Dear IF readers,

Welcome to our September issue of The New Global Family. 

On October 3, 2001, I brought my daughter Zoe home from Guatemala.  My life changed forever in wonderful ways too numerous to list.  At the same time, unexpected realities set in, as walking out of my house was now a whole different ballgame.  The beautiful little baby in the carriage was a different color than I am, there was no daddy standing beside me and everything shifted out of focus.

Thrust full throttle into a new reality, I suddenly became “the other.”  My life focused, in an instant, on three things:  getting through the day with no sleep while working a part time job (for the first 2 years), helping my child adapt to a new country and a completely new world, and fending off the stares and often inappropriate comments of total strangers.

Enter Catherine Wayland and IF Magazine.  Walking down the street one day 3 ½ years ago, I bumped into a dear friend and began to vent.  I had been trying to write a book about my newfound condition and interviewing others in similar circumstances.  I needed a life raft and she steered me to her friend who was putting together something called International Family Magazine, for people like me.  The rest, as they say, is history.  It’s more than history for me.  It gave me an opportunity to document my journey, purge my soul and find my true voice as a writer.

Today I get to turn around and do that for 2 remarkable people who will join me, as well as others, as we document life as part of “The New Global Family.” I heard Greg Thomas read one of his pieces at a writer’s salon in my community and was struck by the sheer, mad whimsy in his words as he documented his “non-traditional” childhood.  Emma Goldman-Sherman is a mommy I met at a party, passionate about her adoption process, and bringing home a son from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  I am honored to include them both.

If the words any of us offer you inspire, keep you going, make you feel you’re not alone, that’s a wonderful thing.  But I must say that, for me at least, just getting to be a part of this magazine has been the greatest gift.  

Good reading,
Cheryl Paley,
Editor of The New Global Family for International Family Magazine at http://www.internationalfamilymag.com