NOLAPapa Blog
Christmas Metamorphosis
Everything that happens in our lives is meant to teach us something. These experiences–good, the bad, and the ugly–accumulate to help us grow into the people we are. I see how true this is with each passing day. In 2005, my life was turned upside down. Katrina blew everyone’s life to hell and then we…
Read MoreStand Up and Speak Out, Part 1
Four years ago we received the phone call that changed our lives forever. We were told that in our own city of New Orleans, there was a newborn baby that needed a forever home. What we were told by the agency would likely take 5 or more years took mere weeks. We frantically started putting…
Read MoreStand Up and Speak Out, Part 2
Twenty years ago when I came out, it was unbearably hard. As I have written before, I am from the Deep South. Anyone who dares to deviate from social norms was sure to be ostracized. It’s not that these people were born hateful or mean, rather, it probably was more to do with not them…
Read MoreKatrina Echos
It’s been 14 years and it still feels as if it happened a couple of years ago. Hurricane Katrina shook the entire South to its core. It single-handedly uprooted thousands of people, many of which never returned home, and affected the lives of everyone on the Gulf Coast in some way. The livelihoods of countless…
Read MoreTurn it Off
It is so easy to get sucked down the rabbit hole of the world’s social and political drama. We want to protect our babies from everything. So does that mean we have to be glued to Rachel Maddow & Anderson Cooper every night? The thing is, our news media is not what it used to…
Read MoreThe Bravest Knight
A couple of months back, I posted an article about a new and progressive cartoon about a little girl and her two dads called “The Bravest Knight”. It is now streaming on HULU. I was eager to post it to my Nolapapa Facebook page because I found it very inspiring and I wanted to help spread the…
Read MoreHer Pride
I grew up in an area of the South called “The Bible Belt.” Most people who live there don’t stray too far from what they have always known, at least that was my experience. As such, those of us who deviated from social norms were often viewed as socially unacceptable, or even outright bad. It’s…
Read MoreHeavy Conversations
I can’t believe it’s been over two years since I wrote about our ‘Open Adoption’ for Gays with Kids. In that article I covered the series of long discussions that my husband Douglas and I had that led to our decision to pursue an open adoption. There are several reasons that this was the right choice for our…
Read MoreClimbing Potty Mountain
Anyone with kids can probably attest that potty training is literally one of the hardest things you’ve encountered as a parent so far. I know I sure as heck can. It really felt like we were climbing a mountain… in flip-flops! There were highs that were full of celebrations with potty treats and dancing while…
Read MoreThe Unicorn Effect
I was working at a night club on Bourbon Street and stepped into the back. He sat at a desk filling out a new hire work form. At that moment it was like time stopped. It was like the beating of the bass from the music on the dance floor silenced, and all I could…
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