candidates of the show. However, she had something quite unique that differentiated her from the rest – a wonderful voice and just the perfect singing skills. Her performance of Andra Day’s ‘Rise Up’ was so emotional and she gave a performance that will last in the judges’memories. We are sure Lionel Richie will remember Shyy for a very long time. She moved him with her singing to that degree that his tears could not be stopped.
However, that is not the only thing that Shyy stunned the audience with. She made everyone so emotional and teary with her personal life and the problems she is facing with. Just one year before the competition, Shyy started having problems with her vision. After several complaints at home, she and her mother decided to see the doctor. After careful analysis done by the medical team, Shyy got the worst piece of news in her life. She was diagnosed with brain tumor. As a result of the terrible illness, Shyy lost her vision completely. Nevertheless, she did not lose her hopes and dreams. She decided to show the world what kind of potential she has. She sure wrecked all of us who watched the girl in front of the TVs.
Shyy showed that she is a fighter. Bad health and physical disabilities do not stop her dreaming and fighting for the life she was craving for. Bravo Shyy!
We can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this incredible performance! Are you a fan of Shayy? Do you think she will go far on American Idol? Who is your favorite contestant from this season so far?
Leigh Anne, a resident of Nebraska, is a mother of three kids. Life has not been so kind to her and her children. The 42-year-old lady lost her husband just two months prior the harsh winder hit the country. Leigh’s husband lost the battle with the cancer, leaving Leigh widow. She lost the happiness of the marriage in a very short time.
Being a
single mother with three kids is not an easy thing. It’s very difficult and
there are lots of responsibilities and duties. The snowstorms and the freezing
winter made this family’s life even more difficult. However, there was one
thing that put smile on Leigh’s face.
One morning,
as the duties call, Leigh needed the car to drive off and finish what she had
to finish. However, she noticed that the there was a need of putting some air
in tires. With all of that snow, blocked pathway, she got frustrated. The
blocked cap of the tire just added some fuel to her frustration.
Luckily,
she called Brian, delivery man from FedEx. He was usually delivering packages in
the neighbourhood and therefore Leigh recognized him and called him for help.
Brian did not hesitate helping her. After a short conversation, Brian learnt
about Leigh’s tragedy.
Brian was
touched and felt sorry for Leigh. Therefore, he felt a need to do something
good to her and he actually did. Brian shovelled the snow in front of the
house. Brian’s help seems nothing to us, but for Leigh that’s a tremendous
help. Having in mind the fact that everything in the household was up to her, a
little help is more than welcome.
Brian did
not know that there is a camera on the front door. The camera caught this kind action
on tape. Well done Brian!
Having someone you love and sharing precious moments with the dearest ones cannot be replaced with any gold or money in the world. Very often our dearest organize special surprises that melt our hearth. Love and attention can be expressed in various different ways. Some do small things with great meaning, while others prepare big surprises with tremendous amount of significance attach to them.
Small or big, they are wonderful. Take a look at all of these selected 18 special moments of these amazing people.
“Every morning my father places bird food in the yard for my mom to wake up to this view.”
“Every time my fiancé hears a song at his work that he thinks I will like, he writes it down on a scrap of paper to give to me when he gets home.”
“This is my great grandma on her 98th birthday. My family brings her change all the time because she absolutely loves putting it in her piggy bank. Well, this year she got cash for her piggy bank — look at that face. She’s adorable.”
“My dad was a police officer who worked in the major crash unit. I was three years old in this photo taken on Christmas Day. He had spent the day at a fatal car crash where two children had died. I only found this out today.”
“I’m just glad they all get along.”
“As a newly single mother, I thought we could use a third member of the family. The first ride home, I knew she was the perfect addition.”
“That’s my favorite family photo yet since bringing our little Chewy home.”
“For Christmas, my wife got a recording from Christmas 1973, the last year her grandmother was alive before breast cancer took her. My wife was not born until 1976. This is the first time she has ever heard her grandmother’s voice.”
“One of my six-month-old twin girls learned how to wave… Now it’s all she does.”
“My son was excited to find Daddy in his new Lego kit.”
She said to her mommy, “Thank you for adopting these kitties! They are the best!”
“Here’s my wife thinking she is surprising me, scraping snow off my car, after a twelve-hour night shift at the hospital. I’m a lucky fella.”
