Maya Hummel-Anderson was watching a movie with her dads, Kurt and Blaine. In exactly a month, she was going to be eleven years old, and in a week it was Christmas).
Maya was very excited - she was going to visit Grandma and Grandpa Anderson for Christmas, and then spend New Years with Grandma and Grandpa Hummel. She'd be getting Christmas (and early birthday presents) from both sets of grandparents and she couldn't wait.
Maya had been distracted recently - but it wasn't because of the holiday plans. There had been something she'd been curious about lately. She wanted to ask her dads about it but wasn't sure how or when. She'd actually asked them about it before - when she was six.
She could remember her dads looking at each other when finally Dad B said, "we'll talk about that when you get a little older, Maya Moo."
Well it had been nearly five years - was she old enough yet?
Finally, Maya decided to just ask the question.
"Um…Dad B? Dad K?" Maya asked.
"Yes, honey?" Kurt asked. Blaine also turned to look at Maya.
"Where do…where do babies come from?" Maya asked.
Kurt and Blaine looked at each other the same way they'd looked at each other five years earlier.
"I think you're old enough to have 'the talk' now," Blaine said.
He and Kurt proceeded to explain the process of PIV sex, of sperm fertilizing eggs, the whole works.
Well…almost the whole works. Maya was happy to finally know how most people were "conceived" (that was the word her dads had used.) But her dads hadn't clarified what would happen if both parents had sperm…or eggs.
Kurt and Blaine could tell what their daughter was thinking.
"If someone has two moms or dads - their parents might adopt them," Blaine started. "But two moms would get something called a sperm donor - someone who donates sperm to help couples get pregnant when neither has sperm or maybe one partner does but isn't able to get the other partner pregnant. If there's two moms - they might use artificial insemination so the one who is pregnant was also the one whose egg was used or they use IVF and combine the sperm and the egg in a dish then implant it in the other partner. Does that make sense?"
"Yes…" Maya said slowly. "So then…if there's two dads they get an egg donor?"
"That's right," Kurt said.
"But then who gets pregnant?" Maya asked.
"Well…they would get a surrogate mother. The surrogate mother might be a different person from the egg donor. They might go somewhere and choose a donor who they never meet and then mix the egg from the donor with the sperm through IVF and it gets implanted in a different person who is the surrogate and has the baby for them," Blaine explained.
"Can the egg donor and the surrogate be the same person?" Maya asked.
"Yes," Kurt replied. "That's actually…what Dad B and I ended up doing."
"Whose sperm did you use?" Maya asked suddenly.
"Mine," Blaine replied.
"Did you mix it in a dish with the egg from the donor so she could get pregnant?" Maya asked. This was a lot of information to take in, but the more she learned, the more questions she had.
"Actually, we used a different process called artificial insemination. They took Dad B's sperm and inserted it into the surrogate vaginally and that's how it fertilized her egg and she got pregnant," Kurt replied.
Maya winced. That sounded uncomfortable but she was still very interested - especially in finding out what woman did this for her and her dads.
"Who is she?" Maya asked.
Kurt and Blaine looked at each other. They wanted to tell her - and they knew the woman in question wanted Maya to know too, but they hadn't discussed yet how to relay this information.
"Would you like to meet her?" Blaine asked finally.
Maya nodded.
I'll call her. It's getting a bit late but I'm sure she would be willing to come over and answer questions," Blaine pulled out his phone and went off to his and Kurt's room to make the phone call.
"I hope she she is," Maya told Kurt. "I can't wait to meet her."
Kurt just smiled and brushed some hair out of Maya's eyes. Maya had no idea she'd actually met this person many, many times before.
Blaine emerged from the bedroom a few minutes later.
"She's on her way!" Blaine told Maya and Kurt.
"Good!" Maya said. She was excited but also nervous. Who was this woman?
Maya had been pacing the floor for the full ten minutes until the family heard a knock at the door.
"You wanna get that, Maya?" Blaine asked.
Maya nodded and slowly walked over to the door. Her hand hovered over the doorknob for a few seconds before she finally opened the door.
Standing in the doorway was Rachel St. James, her dads' friend from high school. Rachel and her husband Jesse had babysat for Maya quite a bit when she was younger and Maya spent a lot of time with their daughter Olive, who was just eleven months younger than Maya. The girls hadn't always gotten along but recently, when Kurt and Blaine were on vacation and Maya had stayed with Olive and her parents, the two had bonded and now had frequent play dates and sleepovers.
"Rachel?" Maya asked. "What are you doing here?"
"Your dad asked me to come over," Rachel said. Maya could tell that she had been crying.
"My dad said he was calling my egg donor…" Maya's voice trailed off as she finally put 2 and 2 together.
"Yes," Rachel nodded.
"You…you did that?" Maya asked.
Rachel nodded again. "I did."
Maya stood there frozen for a few seconds. Then, she wrapped her arms around Rachel. Maya and Rachel had hugged many times before - but Maya thought this time felt different. Rachel felt the same way.
They hugged in the doorway for a few minutes as Kurt and Blaine watched, holding onto each other and crying themselves.
Finally, the pair pulled away from each other and Blaine invited Rachel inside.
The group sat down.
"Do you have any questions for me?" Rachel asked.
"Yes. Why did you decide to be an egg donor and surr…surr…" Maya began. What was that word again?
"Surrogate?" Rachel asked, laughing.
"Yeah, that," Maya laughed too.
"Well…your dads are some of my nearest and dearest friends and I was excited to help them have a baby," Rachel said. "But…it's actually pretty cool because I have two dads myself, as you know - and they had me with an egg donor and surrogate too. I actually met her when I was in high school - Jesse introduced us."
"Who is she?" Maya asked.
"Shelby Corcoran," Rachel replied.
Maya's eyes widened. "Shelby?" Maya knew Shelby - Shelby had been a part of her life since…well forever. Shelby and her daughter Beth babysat Maya when she was growing up, came to her birthday parties, and would have girls' days with Maya, Rachel, and Olive.
"Yes. So Shelby is your biological grandmother," Rachel said.
"And Olive is…" Maya started.
"Olive is your biological half-sister, yes," Rachel said, smiling.
"Does she know?" Maya asked.
Rachel shook her head. "We haven't had a conversation about where babies come from with her yet," Rachel replied. "Jesse and I don't think she's quite ready yet, but when we do have that conversation we will tell her about this too."
"What did Jesse think about you having me?" Maya asked.
"He was supportive. He also really wanted your dads to have a family and was happy that I helped them do it."
"Did it hurt? The way you got pregnant?" Maya asked.
"It was uncomfortable, yes," Rachel admitted. "But I had Jesse with me and they had explained everything to me very clearly beforehand."
"Are you glad you had me?" Maya asked.
"Every single day of my life," Rachel smiled, squeezing Maya's hand.
Maya got up and gave Rachel another hug.
"Thank you," Maya said into Rachel's shoulder.
"You're welcome, honey," Rachel said, kissing Maya on the top of the head.