Susan dutifully nodded her head, and Barbara said, "We've decided to have a baby!"
There was sort of a stunned silence as everyone was bursting with questions but no one wanted to be rude. If a straight couple had made such an announcement, everyone would know all the details about how a baby is obtained.
It's different with gay couples. Will one of you carry it? If so, will you know the birth father or will you go with someone annon? Is second parent adoption legal in your state? So many quetions.
Later that evening, the group of us were walking along the sidewalk and Barbara came up beside me and took my arm. "Brian, I have a favor to ask."
"Anything. What is it."
"I want you to be a positive male presence. You know, when we get the baby."
I hugged her and said, "I'll do my best. I promise. Now let's go give each other facials. I've got a new masque I've been dying to try. I hope it will do something for this damned combination skin. My nose is so very shiny anymore."
Last week, I saw Susan in the library. She pulled me aside and whispered, "I'm gonna be an unwed mother."
It seems that the adoption has come through. This coming week Susan and Barbara leave for Southeast Asia to see thier new bundle, Elijah. They get to bring him home after the first of the year. I can't imagine how excited they are.
Susan and Barbara are probably two of the most wonderful people I know. They are charming, stable, graceful, and so very much in love. As their family expands, I think about all that's ahead of them. Diapers, teething, runny noses, chicken pox, violin lessons, track meets, minivans, Elijah's first pair of leather pants, and his eventual selective service registration.
I think about the love, and the hope, and the courage, and the mystery of bringing up a kid, a son.
I think about the three of them, inexorably linked and full of promise.
And when you get right down to it, I think to myself, gosh. I wish they were adopting me. But since they're not, I'll stand aside and be jealous of baby Elijah, the luckiest baby in the world.
Posted at 9:47 a.m.
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