“My grandmother recently passed away, and my mother found this card in her house. I apparently gave her ten cents on her birthday when I was two, and she taped it to a card and kept it her whole life.”
“My grandpa passed away a few months ago. I visited his house today for the first time since and his wife has their wedding outfits hanging like this in their house. That’s true love.”
His baby has to wear a head-shaping helmet, so he has the whole family wearing helmets now.
“My Grandpa and his old friend Wynton braving the cold.”
“My dad and I recreated a tender moment 34 years later.”ting a 34-year-old moment. Father-son relationship.
“My mother baked me cakes for 44 years on my birthdays. Two months ago she passed away, so my father did his best and made this.”
David Arrick, Nate and Heidi at Nate’s karate class exposition in New York City in 2017.
David Arrick, a former New York attorney and a baker, learned his father was a gay when he was just 11. After a couple of years, he also came out of the closet. Now he was being gay but also wanted to have offspring one day. Would coming to terms with his sexuality prevent him from becoming a father one day? Certainly not. The first thing he learned from his role model, his Dad, was that being gay doesn’t mean being childless.
He is now sharing the story of how he and a straight woman are co-parents of their son. His writing was first published in the Huffington Post, and later shared throughout the social media, thus dividing people’s opinions of whether these types of relationships meet the ‘society’s standards.’
You can take a look at what David had to say in his essay below.
“When I was 11, I found out that my dad was gay. As shocking as this revelation was, I was relieved his sexuality was the reason my parents divorced and that my dad hadn’t left my mom to start another family that he loved more than ours. Still, I was confused. This was 1978, and there were no healthy representations of gay people in the media, and I had absolutely no idea what having a gay dad would mean for me.
Then, just when I was starting to accept my father’s sexuality, I began to question my own, and by the time I turned 16, I came out as gay too. Despite the emotional turbulence my dad and I had been through, I counted myself lucky. Not only did I have a role model in my own family, but thanks to my Dad, I had already learned something so many other gay people at my age hadn’t: Being gay didn’t have to equal being childless.
That message stuck with me throughout my life, and 25 years after I came out, when my friend Heidi, who I met at college, and I began discussing having a child together, I did not feel the same apprehension that plagues some other gay men. Heidi was essentially family to me, and we viewed having a child as a natural extension of our close friendship. We were both single, our families knew and liked each other, and we spent many holidays together. We laughed at the same things, had lots in common and both felt a burning desire to be parents. Comments like “If neither of us is married by …” or “Could we co-parent together?” had been peppered throughout our conversations for years, and when we seriously began to discuss it, we were hard pressed to think of a reason we shouldn’t do it. It just felt right.
By 2010, when we decided to put our plan into action, media representations of alternative parenting approaches and family types had come a long way. Miranda and Carrie had discussed their biological clocks on “Sex and the City” and revealed their “scary age,” or age at which they feared they would realize it was too late to have a baby. “Will & Grace” and “Modern Family” were opening closets and shining a bright light on modern gay life while offering new definitions of family. Even though there were still no visible gay-dad-straight-mom co-parenting role models for us to look to, there were so many more possibilities when it came to parenting, and Heidi and I felt determined to make our own version of a modern family a reality.
David and Nate in New York City’s Central Park in 2011.
Navigating uncharted waters, we would be forging ahead guided solely by instinct, but what prospective parents aren’t essentially doing that in most respects, right? There were no books on Amazon titled “Gay Dad, Straight Mom” or “When Your Gay BFF Becomes Your Baby Daddy,” and there were so many issues ― from the legal to the financial ― to iron out, but those were really just details to us. I felt that as a “couple,” we were at a distinct advantage, and I remember thinking, “Aren’t Heidi and I in a better position than many other people who get pregnant without having had the benefit of 20 years of friendship?” In our hearts we knew we were doing the right thing, and in our minds we had already become Daddy and Mommy. So with our plan concealed from family and friends, we set out to try to conceive.
