For years, my wife bl@med me for giving her five sons and no daughters — but when she finally gave birth to the little girl she’d always dreamed of and held her for the first time, her reaction completely stunned me.

I asked her, early on.

“We don’t.”

“Why not?”

I quit asking.

“I went through a difficult period after high school,” Claire explained. “They didn’t deal with it well. That’s all.”

That was everything she ever told me.

I disliked answers like that.

Give me a problem, and I wanted every piece spread out in front of me so I could figure out what to do about it.continue reading …