This is a special place put here by special request. The grandmother of a child wanting her to meet other children asked that we provide a place to meet others in their area. Please use this space to make new friendships on behalf of your children. Meeting others with bodies like ours is key to our well-being. It is when we look in the eyes of another, whether as parents or as the child that we know for sure that we are not alone in our trials and tribulation.

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Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. --Margaret Mitchell

What a wonderful opportunity we have been given to communicate with each other! As the grandmother of a 3 1/2 yr old intersexed child that our entire family loves to distraction I want her to know other kids like herself. Even at this young age I believe my granddaughter is already feeling different from the other kids at her pre school. I feel confident that she and all our children will be much happier if they know other kids like themselves. My daughter has tried and tried to get doctors, nurses, etc to either give us the names & phone numbers of other intersexed kids parents or give our names & numbers to them with absoloutely no success. I just pray with all my heart that this opportunity we have won't be ignored. I know how scary it can be to talk openly with someone you don't know but isn't it worth the risk if we can all somehow join together to help our precious children. In addition don't you think it would be wonderful if we could all have someone to talk to about the unique issues our families have?

Getting these children together is one of the most nurturing things you can do for your grandchild. Even at a young age, she'll know someone just like her. She won't ever know the isolation many of us struggled with throughout our lives.

Good luck in your quest!

Thank you for your good wishes! My daughter and I have been trying to find children for Emma to meet & play with since she was born. We share your feelings that it would be a great experience and confidence booster if IS kids knew each other as very young children. I long for this opportunity to see if she is more responsive to an intersexed kid than she is to other kids. She is a loner and we don't know if that's because she feel different or if that is just her personality. Her birth mom is also very slow to warm up to people so we know this could just be her. This is one of the problems with parenting an IS kid, or maybe it isn't & we just don't know any better. It seems that you have to second guess everything. Is this just her personality or is it because she is intersexed? This is a question that we ask ourselves over & over. Are we giving in to her too much hoping to build self confidence and a feeling of empowerment or are we creating a spoiled brat? Frankly, if we err we prefer to have a self confident brat than an obedient child that has no feeling of self worth or control of her life. Hopefully we can SOMEHOW reach a happy medium and any advice anyone has will be appreciated.

I wanted to take a minute to check out the boards and to join the parenting part. I am Debbie. 40 yr old single mom of Kelli--an 8 yr old intersex child. Kelli has had 4 surgeries on her genitals since birth and was raised for 11 weeks as "kyle"-male. If there are other parents who wish to contact me, please feel free. I have a goal to help other parents as well as intersexed indidviduals. My Kelli is going through a really rough period right now. Being supportive to others will be great. And learning from others will be great too!

So very happy to have a parent join this early!! This gives me a very positive feeling that we may be successful in forming a mutual support group. Our Emma has only had one surgery and we do not plan on doing anymore until she is old enough to decide for herself. I know that most of the help sites totally condemn pretty much any surgery so I was hoping for a place where we could all find support without condemnation no matter if we did or did not have surgery. Regardless, I suspect we will all face many of the same problems. Debbie, feel free to email me directly if you would prefer as I know this is new and a little scary for all of us. I do not have your email address so can't contact you directly. If we hang in there we can build a STRONG group for us and our children. By the way, we live in Florida.

I know that I'm "out of bounds" since my adopted son is not IS, but I just wanted to take a minute to thank you parents for coming here.

Growng up was always hard not having parents who were educated about what it means to be IS, and what to do for me. That's why it makes me so happy to see you guys reaching out to be educated for your children, and also to find out from other IS individuals what to expect.

So be encouraged that you will have support from IS people to answer your most intimate of questions as to try to help you better understand what is to come for your beautiful children. And thanks again for reaching out for the sake of your child. :)

God bless,
CR

You most certainly are not out of bounds by posting to we parents of IS children. We welcome any comment and are always here for anyone. Thanks for taking your time to say those very encouraging words.

Thanks Debbie!

CR...it is our hope that we--the adults--will be able to share our experiences growing up with the parents now facing what our parents, birth or adopted, did with us. The power of community is pretty strong, and even stronger when it crosses generational lines. Please share your expertise and knowledge wherever you see fit on these boards, and elsewhere.

Best,

Betsy

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Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. --Margaret Mitchell