Somewhere Under the Rainbow

In the autumn of 2018 I took a transgender boy I had met only once out to lunch, anticipating becoming an adult friend and mentor to him as he worked his way through college and his transition. I ended up being his mother. I didn't anticipate going to lunch and getting another child, but both Jayce and I are the sorts of people To Whom Things Happen, and so here we are. We often say we were meant to be together as mother and son; we are eerily alike. This is the story of our first year together as a family. We try to approach serious topics - mental health issues, gender related healthcare, college concerns, dating, siblings, and so forth - with humor and candor. We explore the integration of an unexpected addition into a family from both points of view and we look at how being transgender colors everything Jayce does, like a gel over a theater light. It is a story of unconditional love under extraordinary circumstances.