Friday, February 23, 2007

PARENTS OF ALL KINDS

As we waited for the embryo donation contract, the recipients kept us up-dated about their lives and we began to share more with them. Jenny's car died and she bought a new one. This was an unwelcome expense as they budgeted for transferring the frozen embryos we were donating to them. At least they hadn't pursued egg donation: with one IVF cycle it would have cost more than their brand new sedan.

Around this time we invited friends and family to celebrate our daughter's first birthday. Jane, my wife Sonia's birthmother, spent six hours on the train to join us for the party. It was the first time we had seen her since our son was born two years earlier.

Since turning 19 and meeting Jane (at, co-incidentally, the same age Jane was when she had given birth to Sonia), Jane and Sonia had seen each other every few years.

Sonia was conceived in the swinging 1960's. At the time, free love was not as big in the South as it was elsewhere. Jane had a steady boyfriend, the first and only man she had ever been with. When he shipped off to fight in Viet Nam they took a break from their relationship.

While visiting a friend, Jane was swept off her feet by John, a handsome fellow student from a nearby college. Good girls don't carry birth control, but as inexperienced as she was, Jane may not have even realized she was rolling the dice.

Tommy was due back from Viet Nam and Jane's period was due, but neither had yet arrived. What happened next would shape many lives.