Family Kaleidoscope held it's January meeting at Westy's Bowling Lanes in Garden City on January 9th. Four families attended for an afternoon of bowling and socializing. The kids had a ball bumper bowling. Three parents will be helping the Boise Universalist Unitarian Church towards the end of January with one of their services. They will be speaking to the congregation regarding the differences between being a GLBT parent and a straight parent. Many thanks to the parents who volunteered to do this with the UU's. Thanks for the childcare feedback. We are still taking any resources you all have especially in the Boise/Meridian area. One of
our goals this year is to develop a resource book for GLBT parents which will include many things, such as childcare, doctors, lawyers etc. so feel free to use the Yahoo message boards for your resource suggestions and/or needs or use the parents@yfffn.org email.

I've been in contact with the PR department for Abigail Garner the author of "Families Like Mine" and am now in the process of searching out funding to bring this author here to the area to give a couple of lectures on what it was like  to grow up in a GLBT household. Her website is www.familieslikemine.com and her book is wonderful. If any of you have contacts in the wonderful world of grants or funding please let me know.

I've been approached by YFFN for parent volunteers to speak with legislators during the upcoming legislative session regarding the wonderful bills coming up affecting our community. In order to protect your confidentiality, I am passing the information on to you and letting you all make up your minds. Should this be something you would like to participate in, you can either contact YFFN directly or email me at
parents@yffn.org.  This is a choice you make for yourself. I will pass on the information and opportunities and provide support if needed, but your confidentiality is Family Kaleidoscope's primary focus and goal.

February 13 is our next Kaleidoscope meeting. We are thinking of a family  Valentine's party. I need to know how you all feel about that and what type of participation we can expect. We will probably have it at a local Boise church with some games for kids and big people, time for socializing, snacks and drinks. I need a couple of volunteers to help me with the details and just a heads up on the number of people who would like to come. I hope to see and meet many of you in February.


Teddi Stearns