"I'm studying to be an architect," Sebastian added. "You both mentioned your childcare situations. We have a nanny who comes for six hours a day while we're in class. We have their afternoon nap set up so they've just gone down when we get home. That way we get a couple of hours of schoolwork in before they wake up. We do the rest after they go to sleep in the evenings. We do our best to leave our weekends open."
"That makes sense," Marguerite said. "Kurt said his parents don't live nearby and you have two kids, not just one, so it would be really impossible to be able to study and watch them. I'm majoring in Early Childhood Education, so my hope is that when I graduate a year from May, I can get hired on at one of the nice pre-schools in the area and I can enroll Lily there at a huge discount or free. That way Damion will be able to go to graduate school without having to work."
"I'm majoring in Psychology. I need a Master's Degree to work as a school counselor."
"Our longterm goal is for me to work at a preschool just long enough for Lily to be old enough to start kindergarten and then I want to move to working at an elementary school. It will give both of us evenings, weekends, and summers off. We really want to travel."
Kurt said, "I'd love to travel in the summers."
They all talked about the different places they'd like to go while they finished up eating. Kurt pulled out the cake and cupcakes they had made, as well as the homemade "ice cream" while Sebastian cleared the table.
"So, for the adults we made a regular loaf of banana bread with chocolate chips. The cupcakes are made with just bananas, eggs, a little baking soda, and that's it. We have homemade goat milk yogurt cream cheese or regular whipped cream cheese if you want to add some to the cupcakes for your girls."
Sebastian pointed out, "Rose had some issues with dairy, so the doctor suggested we start with goat milk."
"The 'ice cream' is just pureed frozen bananas. It really tastes a lot like ice cream and the girls love it."
The other four nodded.
Kurt spread some of the goat milk cream cheese on Rose's cupcake. Sebastian put the regular cream cheese on Aliza's. Marguerite and Carrie put regular cream cheese on the mini muffins for their girls. The adults all took slices of banana bread and put regular cream cheese on them and sat down.
Kurt got their camera out and used it to video record them singing and giving Rose her cupcake.
She picked it up and licked the cream cheese off. "Mmm. Yummy!"
Rose watched her, as did Lily and Amelia. The followed her example and licked theirs as well. They all four ended up with cream cheese on their noses and cheeks. Kurt took photos of all four of them as they ate.
"Well, those seem to be a hit," Sebastian said, as he wiped Rose's hands and face. "We'll have to add those to our menu."
"They sound easy to make. Can you let me copy down the recipe?" Marguerite asked.
"Sure." Kurt pulled the card out that he had written it down on and put it on the table.
Marguerite and Carrie both typed it into their phones while Damion and Marcos fed their girls the 'ice cream'.
Once all four girls were cleaned up, Marcos put the gift they brought on Rose's tray. She looked it over and banged it on the tray. Kurt reached over and started to tear the paper just slightly. She ripped it the rest of the way off.
Carrie said, "It's nothing that she'll think is exciting. But Amelia has had a ton of hair since she was born and I noticed that Rose's is just now getting long enough to need brushed, so we got her the brush that we like best out of the, like, five we tried."
"Thanks," Kurt said. "That will save us the time finding a good one."
Marguerite passed another gift down for Rose, who quickly realized that she was supposed to pull the paper off. Once it was unwrapped, she started to play with the paper instead of explore the box itself. Sebastian reached over and took the box. He opened it and pulled out two pieces of fabric with elastic on three sides.
"My mom makes them and other things, like kitchen stuff and bibs. It's a UPF sun cover for the lower half of the girls carriers. They can be put on strollers too. That's what the velcro strap is for. The cover will keep the sun off their legs while they're wearing dresses or rompers. That way you don't have to put sunblock or long pants on them."
