Love Wins in the South

"My wife and I got married August 8, 2012 in Alabama. We flew out to D.C. and got our marriage license the next day. It took 6 months, multiple trips and getting a lawyer just to change Ariel's last name to my last name.

Two years later Ariel got pregnant with our beautiful daughter Mavis. The amount of paper work our lawyer had to do for us just to make sure if anything was to happen to Ariel the state would not take our child from me. Alabama is a state that does not allow same sex adoption.

A couple, Kim and Carrie, fought for that right. Fought for equal rights, and to allow same sex adoption in this state. Years of fighting, lawyers, travel and debt they won. Thanks to them, in 2015, I was able to adopt Mavis. No more paper work, and I'm on my daughters birth certificate as parent. I can't explain in words how it feels knowing now everyone has no choice but to see Mavis as my child.

Thanks to them two strong amazing women for fighting for rights everyone's rights, including their own, it would not have been possible. They were first, and we were second on the adoption of our children in lower Alabama.

Big THANKS to everyone including NOH8 for the fight. Keep fighting for your right to love whoever God brings into your life. God is love, not hate. Keep fighting for your rights, cause you don't know who's life you are changing."

~ Heather, Ariel and Mavis