As a child, I always knew who I would go to if something happened to both of my parents. So when I knew I wanted to have kids, I started thinking about who the godparents could be. I thought about why I wanted them to be my children’s godparents and whether or not it would put a financial burden on them. I’m a worrywart, so I tend to think about all situations big and small. It drives my family and friends nuts, but it’s who I am. 

Before we got pregnant with our son, we had pretty much given up on having kids. The years of trying are definitely hard on your heart. We were fortunate enough to have the support of some of our closest friends who were going through the same issues we were. They wanted to have kids of their own, just as much as we did, which broke our hearts too. 

When we finally did get pregnant, we knew exactly who we wanted to be our son’s godparents. We chose my husband, Nate’s, boss/bonus father figure and his wife. Our friends would be happy to take our son and any future children we may have and we are grateful for that, but everyone completely supported our decision on who we chose, which was great. 

We chose Nate’s boss and his wife because we knew not only would they take care of him like we would, but they would also love him like their own. Our son is actually named after his godfather and those who don’t know the situation always ask us why. My husband and I knew we wanted to name our son after his boss long before we were pregnant because he has played such an important role in my husband’s life. It was something Nathan wanted to do to honor his bonus father figure. 

After choosing godparents for our son, we both also made sure we had life insurance policies to help take care of him if something did happen. This will help alleviate the financial burden I worry about. 

I know children generally go to next of kin, but we wanted to have full control over who he would end up with if something were to happen to us both. Recently, I have had people tell me that children should go to their grandparents. They wouldn’t let me explain why we chose to have godparents instead, either.

I believe every parent should be entitled to choose who their children go to in an emergency case. You may not know the situations with family or the people they chose to be their godparents. Sometimes they’re your best friends, like in our case, sometimes they are family, and sometimes it’s who you think is the smartest choice. 

When our son is visiting his godparents, you can truly tell how much they love him. I can’t count how many photos I have of them that I just sit back and cry over. I know we made the right choice in choosing them. They try to include us in everything they do, even if it’s just chilling at home. KV loves helping “Papa & Gigi” at their house. Recently they were planting shrubbery in their flower beds, and this kid had to be right there digging with them. 

They say it takes a village, so why should we keep our village small? We all could use as much family as we can get, blood or not. We just have chosen to keep building our village with people who love not only us like family, but our son as well. I think everyone deserves people to have their backs.