The idea of having sex made us chuckle, so we decided on at-home insemination without any kind of medical intervention. Since Heidi is a nurse, we had the benefit of her medical background, and we obtained the sterile cups, syringes and the other paraphernalia needed to increase our odds of conception. We agreed that if Heidi didn’t get pregnant within three months, we would each go to a fertility doctor to determine if we were individually able to have children. If my boys were the reason that Heidi couldn’t get pregnant, I would have been disappointed but graciously bowed out of the process, wishing her well in her journey toward becoming pregnant without me. I gave it my best shot (literally!), and we inseminated whenever Heidi was ovulating.
We made the insemination process as lighthearted as we could because, while we were attempting to do something that, if successful, would alter our lives forever, there was a comical aspect to the process of doing this ourselves. Here we were actually doing what so many other gay men and their straight college girl friends had promised each other they would do, and the faint sound of their words ― “If I’m not married by 40 …” “You’re my gay BFF. We should have a baby!” ― echoed in our heads throughout our journey.
Here we were actually doing what so many other gay men and their straight college girl friends had promised each other they would do.
On insemination night there was no mood lighting, no chardonnay and no Barry White playing. Instead we told each other funny stories after the process was complete. Heidi remained lying on her bed, hips raised at an angle to increase the odds of sperm meeting egg, with Led Zeppelin playing (Heidi sings in a Led Zeppelin cover band, after all), a “Seinfeld” rerun on TV and cartons of our favorite Chinese takeout within reach. After our third attempt, Heidi became pregnant. Apparently steamed shrimp dumplings plus “Stairway to Heaven” plus some Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer craziness equaled success ― at least for us.
Throughout the pregnancy, I remained awestruck that the sonogram images of the baby in Heidi’s belly were of my child, and I found myself marveling at the fact that the in-home insemination really worked. We worked out that Heidi would have primary custody during the week, I would have the baby at my place on the weekend, we would share finances and we would create a Family Day ― one day dedicated to our all being together ― that we would share each week.
In September 2010 our son, Nathaniel Chase, was born. We hadn’t attended one Lamaze class, since he arrived before they were scheduled to start, but Heidi was a confident champ, masterfully in tune with herself and what her body was naturally designed to do. I was steadfastly there by her side ― cheering her on and holding a knee when helpful but scurrying to move my daddy ass out of the way when the nurse screamed at me to do so. After Nate was born, we had an impromptu “circle of life” moment (cue “The Lion King”) to welcome him into the world and then had Chinese food delivered to the hospital room.
David with Nate and Heidi in the Bahamas in 2015.
What I came to realize after our son was born was that our situation as parents was more similar to than different from those who became parents in what we now think of as a more traditional way. Our co-parenting story garnered some media attention, and we appeared on NBC, CNN and other networks with the intention of showing that we were an alternative family proud of our journey. We thought (and still think) of ourselves as simply Mommy and Daddy ― there to guide, educate, love and raise our child, just as millions of other parents do every day. My sexuality and Heidi’s choice as a single woman to become a mom were not at all relevant to our abilities to parent, and while our identities may have changed how we got to where we are today, ultimately, they do not define us as parents.
Parenting as a gay man has been interesting, to say the least. In addition to experiencing many of the typical things that a first-time father experiences, I often find myself in situations other dads might not. In 2012, I was in a Starbucks when a well-intentioned grandmotherly type approached me and asked what so many others have asked me over the previous two years when they saw me alone with Nate: “Is it Mommy’s day off today? Are you babysitting?” Unfortunately for her, she chose the wrong guy and the wrong day to inquire and I told her what I’d been itching to tell the dozens of people who had asked me similar questions before. “I’m gay,” I responded. “How do you know that my child’s other parent is a woman, or that there even is a mommy?” The woman turned whiter than the foam on her latte.
I don’t entirely fault her for seeing a man with a baby through a more traditional lens, probably as a result of being the product of her older generation, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a rush of satisfaction from responding the way I did. And to be honest, I also take issue with the idea that if a man is alone with a baby, that automatically means he’s babysitting or temporarily stepping into mom’s shoes when she’s not around. Men parent too, and they aren’t babysitters to their own kids.
My sexuality and Heidi’s choice as a single woman to become a mom were not at all relevant to our abilities to parent, and … ultimately, they do not define us as parents.
Another time I was texting with a gay friend, and he told me that he was on his way to have a threesome. “Look what you’re missing out on by having to be home on a Saturday night with your toddler!” he wrote. “Will you ever be able to go out again?”