Kurt took one from Sebastian. "That's a really good idea. I've seen the thick blanket type for the winter that cover the whole carrier, but I hadn't really thought about it for the summer. Last summer, I just kept her in thin sleepers when we went out. But these will be really handy in the car and stroller since we're starting to take them on outings now. Thank you. I love the fabrics too."
"I wasn't sure when Aliza's birthday was, but I figured it could be used soon, so it can be an early present."
Kurt nodded. "I'm sure we'll use them a lot."
Rose started to stick a piece of the paper in her mouth.
"Yucky. We don't put paper in our mouths." Kurt said gently, and took it from her. "Let's go play instead of eating the wrapping paper."
"Pway! Up!"
"Up!' Aliza copied.
They moved into the living room to put all four girls into the playard. Before Marguerite sat Lily down, she realized that she needed to change her diaper. Kurt led her back to the girls' room. She grabbed Lily's diaper bag on the way.
Kurt opened the gate and let her step through and closed it behind him. "You can go on in." He followed her into their room.
"Their room is really nice. Those quilts are really cute."
"I made those."
"You sew?"
"i do. I used to make and alter a lot of my own clothes. I was never a big fan of the options available to teen boys in the Midwest."
She smiled. "Plaid, stripes, solid or graphic tees, and baggy zip-up hoodies and jeans don't seem to suit you."
"Not really. I used to dress a lot more fashionably than I do now, though. I've opted for more wash-and-wear over dry-clean-only these days."
"I bet. You can go back to being more fashion forward when you don't risk being peed on," she teased.
"My thoughts exactly."
"I'm sorry about Damion being so nosy earlier. It's from a good place."
Kurt tilted his head just a bit and looked confused.
Before she had a chance to start explaining, Sebastian came in with Aliza. He sat down with her in the rocker to keep her occupied while they waited to use the changing table.
"My older brother Tristan is gay. He's 28 and he and his boyfriend, Connor have been together since they were 16, so I guess 12 years now. They looked into adoption a while back and again recently and basically got told that it wasn't going to happen in Ohio."
"Oh."
"So, Damion's been curious ever since we realized that you two were a couple rather than, like, best friends that brought their daughters to Kindermusic together."
Kurt sighed. "Honestly, I'd suggest they move to New York, get married legally, and start the adoption process there."
"I'll tell him that. Is that where you two got married?"
"It is. The other option would be to hire a surrogate or seek out a private adoption, neither of which is cheap, but neither is uprooting their lives and moving to another state. Even if marriage equality becomes law soon, I think Ohio remain a pretty conservative state when it comes to placing children awaiting adoption into homes with a gay couple. I think they'd have more potential of being successful at getting a child placed with them if they lived in a more progressive state."
"I'm sure you're right, but our whole family lives in this area."
Sebastian said, "I know it's none of my business, but I know that some gay couples ask a sister to have a child with the partner. That way the child is biologically related to both fathers."
"We've considered it, and that's probably where it's heading, but working while pregnant is hard. It's not that I don't want to help them out, but being pregnant is really tiring and I'm going into my senior year next fall. Damion and I both have birthdays in May. But maybe we could work it out so that they cover my medical expenses and my lost wages. I'd want to do it soon though – before I graduate. I need to be able to work full time by the time Damion starts graduate school. The other issue is that Damion and I have been trying to have another baby around December next year so that Lily wouldn't be an only child. But I'm not pregnant yet and if my brother has a baby, Lily would have a cousin, so I don't know. It's a lot to think about."
"It is. Sorry I don't have any amazing advice," Kurt said.
"It's fine. Complicated things are always complicated." She picked Lily back up. She stepped closer to Kurt. "Do you remember Kurt from music class?"
She smiled at him.
He reached out to offer to hold her, but she didn't lean towards him, so he put his hands back down. "Maybe another time," he said cheerfully.
Sebastian got up and put Aliza down on the changing table.
