“Easter is about waiting. I know, that sounds absurd. This is a holiday about a Friday free from work and fake grass you’ll be finding around your house for the remainder of the year. It’s about Peeps and your people. A guy on a cross and a guy in a (rather scary) bunny suit. Jesus waited 3 days; it took me 33 years.”
‘I was the victim of a rape. I had a professor who propositioned me, a boyfriend who passed away, a stalker, and cancer—twice. I’m no stranger to a painful past.’
‘I see you as an attractive woman, not my daughter.’ Then he said, ‘You’re the kind of woman I always wanted. If you weren’t my daughter I would marry you.’
“My father made me feel guilty about it. He said I would destroy our family. That he would get deported to Mexico and my family would lose everything we worked so hard for. He told me to say I made it up because I was a rebelling teenager angry at my father. So I lied to them, I told them exactly what he told me to say.”
‘Get in the car,’ my mom forcefully tells me. My mind is racing. Turning me into jail? Where are we going? The drive feels like an eternity.’ She parks. ‘Do you see this place?,’ she chokes out.’
“I had an urge. I was terrified. I went to the only place I knew I was safe. She was asleep. I stood by her crib and stared at the greatest gift I had ever been given, my beautiful baby girl. As I looked at her, tears flooded out of me. That night, she saved my life.”
‘We were literally one in a million. Identical twins with Down syndrome happens once out of every million pregnancies! We had been chosen for this task.’
“The ultrasound technician laughed. ‘What is it?,’ we said. She looked at us. ‘There are two in there!’ I immediately cracked up laughing. Rayni looked like she had seen a ghost! ‘Are you serious?’”
‘I imagined my father-daughter dance being perfect. But, he couldn’t hear the words. He cried the entire time. Not tears of joy. But, of sadness and disappointment.’
“My dad anxiously waited to hear. My mom, sisters, and I said the words: ‘I love you.’ Words he never heard his children say. But my dad broke down and cried. He cried, because he COULDN’T hear.”
‘Then I received this email. ‘Hi there, My dad has been fighting cancer. Dad is getting weaker by the day. We have to do this as soon as possible.’
“I couldn’t keep it together to talk on the phone. This is a very difficult and dark time, but I know how you feel about love. We are throwing this plan together really fast. We don’t know how long we have.”
‘She looked me dead in the eye. ‘What is it? Did the man leave?’ I can tell she was scared, her face went pale. Then I called 911.’
“I remember her concentrating on a certain part of my shirt, of course, I was scared. I never made it seem as if she was alone in this journey.”
‘I went to the room. Paint, check. Roller thing, check. I opened the door, and the strangest thing happened. Grief hit me, and it took me to my knees.’
“Then, the next strangest thing happened. My teenager appeared. She sauntered in, checked out my work, paused, and then asked if she could help. My jaw almost hit the ground. I don’t know if she felt it, too. I don’t know if she knew we were missing something by not having her dad there.”
‘I married the man of my dreams, created a family, and realized after 9 years we weren’t able to pray the gay away.’
“He pulled me aside and told me he ‘struggled’ with homosexuality. My response: ‘Wow, you’re going to need a really strong wife!’ For the very first time, Kyle actually said out loud, ‘I am a gay man and I want to be with a man.’”
‘Once again, our child could kill my wife. The woman who is now carrying our 8th child, who has been through hell and always kept hope. I’m angry. I’m sad. I’m numb.’
“This feels like déjà vu. You’ll get over it, David. Don’t cry in front of all these strangers. I’ll just sit here, trying to keep my mind off the fact we just authorized a doctor to separate our child from their mother, and will likely put them in a bag labeled ‘biohazard waste.’”
