Finally. A Reason to Visit Florida in February.

Every once in awhile, we will be contacted by someone on the donor sibling registry who is considering using our donor. They usually want to know about Lili's temperament, or her health, and they often ask to see a picture. Even though we absolutely expected to be contacted at some point by other donor families, Mama and I have gone back and forth countless times regarding how much information we're comfortable sharing, or whether or not it's even our place to go down a road that, ultimately, can and should only be traversed by Lili. In the end, though, we want to be as open and honest with her as we can about her origins, and let her decide how she would like to proceed with the information we make available. Given that she may or may not be in touch with potential half-siblings at some point in her life, I always make an effort to respond to inquiries aboout Lili and/or our donor, and, more often than not, I'll attach a current picture of Lili. I hope that by making an initial "good karma investment", I won't find myself twenty years from now sharing Thanksgiving dinner with extended family members who I shamelessly blew off via e-mail. Plus, I can't get enough of complete strangers remarking at length that Lili is "sooooo cute". You'll note the extended "o".

While recently responding to such an inquiry, and sorting through stacks and stacks of digital images in my pursuit of the quintessential Lil photo to share, I noticed a previously unread message in our DSR "mailbox". We had been contacted by Dolores in New Port Richey, FL, who informed us that she had a beautiful, healthy, little boy from donor 19xx, born November 9th, 2007. Lili's first half-sibling, and, amazingly, only six months apart in age! Dolores in FL (who I can only assume isn't a snowbirding meshuga), offered to "chat and share pictures", which is about the perfect level of casual non-commitment for this Mommy. I responded a little over a week ago, and am still waiting to her back from my potential new donor family relative. Needless to say, Mama and I are both anxious to see pictures of her little man. I suspect Lili will always fall on the side of Mommy's family tree, but I'm also curious (and excited...and a titch nervous) to glimpse features that I instinctively know and love reflected in the face of another child. Put on your swim cap, kids--we're about to dive in to the deep end of the gene pool!