"Tristan and Connor had a hard time coming to terms with Lily. They initially offered to raise her and adopt her when I found I was pregnant at 19. Damion and I weren't married at the time, but the day I found out I was pregnant, he took me out for a nice lunch and proposed. We went to the courthouse the next morning and got married. We didn't tell anyone about Lily for a month, or the fact that we got married. So, his initial reaction was, like I said, to offer to raise her so Damion and I could go on with our lives and not be tied down. When I told Tristan that we had already gotten married, he was really upset. Not angry with us upset, but upset because Damion and I had only been dating for three months when I got pregnant. We actually met at a summer camp we both worked at that summer. Both of us were stupid and drank at a party, and in our relaxed state we both let things go farther than we had before. Everyone said you couldn't get pregnant your first time. Neither of us were smashed or anything, but we were still stupid enough to believe that myth. We were both full-time college students living in the dorms when I realized I was pregnant. Neither of us had any money to speak of. We couldn't get a refund on our room and board, so we stuck it out living separately until the end of the semester."
Kurt said, "So Tristan and Connor had been together for 11 years and couldn't get married or have a child easily and you married someone that you'd been with for four or five months at that point."
"Exactly. And the two of them graduated from college back in 2008 and have good professional jobs."
Kurt nodded.
"We live in the apartment that I had turned down in order to have the 'full college experience' of living in a dorm. Lily was born a few weeks after the semester ended last spring. We spent winter break renovating the apartment. We couldn't afford much, but our families threw us a wedding shower and a baby shower the first weekend of winter break. We made detailed registries with only things we absolutely needed. With the cash we were given, we got some couch covers, painted the walls cheerful colors, got some fabric for fun curtains that my mom sewed for us, some art print posters and put them up. And left it at that. Oh, and we built a free-standing canopy bed frame out of 2x2's, painted it, and hung sheets up around the bed because it's a 1-bedroom. We put Lily in the small bedroom and put the queen sized bed in what should be the dining room. It's not ideal by any means, but it's free."
"Free is my favorite price," Kurt said cheerfully. "And you have a solid plan on how to move forward, so that's good."
"Dada, Dada, Dada!" Aliza called out for Kurt. She tried to turn and reach out for him.
He moved closer to the table and caressed her head. "Hold still, honey. Papa can change you faster if you hold still."
She nodded. "We do. And I do love Damion. We're fortunate that even though we hadn't been together long, we really are very compatible. If I hadn't gotten pregnant, I'm confident that we would have gotten married after graduation. We just jumped the gun a little."
"Well, we have that in common. Only a handful of people we went to high school with know about us being married and about Rose and Aliza. The others would all be opposed to it."
"But you and Sebastian are like relationship goals from what I've seen. He looks at you like you're better than his favorite flavor ice cream."
Sebastian blushed. and smiled guiltily.
Kurt laughed. "We were in rival show choirs. And there were high school shenanigans."
She burst out laughing. "That's so High School Musical."
Kurt shook his head. "Maybe a cross between that and The Sopranos."
"No way." She started laughing hysterically.
"It's true," Sebastian confirmed. "$20,000 in slashed tires is no laughing matter though."
"Wait, what?"
"Oh, yeah," Kurt said. "Egging people. Another choir TP-ing our choir room. Spying. Trying to infiltrate another choir. And more spying. Sing-offs in poorly lit parking garages at night."
"Don't forget breaking and entering to steal another teams's National Trophy in an effort to lure back a former member. We were seriously nuts. So much drama," Sebastian said, shaking his head.
"That is nuts. I thought you were exaggerating."
"On the lethal aspect, yes. But the drama of it, no," Kurt said.
"It also involves a cheating ex who doesn't understand the meaning of the words 'ex' and 'no'," Sebastian said.
"What a mess. Surely, he's backed off by now since you're married."
Kurt rolled his eyes. "That's the hope. He left town at the end of winter break and we haven't heard from him since."
She chuckled. "He was still bothering you back then?"
"In his defense, he didn't know that we were married. I never felt the need to contact him and tell him."
