You could say that Hurricane Katrina brought David Lee Simmons and Faith Dawson together.

OK, not really, but wouldn’t that be quite the love story?

Theirs is a love story, which led them to East Atlanta, where they live with their adopted son.

The two did live in New Orleans when they met at a media dinner. She was the managing editor for New Orleans magazine and he was the arts and entertainment editor for the Gambit Weekly. Each was attached to someone else, but they found one another again after the storm.

“We started dating over Mardi Gras, but soon after Jazz Fest, completely unrelated to each other, we wound up in Atlanta — she as a reporter for the AJC, and me as the A&E editor for Creative Loafing,” Simmons says. “It was pretty whirlwind, looking back on it now.”

As an editor at CL, Simmons interviewed tuba player Philip Frazier for a story about brass bands after Katrina. He worked out a deal to propose to Dawson between songs at a Rebirth Brass Band show at Smith’s Olde Bar. Even though the band forgot his name and he had to rush through it before losing the moment, the crowd cheered and Dawson says, “I never let go of my beer during the whole time. I was sort of in shock.”

Dawson wanted a wedding with crazy dancing, loud talking, free-flowing champagne and worn-out guests (remember the first wedding in Four Weddings and a Funeral? Yeah, like that). And she got it.

The ceremony was held in New Orleans at Our Lady of the Rosary and the reception overlooked the Mississippi River from the French Quarter. Bringing the proposal’s theme back into the picture, the Rebirth Brass Band came in at the end of the evening and led a second line around the room. “Our friends and relatives still talk about that night,” Simmons says.

The couple had been married a while when they began trying to expand their family. “I was sort of surprised we couldn’t have a baby the old-fashioned way, as I always thought my family was pretty fertile,” Dawson says.

Simmons says they agreed that given their ages and openness to the idea of adoption, that would be the best route. The entire process took about 18 months for them. “We should add the most amazing aspect of all this: As long as it took, once we started sending out our profile and paperwork, we agreed New Orleans would be one of the first four or so cities we’d focus on,” Simmons says. “And we got a response literally weeks later, and then had Elijah within a matter of a week!”

Simmons and Dawson were caught unprepared for Elijah’s arrival, which means a name had been discussed but not chosen. “Elijah” had been brought up previously, but didn’t stick until the night before they were to pick up their new son. The baby’s middle name, Stephen, honors Simmons’ recently deceased brother.

The East Atlanta couple is quickly learning about the attention and energy it takes to raise a child. “Parenthood seems like a young(er) person’s game, but I think I’d probably be even ditzier if I were younger, so focus has been the toughest part,” says Simmons about his self-diagnosed short attention span.

Dawson counters, “I do think that when you’re in your 30s or early 40s, you are more set in your ways when you welcome a first baby in the house. You think you know so much, you have all this life experience, here’s a baby — no problem! And then you find out that your life experience doesn’t amount to jack, because it’s the baby calling the shots!”

This is particularly evident when parents learn how to handle the children, only to have them develop and “throw you a whole new set of challenges,” Simmons says.

It’s still undecided whether they’ll accept another new set of challenges by adding a second child to the family. Each of them can make a case for more siblings or not (Simmons was one of five children; Dawson an only child).

“We’re still discussing it,” Simmons says. “It feels so early, but we know if we’re going to add another child, we may want to crank up the process again soon!”

The usual Ruckus questions:

Parents’ names, ages, occupations:
Faith Dawson, 43, health editor at WebMD
David Lee Simmons, 48, communications director at Chattahoochee Riverkeeper; arts journalist

Children’s names, ages:
Elijah Stephen Simmons, 13 months old

Neighborhood:
East Atlanta

Transportation:
Subaru Outback

Parenting style:
A weird mix of old-fashioned values and lots of fun. We take him everywhere and try to expose him to everything (within reason), but want him to be raised with discipline and structure.

How you’re different from other parents:
David Lee: We’re not sure if we ARE that different from other parents. The ones we see (mostly at daycare, maybe some friends and family) seem pretty nurturing and (hopefully) not too over-protective. Although we do see kids and parents in public who make us just cringe. It seems like a lot of parents today helicopter their kids when they should lay off them, but also leave them alone when they should be taking care of them. (Witness any kid-friendly restaurant in town! LOL.)
Faith: We have built-in challenges. Interracial couple with an adopted baby. That’s more explaining than the average parent has to do early on.

What you do for fun:
Lots of walks around the neighborhood, the East Lake YMCA pool, festivals, the Starlight Six Drive-In, the Silver Scream Spook Show, other Atlanta attractions, travel (mostly back to New Orleans with TONS of relatives), The Music Class, and a TON of reading to him. We try to laugh in front of him, and make him laugh, as much as possible.

Favorite rainy day activity:
David Lee: Reading or movies.
Faith: The pool at the East Lake YMCA

Favorite playground:
We have been bad about playgrounds, but figured he’s only now coming into that age where it would be OK for him to go there, but we’re thinking Brownwood Park will be the closest for us.

Favorite event of the year:
Again, a little too soon to say, but in his first year Elijah has experienced not only his first Mardi Gras (which he loved) but also the East Atlanta Strut (which he also loved) and the Little Five Points Halloween Parade (not so much; maybe it was bad to wake him up from a nap for that!).

Favorite dinner:
Seafood gumbo

Favorite kid-friendly restaurant:
Though we’ve only been a couple times, they’re so sweet to him at Mi Barrio in Grant Park.

Favorite family board game:
Too soon, but we would love to push Trivial Pursuit on him ASAP!

Children’s favorite CD/music:
David Lee: We play a lot of music, not just kid’s music, but I love Dan Zanes and the Imagination Movers. But more often than not, I play reggae, ska and an awesome “Legends of Ukulele” compilation.
Faith: I sing a lot of Beatles to the baby.

Children’s super hero abilities:
David Lee: He has an uncanny desire to observe, to really observe what’s going on around him. He’s forming words already, and makes a beeline for the bookshelf/library wherever he goes. If heart-melting is a superhero ability, Elijah is Batman.
Faith: He may be able to take the form of a tidal wave.

If you were a book, what might we not know from your cover?:
David Lee: That I’m way more sentimental than I like to admit.
Faith: Our chapter has a lot of footnotes!