Episode #148: Childless-ish with Stephen Colman!
Alvina once again welcomes special guest Stephen Colman to sub in for Grace. They talk about being childless (kind of) at their age, their journey towards not having and raising children, and their discussions about potentially becoming foster parents in the future.
“How have you been?”
Stephen has been better because he’s been excited about a new project! He was not able to share any details but it does have something to do with a Broadway musical. Stay tuned!
Alvina has been great but the most news worthy announcement is that her office announced the official “return to office date”! This is bittersweet as it has been nice to be home working with Stephen. Masks are optional and they ask that everyone please respect the choice of their colleagues.
Childless-ish
Alvina came up with this idea as she and Stephen discuss possibly becoming foster parents in the future. She recalls the sentence on Stephen’s dating app profile that caught her attention: “What would you say if I told you that…..I had two biological children with my lesbian best friend?
Stephen walks us through his previous marriage and how they ended up not having children and then tells the story about how many years later his lesbian BFF asked for his sperm. He opens up about his decision to do that, the range of emotions when his biological son was born, and how he navigates being “Uncle Stephen” to his now two biological kids.
Alvina talks about how she always wanted to be a mom since she was a little girl herself. On dates, that was a deal breaker….if the guy didn’t want kids, she was no longer interested. She discussed freezing her eggs and Greg’s sperm. After Greg passed away though, she realized that she just didn’t want to go the route of having a child on her own. She was going to wait for meeting the right partner and then perhaps she would have kids. However, when she met Stephen many years later in her mid-40’s, she already had come to terms with the fact (with the help of therapy) that she probably wasn’t ever going to have biological children.
Between the two of them, Stephen and Alvina are surrounded by a lot of children including nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, etc…They are considering becoming foster parents.
Fortune Cookie Segment:
Alvina talks about her favorite shows, The Bachelor and the Bachelorette! Find out what they both love so much about this guilty pleasure.
Gratefuls:
Stephen is grateful for the shows, like the Bachelorette, for existing especially in these times with all the ugliness going on in the world. It is nice to have these pieces of entertainment to zone-out to and get lost in for a little bit. He’s grateful because there’s an army of people who make these kind of shows happen and it’s great they chose to carry on and work really hard to create this entertainment for us.
Alvina is grateful for daylight savings and the later light in the day. They just went on an evening walk after dinner and it was amazing.
Thank You!
*If you’re a patron, don’t forget to check out this week’s Random Questions feed! Authors Varian Johnson and Grace Lin answer the random question If you could have a song play every time you enter a room, what would it be? Click here to listen! If you’re not a patron already, join today!
Thank you for tuning in! Thank you to Hachette Audio, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, and Alex at Pacyworks Studio for producing and editing this podcast. Be sure to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and tell a friend about us. (Use the hashtag #bookfriendsforever.)
You can find Alvina @Planetalvina on Twitter and TikTok and @Alvinaling on Instagram
You can find Stephen @stephenacolman on Instagram and my website is thestevecolman.com
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