My daughter turns six months old the week after Thanksgiving, and I am grateful every day for her presence. I am grateful for the miracle of her conception, for the medical technology and sperm donation, and the determination that led, after six years of attempts, to my pregnancy.
And I am grateful to be sharing the joyful (and sometimes exhausting) experience of parenting with my partner of eight years, who, happily, the state of Iowa recognizes as my legal wife and as our daughter’s legal parent.
Our legal status as a family, however, was not automatic: In the weeks and months after our daughter’s birth, my wife and I paid close to $3,000 and jumped through the various hoops of step-parent adoption so my wife could become a legal parent.
If I were married to a man, it would have been free. If I were married to a man — even if he was not biologically related to the baby — he could have been automatically listed on the original birth certificate.
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Complete article at Des Moines Register : http://dmreg.co/v903Vl
