As I go through this adventure I am surprised to find so many people who have had similar experiences. Sure, they aren’t all exactly the same, but some of very close. I’ve been added to some Facebook groups and even found a chick locally (that of course knows my friends because it’s Chattanooga and that’s how it works here) who went through the donor/IUI process herself.

Single Mothers by Choice (SMC) is a pretty big group that has local meet-ups in places like Atlanta and other nearby large cities. We don’t have one in Chattanooga as of yet, but between me and this gal, we might start one up – of course, I don’t know what that consists of at this point.

One of the things I hadn’t really considered (until being added to the groups) about the Open Donor process is the sibling registry. It seemed like a neat idea – when you use an Open Donor and report a pregnancy, the child will be added to the sibling listing for any other children of the donor. Originally, that seemed pretty cool. If kiddo wants to talk to other people in the same situation, now they would have actual Half Siblings to get in touch with. But then I saw a post the other day about how someone had over 100 siblings. Yikes. That feels overwhelming, but maybe that would be fine too – find a couple nearby and go from there. I don’t know. As an only child from a very small family, this is all very foreign.

I’ll be really interested to have lunch with my local SMC friend this week and see how it’s been for her – her kids are school age already. I’m interested to see how Chattanooga reacts to this “strange” set up of parenting.

I’m glad to have the opportunity to be in touch with these other ladies who have been where I am heading. I know it’s different for everyone, but I’m definitely glad to have some backup.