OBAMA!!!!!

OK...so first off. Doesn't our little munchkin look like President-elect Obama?? =)

All right, I'll admit it. I have been obsessed. I had Obama fever. Say what you want...say that I swallowed the kool-aid or blue pill or whatever. I am a believer. I truly don't understand how you can't be. I listen to his speeches and I get choked up. I read his speech on race last spring and I openly wept at work. Apparently there is an optimist inside of me that never died (I truly thought that after 8 years of W. that I was a full blown, always think the worst, pessimist).

When they called Pennsylvania and then Ohio I felt my throat constrict. I thought...this is really happening. This country is moving forward in a huge way.

I wasn't prepared when they called it. It all happened so quick. (Or quick compared to the last two presidential elections where I stayed up all night.) I was sitting on the couch and flipping channels and it happened. They declared Obama the next President of the United States. I didn't even feel it coming. I just started crying...sobbing actually. It was like this weight just lifted off my heart. It was one of those moments when the stress and tension just leave your body, you let down your guard...and boom...the emotion all hits you. It was a bizarre couple minutes...I truly felt like I had lost my mind. I was crying, smiling, and laughing all at the same time.

I'm sure you all think I'm nuts by now. And maybe I am crazy to put so much belief in one person. But this election means the world to me, my husband, and our son.

My son, who has been through crap that most people laying on their death beds haven't been through, can now look at our President and see reflected not just someone who looks like him but somebody that represents all that he can achieve. No, William will probably never be President. But he knows that the sky's the limit.

And if you think this stuff doesn't really make a difference let me tell you a little story. The other night William and my mom were driving in the car and out of nowhere William says: "You know that Barack Obama is half black and half white." My mom says: "Yes he is. His mom was white and his dad was black." William says: "That's how I am. I wish that I was one or the other instead of both." My mom says: "Oh sweetie, but you get the best of both worlds." (which I will give my mom props for because it was an excellent response under pressure. William pulls these conversations out of nowhere and the pressure to not say the wrong thing is enormous.)

The conversation ended there and William was off on another topic. But this stuff affects him. To white kids he is African-American. To African-American kids he's white. It's a tough world to be stuck in and I know that he struggles with it a lot and gets picked on at school, at his after-school program, and in our neighborhood.

But now he has someone to look up to that also has a white mom and a black dad. And as much as he wants to pretend that he doesn't like being told he looks like Obama, he secretly loves it. I see it in his eyes. (Even when he's chanting "John McCain, John McCain, John McCain" when Obama supporters are canvassing our house.)

And for me, Obama represents the future. Moving away from the hate and division that has permeated politics for the last decade. I can't even explain what it feels like to be used as a political wedge issue. It amazes me how casually people throw out stuff about gay people. I just want to scream. "I'm not some abstract concept. My life is not a political game. My family is not the devil. I'm not trying to destroy the fabric of society."

I'm just trying to make a space for me and my husband and our son to live our lives. To have the same rights as everyone else. To not have to explain to my son why our Facebook pages say we are married, but we aren't really married. And to see the confusion in his face. To explain that some people don't want us to have that right and they think being gay is wrong. I don't want to tell him about the harsh realities of life and how cruel people can be.

But I don't have to...he knows. He lives it. He is a bi-racial nine year old with two white gay dads. He knows the cruelty of teasing. He already experiences it on a daily basis. He hears the laughter, the nasty words, the mean-spiritedness of people's comments.

But now there is hope. H.O.P.E. We just want to live our lives. To carve out our niche. Don't we all have enough of our own crap to deal with. Do we have to heap that sadness on everyone who is different than us?

"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Isn't that what it's all about.

I know I'm a cheese, but I can't help it...Obama is our next President and I have HOPE in the future and our son's future. I can't stop smiling.