Family can often be far more complicated than we want it to be, but that doesn't mean that we can't make it work. Jessica Share's situation is far from ordinary, but it looks as if she's managed to not only look after her daughter, but find a partner who loves and supports them too.
Jessica's current boyfriend is the sperm donor with whom she conceived her daughter, but given the anonymity of the donation, they didn't meet until their daughter was twelve-years-old.
Her daughter Alice is one of an estimated 67 children that Aaron Long has fathered from his donations, which years later has sent him on a journey to reconnect with his children.
A documentary titled Forty Dollars A Pop follows his journey, and also lead him to find love.
Jessica had two children from Aaron after selecting him from a catalogue with her now ex-wife. When her relationship ended, her ex-wife cut off all contact and took one of their daughters with her.
As Alice grew older, she became curious about where she came from and tried to get in contact with the anonymous donor. Ordering a DNA testing kit and going through the right channels online, she eventually found her father.
The two spoke online about their lives, and when Jessica realised that Aaron was welcoming his many children into his life, she offered to take Alice over to meet him in Seattle.
What she didn't expect was that her and Aaron would hit it off, and he'd become more than just a biological father to Alice.
"I found myself wondering if my children's person could also be my person, and if Seattle was a place for us to land while we figured it out," Jessica told the BBC.
"When heterosexual people meet and date and get married, they often look with devotion at one another and think it would be wonderful to have little people who look like both of them. I'd already spent a decade with those little people.
"I spent my first date with Aaron relaying their lives to him. I already knew him and knew he was just like these people I love more than anyone else in the world. He was already family in some ways.
"His smirk and his colouring are those of my youngest daughter. His empathy and socialism? My eldest."
Jessica and Alice have now moved in with Aaron as well as some of his other relatives, giving Alice the opportunity to meet some of her other half-brothers and sisters. For Jessica, it seems, the whole experience has been a positive one:
"It's hard to tell if DNA played a role in our relationship. I know that I am attracted to Aaron for all the reasons that seemed wonderful when shopping for him in a sperm donor catalogue years ago.
"DNA has become far more important than it was when I first picked a donor from a page. Yet it hasn't replaced the truism that families are built on love, not genes.
"Being open to that love is what ultimately makes a family."
