My name is Rachel. My partner’s name is Jennifer and we have been together since the fall of 2000. Since we can’t get married, we are committed life partners, moreso now that we've had twins. Because after that first year?  HELL IF EITHER OF US IS RAISING TWINS ALONE.  

But let me start from the beginning.

I was raised in a Hispanic Catholic household with an older brother and younger sister. We spoke mostly English at home and almost always Spanish with extended family. In 1982, we moved to San Antonio and that’s where I grew up. I watched my parents struggle to provide the best they could, all of us trying to assimilate into a community that wasn’t always accepting.  I played sports growing up, some very poorly. My favorite grade was the third one.

I went to a Southern Baptist University for my undergraduate degree in Economics. Then I went directly to a Very Secular University for my masters degree in Health Care Administration. I learned two things from my private school higher education. First, school loans are a bitch and I’ve calculated that my children will be in college before I pay them off.  Second, a degree will only get you in that very first door. After that, it’s earning your keep and who you know.

Since high school, my day jobs have included associate administrator of a hospital, assistant manager at a golf club, resident assistant, research analyst, university bookstore cashier, financial analyst, temp, and risk manager in the energy industry. For now, we live in Houston, Texas.

I came out to my family and (most of) my friends beginning in late 1997. It was not easy having grown up in the church, being highly involved in Young Life, and having gone to a right-winged college.  My family are living examples of grace and tolerance and unconditional love, as are many friends.  Several friends agree to disagree and I respect our differences of opinion.  And a handful have turned out to be complete assholes about it.

I used to aspire to be on the cover of Fortune Magazine, profiled in The Top 40 Under 40.  But in the fall of 2000, I met Jennifer, and eighty hour workweeks became less motivating.  In 2001, despite sage advice from a wise friend, I came out in the workplace and lost my job shortly thereafter. I was offered a very small severance package for my trouble if I would just disappear.  By accepting the package, I had to agree not to sue. And because I had no money, I sold out.  I regret that.

But it also afforded us the opportunity to pick up and move to Texas and try something new. After a few years of discussing and preparing, we decided that it was a good a time as any to try and get pregnant. So in 2006, the journey to conceive began, as did my original blog, beginning with a post about going fishing shortly before my third attempt to get pregnant via anonymous donor sperm.

After eight (nine? ten?) intrauterine inseminations and one in vitro fertilization, I became pregnant with twins. Because I learned nothing the first time, I came out in the workplace at the end of the first trimester. LIKE THEY WEREN'T GOING TO FIGURE IT OUT AT SOME POINT ANYWAY, big twin belly and all.  Except this time, I planned it a little better. I’m still there so I guess it all worked out just fine.

From that time, I’ve written mostly about the process of getting pregnant, being pregnant with twins, and life with the twins. And that makes me so unique that you can probably only find several thousand blogs just like it. But how many of those can also claim to be a College Educated Latina Lesbian Working Mom of Multiples? Huh? HUH?

In July 2009, I retained a web designer, purchased a domain name and spent money on a website I had no business spending money on.  It’s just that the free sites did not provide the flexibility I was looking for, like the width of the columns, or multiple templates within the same site. And if I’m going to labeled High Maintenance, I MIGHT AS WELL LIVE UP TO THE TITLE.   The new/revised site was launched on the kids' eighteen month birthday.