Maggie Kirkman is the genetic and social mother of Alice, to whom her sister Linda gave birth in 1988. This event caused interest and controversy not only in Australia, where it took place, but around the world. In her paper, Maggie describes how her extended family worked together to make Alice's birth possible and how they developed a narrative through which to make it comprehensible to Alice. The controversy generated by Alice's birth is described and discussed. In the midst of that controversy, Maggie and her husband, Sev, had to learn to parent a baby to whom she had not given birth and of whom he was not the genetic father. Maggie considers both personal experience and matters of public policy as she reflects on the thirteen years since Alice's birth.