First of all, I want to say Thank You to my parents for having the courage to create me using a sperm donor in the mid 1950s. Sperm donation wasn't common, but happening more than one would imagine. And...a huge Thank You to my mom, for telling us the truth, finally. I share this journey with my sister.
Early in 1993, my dad passed away. A few days later, while walking in the mall with my mother, she said, "There's something I have to tell you...". Looong pause. "Your father may not have been your real father." And thus began the journey...finding out that my biological/genetic father was a sperm donor.
I was 35 years old at the time and wow, did my world change in an instant. It was a great relief initially. All of a sudden a lot of things made sense. We knew my dad had secrets, even asked him as he was dying what he was hiding from us. All the innuendos, strange comments, conversations and arguments behind closed doors, not fitting into my family in a lot of ways...it all made sense!
As time went on, the journey became more difficult...so many questions. Who am I? Is that where this or that characteristic came from? Who is my sperm donor? Do I have other half-siblings? On and on, you can imagine...I felt like my foundation had been knocked out from under me and I had to rebuild who I was.
So, this is the journey...having a mom, a dad and an anonymous-sperm-donor-biological-genetic father. There are a lot of people who go through this journey, in their own way, in their own time, under unique circumstances. I want to share what I have learned over the past 26 years in hopes of helping others with their journeys and to shed light on the realities of what is occurring in the world of sperm donation.
We are all Pioneers on this journey.
