Lee Melahn
Stories (2)
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The Games Children Play
I didn’t grow up in an age of play-dates or in a zip code where themed birthday parties were the norm. On your birthday, if you lived in my neighborhood, you got together for cake and ice cream and general mayhem with some neighbor kids and a few cousins close to your own age. It was Wisconsin. The rules were different. Although it wasn’t too unusual for a classmate to invite a few friends, it was unheard of for a classmate to invite an entire class to their birthday party. So when I got the invitation to Billy’s party it was a big deal. It broke all the rules. First, he lived more than two blocks outside my neighborhood. Second, we weren’t BFF’s; we weren’t even F’s. And third we weren’t on the same pee-wee baseball team, we knew each other were playing different sports if you know what I mean. I was more likely to get an invitation to his little sister’s party than his. I had full confidence that this invitation was a result of some cock-eyed idea Billy’s pseudo-progressive mom had heard about from Dear Abby or her sister Ann Landers. It was definitely something she hadn’t fully thought through before she started the ball rolling.
By Lee Melahn4 years ago in Humans
A Valentine Story
The process began with a conversation. We wanted to adopt but didn’t have a roadmap. Twenty-five years ago gay adoption was more a dream than a reality. Closet doors had to be opened, a facilitator with even the barest experience in gay adoption needed to be found and a birthmother willing to trust we’d make good parents needed to appear. It was daunting. There was hurdle after hurdle to jump over. The process stretched into a long road with little light at the end of the tunnel. Heartache was a constant companion on our journey until one day after having almost given up luck stepped in.
By Lee Melahn5 years ago in Humans
