I filled out the 2010 censes form the day it came in and being excited and having dyslexia (and a masters degree) I started out filling in my husbands name first. Reading on, I realized that the questions were only geared for the scribe, therefore I needed to continue filling it out as if I were my husband. This posed an interesting walk in his shoe's....
I wrote down his information, our address etc. He was easy to fill in and the spouse easy too... after all that was me.
Then... I started to fill in his children... I added my biological daughter from my first marriage Nancy. By accident and not truly looking at the questions, I check that she was his bio-daughter.. then remembering that although he is her father financially and emotionally and is called dad (or Macdaddy) (she has 2 dads) he needs to claim her as a mear step child.... I correct my mistake (no pun)
I began to think of our failed donor egg babies. What category would she/they have been in. "Bio" to my husband but not biological to me. I let it go.
I continued filling out the form: We were off to the next child, Charlie (6). I mark adopted ... I thought: What? What does that matter in the "big count"? why is this a question? Does it matter to the census that he came to us through open adoption and is challenging, trust me he is our child and he lives with us. He is not my husbands biology. So what?? REALLY??! I shake it off.
Then I move on to the next child, Austin (3) he too is though open adoption. I remember his Birth mom and how we were at his birth. How she and he almost died in child birth, the coma and nightmare and the joy ... I check adopted... again, like it matters in the big count?!
So, I move on to the next page. I start to wonder if there is room for a family that has 4 kids. Happily there was room for our miracle child Chloe (1) she is our surprise baby girl conceived out of love and chardonnay and is my husbands DNA making her his biological child. She has both parents in the same house with her biology, shocking I know. I fill in the biological child box for my husband. I am glad that my kids did not do a project for school talking about the census... that would be confusing and unnecessary. yikes what a head trip...
Not done yet. We will have our south African (who has 'brown skin' as my kids describe) Au pair with us by April 1. So, I fill in her name to be counted... She is African, not African American. We used to have a Au pair from south Africa that was white, that gets confusing too...thank God she is not moving back by April 1.
I put the report in its envelope and put it out to mail nicely sealed. Ready for a glass of chardonnay. the Census was filled with more drama then expected. My loving husband ("knowing how I am") checked the envelope. He noticed that I put the paper in backwards making the address invisible. This exercise could have been all for not. He opened the envelope, and being a man, did not even review my answers. Corrected the problem and mailed it today.