"Well, duh. I'm glad he's backed off."
"Yeah, me too." Kurt thought about the upcoming concert and figured that he had at least one more 'take me back' serenade to endure.
As soon as Sebastian finished, Kurt picked Aliza up and the five of them went back to the living room to watch Frozen.
Right before the girls were due to wake up from their afternoon nap, Kurt opened the door and was greeted with a hug from Carole.
"It seems like longer than a week since we've seen you guys."
"Come on in," Sebastian said. "Everyone else should be here in a few minutes. Daniel and Lia picked my grandparents up already. And all of the girls' 'uncles' and Trina should be here soon too."
Kurt said, "We're just waiting on them to wake up to change them."
Burt came up onto the porch, carrying a fairly large box.
"What on earth is that?" Kurt asked. "We said that they could use some summer clothes. That's why to big to be a few outfits."
Carole chuckled. "I bought them clothes. It was so much fun. That's what Burt picked out."
"You'll just have to wait and see, Mr. Nosy. This is Rose's gift, not yours," Burt teased. He put it down and went back outside. He came back a couple of minutes later with a box identical to the first. "And this one is for Aliza."
Kurt smiled. Finally. His dad was finally acting like what he had imagined he would with grandkids. "I'll wait. I'm fine."
Burt huffed and smiled. "Sure you are. You're so curious it's oozing off of you."
Kurt rolled his eyes. "I'm going to go into their room and get them."
Carole followed along behind him carrying a small shopping bag. "I brought outfits for today, unless you have something special picked out already."
"They wore what we picked out earlier to their tiny party with 'friends'."
"How did that go?"
"We seemed to hit it off with one of the couples. Not so much the other. But the girls had fun crawling around after each other in the playard. There was only on spat over a toy. None of them really paid much attention to the movie, except they did all looked towards the TV during the songs."
"That makes sense." She was quiet as Kurt opened the door. She pulled out the outfits and showed them to Kurt. One had a bouquet of yellow daisies on the front and had black leggings with small individual daisies on them. The other had a bunch of violets tied with an orange ribbon on the shirt and black leggings with the same design, but about the size of a nickel."
"Those are really cute and they'll mix and match with the outfits that came with jackets that I got at Kohl's. Come look." Kurt opened the closet and showed her the other four outfits.
"Those are adorable."
Rose opened her eyes when the closet door opened. When she saw Carole come out of the closet, she squealed, "Mimi!" and pulled herself to standing in her crib.
A huge grin spread across Carole's face. She picked Rose up out of her crib and laid her on the changing table. Rose's squealing woke Rose up. They worked together to change and redress the girls.
Kurt said, "One thing we're going to need to do soon is to get Rose some shoes."
"If they're still in a good mood after everyone leaves, I'd love to go with you."
"I don't see why not."
By the time they made it back to the dining room, everyone else had arrived. Kurt passed Aliza off to Trina and went into the kitchen with Sebastian, who was brewing a second pot of decaffeinated coffee. They had already sliced up the remaining banana bread and a loaf of chocolate pound cake and put the slices on a round serving tray. Kurt grabbed the containers of chocolate and vanilla ice cream and put them out near the cake with two ice cream scoops.
Carole and Trina had gotten the girls in their high chairs already and got in line with everyone else. The younger members of the group stood around the island and ate while Burt, Carole, Dotty, Richard, Daniel, and Lia sat at the table.
Kurt looked around. "Where's Nick?"
Jeff heard him and answered. "He'll be here any minute. He had to stop somewhere."
"Oh, okay." He took the bowls they had prepared for the girls over to the table. Each one had another one of the mini cupcakes in it.
"Yummy!" Rose declared when the bowl was put in front of her.
Sebastian started to sing and everyone joined in.
Rose bebopped back and forth with a huge smile on her face while they sang. When they finished, she looked at Sebastian and asked, "Eat?"