I was never interested in threesomes before my son was born, but that was beside the point. It wasn’t my job to convince him that I was happy or that there was nowhere else I would rather be on a Saturday night than at home reading “Goodnight Moon” to the most important little guy in my world.
My family is everything to me, and I’m thankful for what I’ve been able to experience because of the people I love. I’m especially grateful for Heidi and the way that becoming parents together morphed our relationship from best friends to something even richer and deeper and built on even more trust and respect than we had for each other before. We work hard to discipline Nate consistently in our respective homes, communicate daily and try our best to parent as a united front. Not everyone supports what we are doing, and we’ve faced many challenges (including some despicably misogynistic and homophobic comments), but we expected that to some degree, and we’ve learned to tune out that ugly noise and focus on what is most important ― raising Nate and being a positive example of what a loving, modern family looks like.”
Joey Mustain from Murfreesboro, Tennessee fascinated us with a great story about human kindness and goodwill. The story he posted on Facebook is so touching that brings hopes that there are still people who care about the others.
While Joey and his daughter were enjoying their dinner at Chick-fil-A, they witnessed a very uncommon, but totally pleasant situation. One moment a homeless man enters the diner. His dirty clothes and big backpack make him quite noticeable. In many cases such outfit results with him being thrown out of the diner, but not this time. Joey begins the post like this:
“I took Stella to Chick-fil-A today. It’s our normal daddy-daughter spot. It’s clean, so good, and the playground has a tractor beam on her the moment she sees it.
When we finished eating and she’d worked up her dessert appetite playing with the other kids, we went back to trade in her toy for ice cream. She wanted to sit at a table to eat the cone (something we usually do in the truck), and I’m so glad she did.
We took a booth right next to the spot where you wait for your drink to be ‘refreshed,’ and we had a front-row seat to this beautiful scene: a homeless traveler had walked in and asked if they had any extra food.
Mud was wet and caked on his well-traveled shoes.
His hair was matted, and his beard wasn’t a statement as much as it was a necessity and a sign that he doesn’t get to shave as often as most of us do.
People near him kept their distance, but that didn’t stop him from being kind. He spoke to people who reluctantly spoke back, and he smiled while he waited on a manager.”
However, the homeless man was about to be amazed.
Joey continues with the manager’s approach towards the man. He writes:
“All I could pick up on of the conversation was the manager saying that he’d love to give him a full, warm meal. Not just scraps or extras.
The only thing he required was that the man let him pray with him.
After the homeless man agreed, there was no waiting for things to die down, there was no scooting anyone to the side.
As busy as they were, the manager stopped then and there, laid his hand on the man, and proceeded to pray.
I heard love in that prayer. The homeless man wasn’t some untouchable stain on business. He was the reason that store opened its doors this morning (or any morning).
I asked Stella to watch and she stared. She asked what was happening and when I told her, she bowed her head, too.
I realized then and there that Chick-fil-A doesn’t simply do business for profits, they truly use business to minister….
I love teaching my daughter life lessons, and I also love being there to watch other Christians teach her life lessons. Thank you, Chick-fil-A, for taking care of the latter today.”
That surprised even the homeless man. He was touched even just by the fact that he was treated as a human being.
Just imagine the homeless man’s happiness. Being treated well and getting more than what he was hoping for made him feel wonderful. Very often homeless men feel the harsh reality of life and the bad side of human’s nature. They are being mistreated, abandoned and unnoticed. This homeless man received quite the opposite. That must gave him hopes for better future.
Thanks to Joey all of us can understand what really happened. The world will definitely be better if there are more caring people out there!
We never know what kind of surprises life prepares for us. Small coincidental and unexpected minor things usually shake the daily routines we are accustomed to. However, when something big unexpectedly happens, it largely impacts our feelings and emotions.
A similar situation happened to Chris Thorp from California. The normal day turned out to be a day to remember and brought some old memories back from his past. He was in disbelief of the event that happened.
Chris’ normal day turned out to be one of the strangest he had had in his life. He and his wife finished his their daily activities and headed back home. While they were heading home, they had to stop at the car repair shop in order to pick up his wife’s car. As they reached the shop, the woman got into the shop, but Chris didn’t. Just as he was about to enter the shop, he saw a man that got his attention.
