Why Our Family Posed

Our family's story is one of hate, love and everything in between.  My partner and I (commitment ceremony in December, 1995) had long been working on adoptions.  We found out about our son 3 days prior to his birth and had just enough time to go shopping for things we hoped we needed (with frantic phone calls to siblings on what they got for their infants) and time to fly to Tennessee for his birth.  The birth was magical!  On the 2nd day we entered the hospital to find 3 Sheriff's deputies with guns out who pushed us into a room and told us that we had to leave the county as the Tennessee Militia was marching on the hospital and death threats had come in against us and the birth mother.  Over the next 2 days (in hiding with a man sitting outside our motel room with a shotgun to protect us) we agonized on what we should do - not for us, but for this tiny person we'd already grown to love.  We ended up getting onto an airplane with our son, and the birth mother (her first plane ride - EVER) so we could do the adoption in California.  The outcome: an amazing family forged in hate was cemented in love!  9+ years later we are honored to participate in this campaign.