A little less than an hour ago USA Today published on-line their article (linked through this post's title above) regarding DI Dads with my story as a focal point and pictures of me and my kids. As much as I have thought I was ready to be public about this stuff I have to admit the reality of it is unnerving.
I still feel feel whatever fears I have are secondary to the goal of trying to break down the stigna of DI so that these kids will not ever be ashamed of their conception. More men have to own up to their decisions and be honest with their kids so the children can process the information earlier than later in their lives. In the end we owe it to the donor conceived individuals to help them make sense of their lives. DI is not a cure for infertility and I feel at least that it requires parents to take on added responsibility and accountability to their DI children to help them over whatever hurdles arise in dealing with this issue.
It should be an interesting few days. USA Today is not a truly big paper in NYC so whether people I know that are not aware of my family's conception story learn via this article should be amusing to see. Hopefully this level of "being public" does not cause any issues for my kids.
[Once the free link (through this post's title) to the USA Today article expires the complete text can be found posted on this blog's Annex.]
Julie -
ReplyDeleteThanks for the support. Do you think DH would be interested in joining the Yahoo DI dads group?
Believe me even at my job most folks don't know about the whole DI thing and I am betting most think it was additional IVFs that created my kids. Certain folks know and others that could not be helped due to proximity etc and it became easier to just explain along the way for those folks.
Having 9 copies of USA today on my desk has surprisely lead to little inquiry as to why..
- Eric
Eric, a great article and good on you for "coming out"
ReplyDeleteIt is so nice to put a face to a name.
All the best