The man’s face, his visible burn scars and his general physical appearance, made him think about the man. He instantly thought that he actually knows the man. The physical resemblance of this stranger standing opposite the car repair shop was just too big with the person he saw many years ago.
Embarrassed or not, Chris had decided – he was going to approach the man and satisfy his curiosity. He was determined to know if both of them knew each other. Chris started talking with the man.
The stranger answered positively to Chris’ question. He replied that his name is Christian. The name, together with the burn scars shocked Chris. It was really the man he thought he was.
Now adult, Christian was just a boy when he was involved in a terrible accident. The burning car did terrible damage to Christian’s skin. Luckily, that was the only damage that the young boy had suffered from. If Chris wasn’t at the site of the accident back then, and if he didn’t pull the boy out of the car, he might have lost his life. Chris’ bravery saved the little boy’s life.
All of that was revealed to Christian. Chris told him what he did and how he did not hesitate helping the vulnerable boy. As a result of his actions and undertakings, Chris got Gold Medal of Valor. Now, after many years seeing the boy that he rescued, he gifted his medal to Christian. This act marked their friendship and their meetings, in bad and in good times.
Regarding all of this, Chris says:
“He accepted it, and in a lot of ways I realized I had been merely it’s Keeper, until the time came for him to take possession. I still don’t know how I feel. Him and his Family are very much a part of me. A part of me has come home, and at the same moment a huge weight has been lifted from my heart. Well, Higher Power… If you are there. Thank You.”
Do you remember the saying that small things matter? All of us have heard it and quite often we ignore it believing that the big things actually change our lives. Vince Villano from Washington proves just the opposite. One small chat turned his life upside down.
This Washington based Army veteran sergeant was living his life happily with his wife and his two adolescent daughters. As every person out there, he had a daily routine that kept him busy. One of the things that he regularly did was drinking his favourite coffee in his favourite coffeehouse – Starbucks in Washington.
He was a regular visitor in DuPoint, but he actually never interacted with the employees, except ordering his coffee. He was known to the employees just by his face since for years he has been enjoying his coffee there.
One day, as Vince was ordering his coffee, the employee Nicole McNeil noticed something strange on Vince’s face. Her sharp eyes noted a sad and very worried expression. That motivated her to start a conversation with Vince.
Since Vince came in the coffeehouse just as Nicole’s shift was over, she sat next to him and she initiated the conversation. She recalls saying:
“He walked in and just looked particularly sad, and I was just like, ‘What’s, ya know, what’s goin’ on Vince?’”
In the beginning Vince did not want to talk about his feelings and the things that worried him so much. Instead, he started talking about his professional life. That amazed Nicole since her husband had the same profession as him. What a coincidence!
The new moment calmed Vince down and he confessed to her – he had a very serious kidney illness. He also added that in case he does not find a donor by himself, his life will be in danger and he might end up going on dialysis. Nicole felt the pain Vince was struggling with and understood the fight he had to do in order to save his life.
Vine’s confession about him being afraid that he will leave his two daughters without father touched the Starbucks’ employee. When Nicole came back home, she told everything to her husband Justin. Without a second thought, Justin said to Nicole that Vince can count on his kidney. What a great man!
Regarding her husband’s decision, she adds:
“He cares about people almost more than any anybody I’ve ever met. He’s the kindest person I’ve ever met. So, when he said, ‘I’ll give my kidney,’ it seemed like, ‘OK, sure. Yeah, you will.’”
When Vince and Justin met to discuss the possibility, the two men immediately became like brothers. They started talking about the procedure, the expectations, the life and the hope that Justin brought to Vince’s life. Very soon they started hanging out and bonded like true friends usually do.
After some time, the moment of truth finally came. Both of them went to see the doctor and talked about the donation surgery. Since a surgery of this type is quite complex, the doctor had to explain all details to both of them, especially the conditions for successful surgery. The most crucial elements for a successful organ transplant were the blood type and the genetic code. Incredibly, Justin and Vince had the same blood type and their genetics were a match. The great news resulted with scheduling the procedure itself.
The success of the surgery was expected. Both of them felt very well and Vince finally got the second chance. He was at ease that he will not leave his family. He also was very grateful to Justin’s kindness and good-doing. Their friendship now is even stronger and their families have a happy and joyful life.