Ralph and I are preparing our home for the pending arrival of the kids, process re-engineering everything from where the tupperware goes, to where the jackets hang to how we back up our data. We’re also changing the furniture to maximise the room we have in our apartment, and one of the items to go last week was the old wooden bookcase.
I listed it on eBay, and a lady called Suzie bought it. She arranged a time to come pick it up on the weekend with her partner, a German guy called Alex. When she arrived, I noticed that she was pregnant. Ralph and I were both at home and we had a conversation that went like this:
Me: Oh, you’re pregnant! So are we! How many weeks are you?
Suzie: 26 weeks, so not long now. Are you using a surrogate?
Me: Yes we are, we’re 22 weeks pregnant.
Suzie: Oh, you must be thinking about getting a cot. Have you picked one yet?
The conversation then trickled off to cots and change tables and how buying second hand is so much more affordable.
Did you spot anything there in the discussion of interest? Anything out of the ordinary? No? That’s because there was nothing out of the ordinary. As every conversation goes by that Ralph and I have, we can feel the people we talk to becoming more accepting. Two guys having kids? Oh, must be surrogacy. No big deal.
Suzie’s nonchalant nature and relax attitude gave me hope that sometimes, the world really can move forward in leaps and bounds; for the generation that are adults today and the half Australian, half German kids that they will raise for tomorrow.
