“At 17, I was kicked out of the house. It didn’t make sense to me that the color of someone’s skin was dangerous. I couldn’t carry around the weight of her hate. ‘Will you marry me?’ He was Muslim, I was not. His love for me went deeper than our beliefs.”
“It wasn’t possible to sign 3 parents on the birth certificate. At the moment, polygamy is illegal. We needed to step out of the shadows and do the coming out. Thanks to him, we stopped hiding.”
“A girl saw my hand and screamed like I was a monster. I cried every single day. My father held me after my surgeries when I was sick from anesthesia. He always showed he believed in me and I could do anything.”
“He doesn’t fit the mold, and that’s okay.”
“Please do not pity us, do not feel sorry for us, and do not think we live a life of sadness. He puts a smile on my face by just saying, ‘mommy.’”
“I wasn’t ready for the comments. The ‘OMG ANOTHER BOY?!’ comments. The ‘wow looks like you’re outnumbered’ comments. The ‘maybe next time’ comments.”
“At 5, I introduced myself as ‘Kaleb.’ When watching movies, I was supposed to envision myself like the princess, but I saw myself as Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn. ‘When I grow up, I’m going to cut my hair short and wear boy clothes.’ If I hadn’t chose the path I did, where would I be today?”
“At about 4 a.m. we were winding down. I needed to get back to my daughter. I wish I could say I ended it right then. We loaded up and headed back to the hotel. I should’ve gone home. I thought somehow I could fix him.”
“His eyes light up and he goes, ‘OOOOOH! Let me outside, Mommy. I know JUST THE THING!’ Now pause. This is where I tell you for the last three days, I’ve been complaining our porch smells horrible.”
“Our love was like a beast that devoured us both. We’d talk for hours about light and darkness and all of the mystery that was him and I. He accepted my past and my child as if he was his own.”
