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Jason and Kyle Share Their Adoption Story

Written By GWK Staff

Guest post by Jason Gingras.

Our adoption journey has been truly amazing. I met by husband by chance when I left all behind in Orlando, Florida, back in 2016 and moved to Charlotte to start a new life. I was struggling to balance my faith in the Catholic Church and my sexuality, but once I decided to accept myself and to not look back, all the shame and guilt was gone.

I met my husband on Memorial Day back in 2016. I remember chatting on Match for a couple of weeks after his first “What’s up?” and saying to myself, “Oh boy, he’s 10 years younger.” But I loved his drive and his passion, and he volunteered regularly in the community. I was visiting family in Florida and Kyle said to me, “If you don’t come up here today for a date, I am not sure when we will meet again as I am deploying down to the army base in Georgia for a while.”

So there I was, I told my dad and step mom I have to leave early for a work emergency back home in Charlotte.

I drove straight through from Tampa to Charlotte, showered quickly and headed to our date at an Asian fusion restaurant. We had an amazing time over cocktails and dinner and followed things up at the showing of Alice in Wonderland. A week later Kyle took me on a trip to Asheville to hike in the mountains of Craggy Gardens where I fell in love with him. It was truly a remarkable experience.

We shared our goals in life with each other over the coming weeks which included marriage, two children and purchasing a home together. We got married at an Episcopal Church which I was received in back in 2017 after officially leaving the Catholic Church. We wed on October 6^th, 2018, in front of all our friends and family including my dad who wasn’t always so tolerant of my chosen path in life. We went on our honeymoon the following week to Italy and France having been both our first trips to Europe. Rome was our absolutely favorite followed by Venice and Nice, France.

If you want to become a dad through adoption, start your journey with GWK Academy

In July of 2020 we matched with a mom out of Jacksonville, Florida, and over the coming months, we began a beautiful relationship with her via Zoom due to the pandemic. Our son Breton was born 40 days early on October 5^th one day before our 2-year wedding anniversary. He spent a couple of weeks in the NICU getting strong and learning how to eat.

Over the coming years we continued a relationship with Breton’s birth mom and anytime we visited family in Florida we made sure to make a stop in Jacksonville so her and her mom could have time with Breton.

We unfortunately experienced a loss in October 2022 when Breton’s mom miscarried our second child. It happened one day before our son’s 2^nd birthday which was a lot to work through and process as a family, including us dads and Breton’s birth mom. We had uprooted our lives and moved to South Charlotte expecting a growing family and leaving our city life behind so it was a lot we had to work through as a couple.

Then this year, I remember the last week in October talking to Kyle and becoming resigned to the fact that we may not have a second child at all. I even spoke to friends and told them if we didn’t have a second child by 2024 we were ok with a one child household. And low and behold, a mom out of Miami, Florida, asked to see profile books of parents who recently experienced a loss. And having gone through a miscarriage, the mom picked us because she actually loved the pics of our son Breton and really wanted to give him a sibling. We matched on October 27^th and our son was born on November 18^th, a very short adoption journey period.

We’ve started the new year blessed that we overcame many adversities. But, as Roman’s mom sent to us in a letter shortly after matching with us, “Remember guys the journey just started for y’all. You got this!!! God gives his hardest battles to his strongest solider.”

If you want to become a dad through adoption, start your journey with GWK Academy

We are so blessed to be father’s today. Me being someone who struggled a lot with his sexuality in the Catholic Church, trying to pray the gay away, exposed to conversion therapy, and trying to date girls to bury the truth. Today, with no shame and guilt left, I am a proud father to our sons and husband to an amazing partner.

We had the pleasure of working with the inclusive agency, ACF Adoptions in Florida, for all of our adoptions. The Executive Director, Robert Lamarche, who is openly gay, was a pioneer in the fight to legalize gay adoption in the state. His team is amazing and super understanding, having worked with us through all the ins and outs of the adoption plans. For more information, visit: ACF Adoptions.