Editor’s Note:  We first published Jake’s story in July 2020.  It is now a year later, we felt (and Jake agreed) that the timing was right to share his story again.  Jake is one year into having “fired” his homophobic side and if you’ve followed him on Social Media, you know just how amazing his life has become.  If you’re new to his story, have a read and then check him out.  It’s a beautiful journey.  

It Was Time For Him to Go

I’m coming off a high. I just fired someone, and it was one of the crowning achievements of my adult life. I made sure to make a scene of it too by gathering everyone into the conference room, laying out a long list of offenses, and walking him out of the room and building to never return. It was awesome!

Nine months earlier I came out as gay to my wife of 13 years. I married her with the best of intentions, desiring to do all that was expected of me as a man in...

Last March when the world turned upside down, two couples sat down and made a plan.  Kristen and I sat on our front porch with my ex-husband Chad and his awesome new wife, T.  Chad and I share custody of our four kids, T has another four, and they had a bonus child at the time as well.  So when a global pandemic hit, we had nine kids (and their germs) to worry about.  

We sat on that porch (socially distanced) and had an amazing conversation.  We talked, and vented, and laughed, and ultimately came up with what we thought was a great plan.  We discussed each kid, how we could support them during homeschooling, how we’d keep them off screens, how we’d now have the time to introduce them to all kinds of new skills. 

Ahhhh, remember optimism?  JK.

We just had no idea.  We had no clue the mental toll this pandemic was going to take from us.  There was no way we could have predicted how physical lives became...