Thursday 10 October 2013

Mommy Man: How I Went from Mild-Mannered Geek to Gay Superdad By Jerry Mahoney at YPCart.com



As a teenager growing up in the 1980s, all Jerry Mahoney wanted was a nice, normal sham marriage. 2.5 kids and a frustrated, dissatisfied wife living in denial of her husband's sexuality. Hey, why not? It seemed much more attainable and fulfilling than the alternative—coming out of the closet and making peace with the fact that he'd never have a family at all.

Twenty years later, Jerry is living with his long-term boyfriend, Drew, and they're ready to take the plunge into parenthood. But how? Adoption? Foster parenting? Kidnapping? What they want most of all is a great story to tell their future kid about where he or she came from.

Their search leads them to gestational surrogacy, a road less traveled where they'll be borrowing a stranger's ladyparts for nine months. Thus begins Jerry and Drew's hilarious and unexpected journey to daddyhood. They meet a surrogate who's perfect in every way... until she rejects them. They squabble over potential egg donors, discovering that they have very different notions of what makes the ideal woman. Then, Drew's sister Susie makes a stunning offer that turns their entire journey on its head. If they're interested, she'll donate her eggs.

For the first time, Jerry and Drew imagine what it would be like to have a baby who's a little bit of both of them. From then on, they're in uncharted waters. They're forced to face down homophobic baby store clerks, a hospital that doesn't know what to do with them, even members of their own family who think what they're doing is a little nutty. Along the way, Susie receives some devastating news that threatens to crush all their dreams of parenthood. One thing's for sure. If this all works out, they're going to have an incredible birth story to tell their kid.

With honesty, emotion, and laugh-out-loud humor, Jerry Mahoney ponders what it means to become a Mommy Man . . . and discovers that the answer is as varied and beautiful as the concept of family itself.


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