Uncategorized – Page 3 – Our Amazing Forever Family

Danelle’s Story, Part 2

Written by Danelle Henden Almost dying during childbirth isn’t fun. Especially when no one in your family knows you were in the hospital and you don’t get the joy of taking your babies home. Some say grief is like a blanket, but for me, grief was like an ocean—and guess what? I can’t swim. TheContinue reading “Danelle’s Story, Part 2”

Getting to know you

There is absolutely nothing comforting about the NICU, the intensive care unit for newborns. At least, not during the ten-day stretch we experienced it, at Stroger Hospital in Chicago about a decade ago. The majority of the infants had been born prematurely, and all were fighting for their lives. Their tiny, fragile bodies were housedContinue reading “Getting to know you”

Good in the Culture

One of the many things that Danelle and I have in common is growing up in communities where everyone looked like us. As in, everyone. As in, half of the kids at my suburban-Salt-Lake-County high school were probably sixth cousins. I’m not kidding. But I do digress. There are some serious limitations to this kindContinue reading “Good in the Culture”

Life is unpredictable.

Written by Danelle Henden. Life is unpredictable! As a birthmother, I can attest to that. Life is unfair! As a black woman, I can relate to that. It was Martin Luther King Jr. who said, “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but heContinue reading “Life is unpredictable.”

Danelle’s Story, Part 1

Written by Danelle Henden The story for me will start at conception. It is a very long messy story up to that point so I will skip the details for now. I found myself pregnant, but I didn’t know I was pregnant for about 4 – 5 months (I was still getting my cycles —Continue reading “Danelle’s Story, Part 1”

Scared every day.

If you had asked me, twenty years ago, to name examples of police brutality, systemic racism, or white privilege, I couldn’t have. Sure, I would have agreed that such things existed, but I thought of them as some other era’s problem, or some other nation’s. Coming off of some really ugly experiences with male privilegeContinue reading “Scared every day.”

So how does this work, with two moms?

As I mentioned on the Home page, in my experience, people are generally too polite to ask anything super personal about our family. I appreciate that, because we just want to function like normal people (and, naturally, we do consider ourselves to be normal people). But, despite the general reluctance, the question that has comeContinue reading “So how does this work, with two moms?”

This all started back in 2002…

Where to begin? Okay, we’ll start with moving to Chicago in August, 2002, right after Ron and I got married. There’s a whole crazy relationship story before that, which I’ll probably share at some other point. But he was in law school and I was finishing up my thesis to get my Master’s degree. WeContinue reading “This all started back in 2002…”