"Yes, Sweetie, you can eat it now."
She picked it up and licked the icing off. "Mmm." When it was all gone, she held the mini muffin out and asked, "Moh?"
Kurt smiled and gently answered, "You need to eat the muffin."
"Moh, pweef?"
Kurt was stuck. She had asked nicely and everyone was watching him. It was a lot of pressure. He had told her 'no' and he need to stick to it, but not upset her since it was her birthday. He guided the muffin to her mouth. "Take a bite, Sweetie. I know you like it. I'll put more cream cheese on the next one."
She gave in and took a bite. "Yummy."
"It is yummy. Eat the rest and you can have another one."
Carole managed to grab Aliza's muffin before she smashed it. She broke it into tiny pieces so that Aliza could feed it to herself.
Kurt moved away from the high chair and put a slice of chocolate pound cake and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on his plate. He stood next to Sebastian, close enough that their calves were touching. Sebastian looked at him and winked, which made Kurt blush slightly and smile. Sebastian finished before he did and made Rose the second muffin she had been promised.
Once everyone finished eating, Dotty and Carole cleaned the girls up. Carole picked Aliza up and held her while Rose opened her presents. Daniel and Lia brought a selection of toddler books that Rose loved.
She pulled them out of the gift bag one at a time. "Book! Book! Moh book!" She turned to Kurt. "Weed book?" She offered him one.
He took it and read it to her while everyone watched. He had to get her out of the high chair to open the other presents. He helped her stay standing as she ripped the paper on the first box. Sebastian moved close to her on the other side. Burt handed him a pocket knife to get the box open. Sebastian pulled out a toddler sized shopping cart. Rose started clapping. Kurt helped her get ahold of the handle and she managed to take a couple of steps before she let go and sat down. She grabbed onto Sebastian's shirt and pulled herself right back up and grabbed for the handle again and made it a few more steps.
"This is great," Sebastian said, looking at his grandparents. "Thank you."
They both smiled and nodded.
Trina handed Sebastian an unwrapped CD. "This is to change up your after-dinner dancing. It's got great songs."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Burt got up and motioned for the girls to be brought over to the boxes he had brought in. Carole held Aliza and helped her rip the paper off, while Rose tore the paper off the other box. When the paper was removed, everyone could see that they were seats for an outdoor swing set. Burt used his knife and slid it down the tape on both boxes. He pulled the swing out of the second box.
"I did research and found the nicest, most comfy ones I could find."
"They're cute," Kurt said. "They have elephant faces."
"There were others that were colorful, but these are durable and water won't collect in them and they're flexible, so they'll be comfortable. I know you all are building the swing set tomorrow."
"We are and we hadn't picked the swings out yet," Sebastian said. "I saw these on Amazon when I was looking at lunch the other day, but I hadn't shown them to Kurt yet. They're even nicer than I thought they'd be. They're great. I'm sure the girls are going to love them for years to come."
Burt nodded. "That's the hope."
Kurt looked it over. "I like this a lot. The toddler ones we looked at seemed to be a little too big and the infant ones seemed like we'd only get one summer of use out of them. I can buy some strapping like the seat belts on the high chairs and attach them to these swings easily. That will keep them from being able to fall out until they get bigger."
Carole said, "That's a great idea. We can get some wherever you can buy it when we go out later. That way you can get them ready for tomorrow."
Kurt nodded.
Wes had gone out and come back in. He put an unwrapped box in the open space that had a play grocery store inside. Rose crawled over to examine the box.
"You can open it and put it together whenever you think they're ready to play with it."
Sebastian looked at it. "That's adorable. And the shopping cart is perfect with it."
Nick and Jeff scurried out and came back in and put another box down.
"A play food truck?" Wes said. "We did not see one of those."
"Me either," Kurt said. "But it's super cute. Thank you."
"Of course. Anything for our beautiful princesses," Jeff said.
He blew Rose a kiss and she blew one back.
