Oh, Canada! You’ll never cease to amaze us!!
Vancouver couple Danielle Wiley and her wife Anna Richards decided they wanted to have a baby a recruited the help of their friend Shawn Kangro, who agreed to donate sperm!
Nine months later, the happy couple welcomed their daughter Della Wolf Kangro Wiley Richards to the world, and aside from being incredibly cute, there’s something special about this little one! She’s the first baby in British Columbia to have THREE parents!
Now, we know what you’re thinking: Don’t couples use sperm donors ALL the time?? Of course they do! However, Della is the first to have all three parent’s names come up on her birth certificate!!
Last March, British Columbia’s new Family Law Act went into effect and allows for their to be more than just two parents’ names on a child’s birth certificate for situations JUST like this!
Danielle says they knew right away that they wanted Shawn to be a part of Della’s life:
“Both of us, from the beginning, wanted to have a father that would actually be a participant. I know a lot of other lesbian couples don’t want that. They want an anonymous donor. But both of us liked the idea of somebody who could actually be involved, and who could be a father figure to our children.”
While Shawn was happy to be in on the process, Danielle goes on to admit that it was a bit of a bumpy road to finally reach their goal:
“The birth certificate process has been, well, a bit of a process. The form that you can automatically fill in online, we weren’t able to do, because it didn’t have a space for a third parent. And it was really important to us to have Shawn on the birth certificate. But we didn’t want him on the birth certificate at the expense of Anna.”
While the modern family is certainly gaining attention, Danielle and Anna say they do not consider themselves to be trailblazers by any means!
However, the important thing is that they’re bringing attention to a process that legally recognizes different families of all shapes and sizes!!
Way to go, Canada!
[Image via CBC.]
