My Introduction

My name is Kristen Montan. I am 49 years old, I will turn 50 in 29 days. I am married to my wonderful, feisty, and yes sometimes difficult, wife Emily. Our wedding history is typical for any queer couple. To make a long story short and to put it in heterosexual terms; we have been together 8 years and have been married for 2.5 years. She is my my rock and love of my life!! We live in Oakland, CA. I am living with aplastic anemia, a chronic debilitating blood disease and as such I am disabled.
I identify as a transman, what this means is that I was born into a female body, but I identify as male and I prefer being addresses as such, i.e. he, him, Mr. sir... I live as a man, but my body is still female. This is one of my internal struggles...due to my aplastic anemia physical transition is most probably not possible for me.
I am a devout Unitarian Universalist, and Emily and I attend First Unitarian Church of Oakland . I am transitioning out of being the lay Worship Team leader into being a part of our new Coordinating Team, where as one of the lay members appointed by our minister, I am responsible for overseeing the Program Health of the church. I also oversee the multi-media elements of worship especially creating a slide show in PowerPoint each week, with hymn lyrics, responsive readings and other elements, to support both worship services on Sunday morning.
I am also Uncle Fuzzy to my 4.5 y/o nephew, Leon. He is the joy in my life. Emily and I watch him at least 2 nights a week.
My back story is I was born and raised in Livermore, CA and graduated from Granada High School in 1979. I have an AA degree in Business/Management from Chabot College, and a BS degree in Business/Finance from CSU East Bay (formerly CSU Hayward). I spent 14 years in retail, and then found my calling in training/education. I worked at a community based training center, Vallecitos C.E.T. and then moved on to teach and become a Dean at Heald College and my career finished in Silicon Valley where I  worked at a trade association, IDEMA, as the Standards Program Manager. I managed Standards committees, and coordinated symposia and technical conferences in both the U.S. and in Asia.

I have decided for lent, instead of giving up something, I am going to add the spiritual practice of blogging. I look forward to sharing, ruminating, and just plain old journaling!!