When our birth photo went viral, we were constantly approached about writing a book about our journey as gay fathers starting a family. We were flattered, excited by the thought of it, but life with a new born is scary enough, and we hadn’t the time to make it happen.
In early 2016, our birth photo was being used, without permission, by politicians in Europe to support their campaigns against surrogacy, and LGBTQ families. Instead of feeling hopeless and defeated, we knew we had to show the world that family is about love, whether it comes from a mother or a father. What better way to inspire a future made up of inclusive, open-minded global citizens, than through educating, inspiring and storytelling with a children’s book?
Even though Milo does not yet speak in full sentences, we decided that Milo’s Adventures should be written through his eyes and voice. Our dear friend, and Milo’s godmother, Debbie Donsky is a fellow educator, who has raised her children fostering inclusiveness and acceptance and is a beautiful writer, and creative illustrator. The 3 of us wrote, edited, re-wrote, edited more, and turned Milo’s Adventures into much more than our story. This became our labour of love that will illustrate that family is about love.
We have every confidence that parents will enjoy this beautiful story and it also serves as a useful tool to explain and open discussion about surrogacy to their children. We know that as educators ourselves, parents appreciate tools for lessons in acceptance and appreciation of everyone’s individual choices. And, best of all, young readers will relate to and understand the story through the meaningful, soft illustrations on every page.
Although we explored all opportunities of publishing our book, we aren’t the most patient people and have a story we need to tell right away. We wanted control over the process and hoped to release our first children’s book to coincide with Pride and Father’s Day. We explored our different options to publish, and we chose the self-publishing route. This was the easiest, quickest, and we had a lot of control over the entire process.
Milo’s Adventures is now in print. We have such pride as we hold each copy in our hands, and we love reading it to Milo. We are excited to hear how thrilled others are when they read it to their children and share it with others. We are grateful every time someone purchases more than one copy to donate it to their local library, daycare or school, or to give it as a gift. We are starting to see how one children’s book, a true labour of love, can be a force stronger than a hate and intolerance campaign by European politicians.
Currently, Milo’s Adventures: A Story About Love, is available for purchase on Amazon, as well as in Glad Day Bookshop in Toronto (which is the world’s oldest LGBTQ bookstore!) and at Book City on the Danforth in Toronto (an amazing independent book store with a huge variety of books!).
If you are interested in reselling the book please be in touch with us directly. If you would like to bulk purchase our books, we would love to hear from you too. If we could ask that you share this post, or our book page you would be helping us inspire a future of inclusivity and love, and our family will be forever grateful.
