Guest post by @dadswithtriplets
It started with IM’s (who even remembers AOL Instant Messenger, right?)
Our story begins in two small towns 3,000 miles apart and in two different countries. As fate would have it, some thirty years later, we would find ourselves in the same country, same city, and same corner of a bar in Raleigh, NC. It wasn’t love at first sight and things got off to a slow start. It started with IM’s (who even remembers AOL Instant Messenger, right?) and then long phone calls at night building up to our first date. By our first date, we had built a solid friendship that brought us together and keeps our bond stronger even today.
JP was a dentist at the time and Iz worked in finance for pharma. As we continued to date, Iz discovered JP’s love of baking and began to foster and support JP’s hobby. As we started to travel and entertain friends in our home, our relationship grew deeper and we started to develop a side baking business with JP baking and Iz handling the finances. We were a family of 4 including our 2 cute rescue dogs, Max and Lady.
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JP fell in love with baking and decided to pursue it. After completing numerous professional studies in baking, we were both set to embark on an adventure with a gluten-free baking company. By this time, 2014 rolled around and Iz proposed to JP a couple of times before JP finally said YES! We quietly slipped away to San Francisco to get married as same sex marriage was not yet legal in North Carolina at the time. As luck would have it, Oct 3, 2014, is the day we were married and that same day the Amendment One was found unconstitutional. Our marriage was legal in our home state, yet we were thousands of miles away! We kept our marriage to ourselves and a small group of friends, as we always knew we wanted children and would rather invest our money in a family then in a huge celebration. We continued to grow the baking business, and in 2016, after constructing a commercial baking facility, JP took the leap from dentistry to baking with Iz supporting him all the way. The company picked up Whole Foods as a major customer and now our company, JPS Pastry, distributes our gluten-free pastries throughout several states.
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In 2017, we fostered a one-year-old child for a few months and had a wonderful experience. We realized that we really wanted to be dads. As hard as it was to move past losing our foster baby, we knew we had to create our own children. We saved for 3 years and sold our house to cover all surrogacy costs, but in the end, we ended up with 3 beautiful children. We were not sure if we would be successful in having one child. We were certainly not expecting triplets, but we were hoping for twins. As the Universe would have it, one embryo split and we became the luckiest parents to have an amazing surrogate decide to carry all 3. Our sons are 18 months old now and always seem to teach us something new every single day. We couldn’t imagine life being any better or more beautiful or luckier.
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Our boys bring a smile to our face every moment of our lives. We plan to have our vow renewal in 2024 on our 10th anniversary and will have our sons as part of the ceremony.
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