A man has made the extraordinary decision to quit his job and track down all 96 kids that he fathered.
Dylan Stone-Miller, a 32-year-old software engineer hailing from Georgia, fathered almost 100 children through donating his sperm.
The remarkable journey began with a photograph that impacted Stone-Miller, capturing a heartwarming moment with one of his biological offspring, a young child named Harper. "I think of her as my first child," Stone-Miller shared in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
His connection with Harper, whom he met when she was just three years old, ignited a determination within Stone-Miller to establish relationships with as many of his biological children as possible.
In pursuit of this goal, he resigned from his job, financing his newfound purpose using his personal savings. Thus far, Stone-Miller has successfully met 25 of his biological children.
Writing on Instagram, he said: "Hi, I'm 'Donor Dylan' as many of my bios call me. I donated sperm on and off from 2011-2016 and now have at least 96 biological offspring in six countries."
Despite this incredible achievement, Stone-Miller acknowledges that the exact number of his offspring may remain unknown. He admitted: "I will never know for sure how many children I have."
After Stone-Miller divorced his wife in 2020, he received a message from Alicia Bowes, one of Harper's two mothers, who expressed her gratitude to the 32-year-old.
Bowes had managed to trace Harper's donor origins through social media and information from Stone-Miller's donor file, including his first name and his father’s profession as a forensic psychologist.
The bond deepened when Stone-Miller joined a Facebook group for parents of children conceived with his donor ID, 'Xytex 5186 Offspring', a name derived from the sperm bank.
From there, a supportive community formed around the shared connection, with Stone-Miller expressing his eagerness to meet the children he had helped bring into the world. This outreach led to responses from parents of 20 offspring, who were interested in facilitating these connections.
Stone-Miller's motivations for these interactions are straightforward. He shared: "I wanted to watch the children grow up," showing his sincere desire to be part of their lives.
As the connections progressed, challenges arose. Bowes, who allowed Stone-Miller to visit her family twice in the past year, acknowledged the complexity of their situation.
She revealed: "There are moments when it feels intrusive with Dylan. It’s about us figuring out what boundaries are, as well as him figuring out his boundaries."
Bowes maintains a clear distinction between Stone-Miller's role and that of Harper's family. "He is not her dad. Period," she asserted. She emphasized that her daughter has a donor, not a father.
The set of circumstances hasn't come easy to Stone-Miller either, as he confessed: "It was hard to look my biological daughter in the eye and tell her I wasn’t her dad."
As the relationships evolve, Stone-Miller is mindful of preserving their integrity and keeping track of each connection. He maintains a detailed spreadsheet containing his children's names, ages, birthdays, and the last time he interacted with or saw them.
This tale is similar to that of the film Delivery Man featuring Vince Vaughn, which itself was a remake of the French movie Starbuck.
