18 Comments

Yes, after six years of not receiving the gift I hoped for, over this past year I finally more or less accepted reality. Don't get me wrong, I did not become an "affirming" parent -- my husband and I continued calling our daughter by her given name and consistently using she/her pronouns. I continued to send her occasional news stories about health risks of testosterone, etc. But we stopped fighting about it, and on the inside, what I was doing was finally leaving the matter in God's hands. And trying to keep on growing as a human being myself. Now, just two days ago, my daughter said she had decided to go off testosterone. She hurried to say she was not abandoning her "trans" identity, and that she still intended to have surgery and change her name someday, so it was still not the gift I wanted with all its bells and whistles, but my husband and I privately celebrated this small this ray of light, this incremental sign of maturation . . .

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Excellent story - very well written. You tugged on my heartstrings. I am saddened by your pain, and I hope and pray that the next holiday season will be wrapped in a beautiful bow for you and your family to share.

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I feel we all eventually come to this point? Thank you for this beautiful piece, my heart is with you.

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May your faith be crowned with peace and assurance. And may your daughter very, very soon return to truth and family love :-)

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I stand with you, grieving so deeply yet choosing to believe there is good to be found, trusting and growing in the midst of it. Thank you for sharing 🙏🏼

Praying that all of our families will see healing very soon🙏🏼🙏🏼

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My consistent response I’d shame, shame, on the adults who foster the pseudoscience of transgenderism. I am sorry, so sorry you aand your family are going through this.

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I would trade all of my gifts for you to get the one you want.

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How deeply I relate to this. Thank you.

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We are all coming to understand that parent-child estrangement is mirrored in voter-candidate estrangement, teacher-parent estrangement, and many others. The more of us who pray for courtesy, clarity and security for our communities and our country, the sooner it will happen. God Bless.

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It’s horrible isn’t it, when people ask you what you want for Christmas. It’s very difficult to enjoy life & different for everyone. We all know it isn’t right that our grief has robbed us of happiness but it’s true. 💔

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This is just beautiful. Christmas is so very hard. I have to believe our families will come out of these trials stronger and better somewhere down the road. If I don't hang on to that thread of hope, it's almost too much to bear.

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Wow, beautiful. Thank you for THIS gift. 🎁

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Beautifully written, I believe there are a lot of us still waiting and trusting for those gifts to arrive. Many blessings to all.

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💔

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Thank you for sharing! I can relate to your sadness, prayers and hope! ♥️🙏

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