Kianni Arroyo was born on June 26th, 1997. Somewhere in the world, Nate Dorn was just 23 years old. Kianni’s mother Ruth Arroyo was a queer woman from New York City. She left her family’s home at the age of 16 and started living with her female partner, looking for a place they could be together and happy. That search led them to the Orlando, FL area. Ruth wanted desperately to have a child and the two began trying to make that a reality when she was only 19 years old.

After some trial and error, they finally found a fertility clinic that would help unmarried (code for queer) women family plan and get pregnant. Ruth was presented with a load of options and she settled on one; Donor 2757.

Ruth found him charming. The essay included in his bio was intriguing. She like that he was physically fit, the thought he looked like a movie star, and (most importantly) he had the blood type she wanted her child to have.

Ruth and her partner wanted a donor who would allow contact eventually, when the child turned 18, however Nate’s original profile was checked anonymous. Nevertheless, in their mind the positives outweighed that fact and they were sold.

The got the samples, she was inseminated, and 9 months later, here’s Kianni.

Again, when he initially donated Nate chose anonymity. That was pretty standard for most donors of the era.

However, upon being shown a photo of baby Kianni, Nate became convinced that he should meet the child eventually. He changed his status to ‘known’ and allowed contact with any offspring when they turned 18.

Ruth and her partner went about being parents. Eventually, Ruth split from her and began to raise Kianni as a single mom. As she got older, Kianni was never lied to about her donor status. When questions arose, Ruth answered them (age appropriately) so Kianni always knew she was loved, wanted and sought after. She was definitely not an ‘oops baby’.

Ruth eventually moved on and began dating. She would go on to meet a new partner with two kids of her own and they would settle in together for the better part of a decade. Kianni grew up with brothers. All around the same age, she was a big sister to two boys and she loved it.

Sadly, when the couple eventually split apart, they boys went to live with their biological father in another country, thus functionally removing the boys from Kianni’s everyday life. Kianni was crushed and lonely. Ruth resolved to reach out to resource that helped connect donor conceived families to one another; the Donor Sibling Registry.

Ruth found some families that had also used Donor 2757 and reached out to see if there were potential connections there. The other moms had younger children, since Kianni was the eldest, and had only just connected.

Ruth and Kianni were welcomed with open arms. They planned a meetup in their hometown of Orlando and some other trips. The younger kids didn’t ask a million questions, they just knew that Kianni was ‘their sister’ and that was good enough. Relationships were made, experiences were shared. Kianni got to be a big sister again and it was a feeling she loved. She began a quest to find as many of her half-siblings as she could. The numbers went from 5 to 8 to 12 to 15 to 25, and on and on.

One day, at 17, Kianni asked to reach out to her donor. Ruth thought about it and reached out to him in advance. His name was Nate Dorn. He lived in Georgia and he was a ‘creative’ guy. She reached out first by email, then a phone call, then she started seeing his online presence from his video work with his brother. She eventually agreed to let Kianni meet him when Nate was traveling through Orlando on a work trip with a client.