“Does Maxwell know he’s adopted?”
It’s the question we get asked most. The short answer is yes. Max came to us through an open adoption. We’ve always been very honest with him about his birth-parents. The night we brought him home from the hospital — and every night since — we’ve told Max a very special bedtime story about how he came to us. The story has evolved as he’s gotten older. Now he knows it by heart and oftentimes finishes our sentences.
All adoptive parents have their own, unique “How You Came To Us” story. This is ours.
Once upon a time there lived two dinosaurs: David dinosaur and Alex dinosaur. These two dinosaurs were best friends and loved each other very much. They knew they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. But there was one thing missing. One thing they wanted more than anything else in the whole wide world. They wanted a baby dinosaur of their very own. A baby dinosaur they could raise and love forever and ever.
David and Alex dinosaur couldn’t have a baby dinosaur on their own because they needed a birth-mommy’s tummy for the baby dinosaur to grow inside. They searched all over the world to find a birth-mommy dinosaur who could help them fulfill their dreams about being daddy dinosaurs to a new baby dinosaur.
They searched far and wide to find someone to help them. Then one day, they came across a girl dinosaur and a boy dinosaur named Emma and Harris. Emma said, “I heard you wanted to be daddies.” We said, “Why, yes, we’d love to be daddies, but we need to find birth-parents to help us.” Emma said, “We think you two will be the best daddies ever, so we’ll have a baby dinosaur for you.”
This was the best news David and Alex dinosaur could have heard. All the wishing and hoping finally paid off — these lovely, brave, young dinosaurs were going to give them a baby dinosaur of their very own. David and Alex dinosaur were incredibly excited. They made a special room for the baby dinosaur in their house, bought lots of toys and clothes for the baby dinosaur and read lots of books about baby dinosaurs.
A couple of months later, David and Alex dinosaur got a phone call. It was birth-mommy Emma. She said, “Hurry, you guys have to come to the hospital because I’m ready to have your baby dinosaur.” David and Alex dinosaur rushed to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. They got there and asked the nurse dinosaur where Emma and Harris dinosaur’s room was. The nurse showed them to the room.
David and Alex dinosaur walked in and the doctor dinosaur said, “You’re just in time. Your baby dinosaur is about to be born.” Just then, the doctor dinosaur told Emma, the birth-mommy dinosaur, to push … and all the sudden … a beautiful, healthy baby boy dinosaur came out. The doctor wrapped him in a blanket and everyone was overjoyed with the adorable, tiny baby dinosaur.
The doctor asked what we were going to name the baby dinosaur. We looked at his face, then at his birth-parents, and said …
(We abruptly stop the story and we ask Max, “Who’s the baby dinosaur?” Max happily shouts, “Me, I’m the baby dinosaur! It’s the day baby Max was born!”)
This is the story we tell Max every night. We don’t use words like adoption because he’s too young to understand words like adoption. He knows how he came to us. He knows who his dads are. He knows who his birth-parents are. He knows how much he was wanted. And we’ll never let him forget it.
* Birth-parents’ names were changed to protect the brave.
To help find your path to fatherhood through gay adoption, surrogacy or foster care check out the GWK Academy.
