Porter Has Two Dads

His Parents Opened Their Heart to Open Adoption

Newborn’s birth parents chose his new family

Porter was 12 days old when he met his adoptive parents, Jason and Jonathan. But if you ask the new dads, they’ll tell you they’ve been planning for Porter since they first started dating.

As the couple grew in their relationship and got closer to marriage, they began to more seriously discuss having a family and whether to use a surrogate or adopt. They both agreed that there were many children who already needed homes, so adoption would be a good choice for them.

“As a same-sex couple, obviously our choices for starting a family was limited. We researched both surrogacy and adoption at the beginning. The more we learned about open adoption, the more we really liked it. We loved the idea of birth parents choosing the adoptive parents and them really deciding who was the right fit for their child,” says Jonathan.

A few years ago, they decided to take the next step and attend an informational session at Wide Horizons For Children.

“We had a good feeling about Wide Horizons,” explains Jason. “We talked to two families who had adopted from Wide Horizons, both of whom had really good experiences, but were honest about the ups and down of the process. Once we heard that, we started the process and the home study.”

Next, the couple built their profile, which they say they spent a long time perfecting to get just right. Their profile that they spent so long crafting was shared with the partner agency in the hopes that they might be a match for the expectant couple.

“We didn’t hear anything for a few days so we assumed we weren’t selected,” Jason explains. “But three days later, we got a call that we were selected and the birth parents wanted to meet us!”

As it turns out, the profile Jason and Jonathan created struck a chord with the expectant couple, especially the fact they both came from such large, loving families. Wide Horizons For Children helped arrange for Jason and Jonathan to have dinner with Porter’s birth parents.

“We couldn’t have imagined it going any better… We connected with them and we liked both of them as people. We were on the same page about openness and what we wanted for Porter. It just made us feel that much more excited about the whole thing.”

—Jason

Two days later, Jason and Jonathan brought Porter home and began their new lives together as a family.

Though they say they the adoption process started two years ago, they were surprised at how quickly the details fell into place this past spring. “Working with Wide Horizons helped us bring home Porter. They were really responsive throughout the entire process. We had lots of questions about adoption and about birth parents and about even just parenting, and they were always accessible by email, by phone, by showing up in person whenever we had any questions or concerns,” Jason recalls.

They admit at first they were nervous being new parents, but now they’ve settled happily into their new roles as Porter’s dads, watching him explore the world and be curious about everything.

“Every day is incredible with him, getting to experience him learning about the world,” Jason says. And fatherhood? It has been magic.”

—Jason

“We loved the idea of birth parents choosing the adoptive parents and them really deciding who was the right fit for their child.”

Jonathan, adoptive dad to Porter