"Yeff. Up!"
"Yes, Sweetie." He leaned down and picked her up.
"Muah!" she said, and kissed him on the cheek.
"My first kiss from a girl. You've stolen my heart." He tickled her the way she liked, which made her laugh.
Sam was the next to leave and come back. "These are from your grandparents. I forgot to go back and get them when we got here." He sat the smaller boxes that was wrapped on the floor.
Rose crawled over and ripped the paper off one of them. Sam sat down with her and opened the box. He pull out a bus and the Little People figures that went inside.
"I haven't seen one of those in ages," Carole said.
Dotty replied. "Sebastian had one when he was little and he loved it, so I thought we'd get Rose one too."
Sam put the people inside and pushed it a little bit. Rose moved closer and took all of the people back out and then put them back and rolled it. She looked back at the other wrapped boxes and ripped the paper off another one. Inside there were eight Little People animals.
She squealed when Sam started putting them out on the floor for her. "MOO!". She picked up the cow and then the sheep. "Baa!"
"Well, those are a hit," Sebastian said, smiling sweetly while he watched her.
"She loves the animal sounds books so much, we thought she would like them," Dotty said. "We bought the food truck and the other set of animals for Aliza already. We'll give them to her on her birthday. We also have the house and the farm that we'll give them for Christmas – once they're old enough to start playing with them rather than just pushing the figures around in something."
"Thanks for telling us. Now, we won't get them ourselves," Kurt said. "Thank you to everyone for the gifts. We're going to order pizza for dinner, so if anyone has any special requests, tell Trina."
Wes picked Aliza up and he and Jeff took the girls to the living room. Sam, David, and Nick followed behind with all of the Little People toys. Everyone else followed them in after they told Trina what they wanted.
Dotty and Richard approached Kurt and Sebastian, who were moving the boxes to the garage to get them out of the way. When they had finished, Dotty asked, "Would you show us around? You showed us pictures of the things you changed, but we'd like to see them firsthand, if you don't mind."
"Of course, Grandma," Sebastian said. "This way." He and Kurt showed them around.
"Everything looks so nice, Sebastian," Richard said. "Whoever you hired did a good job on that Murphy bed. It's solid and nicely finished."
"I was pleased with the work they did. If you ever hear of someone wanting a recommendation, I'll give you the company's name."
"I'd like to have it."
Two hours later, the pizza had been eaten, and everyone had said their goodbyes and headed out for the evening. Before Sam and Trina left for their date, they decided to postpone the swing set construction for two weeks because the predicted high for the next day was in the mid-30's again. They settled on a trip to the Columbus Museum of Art instead.
Kurt picked Rose up. "You've had a big day." He kissed her on the forehead. "Daddy loves you so much."
"Wub," she repeated back.
Sebastian had Aliza in his arms and leaned in and kissed Kurt.
"Muah!" Rose said.
Sebastian kissed her as well.
"How about a bath for the two of you before you go to sleep?" Kurt asked.
"Baf!" Rose answered and started kicking her feet. She pointed towards the bathroom. "Bubba?"
"Yes, bubbles."
"Bubba!"
The first three days of the week passed slowly as the adoption hearing date approached. Kurt and Sebastian had notified their professors that they wouldn't be in class and they had arranged to get notes from classmates. They had asked Amaline to go ahead and come an hour early and stay until they went down for their morning nap to give themselves time to get dressed up and mentally prepare for the day, so she was tending to the girls when their alarm went off.
Kurt pressed the snooze and cuddled back into Sebastian tighter.
"Mmm," Sebastian mumbled. He nuzzled into Kurt's neck, took a deep breath and hummed. "Mmm. You're so snuggly. I think of all the things I've learned about you in the last six months, the thing that surprises me the most is how physically affectionate you are."
"It surprised me too. I don't have anything to hide or protect from you. I can be free and open and vulnerable." He picked Sebastian's hand up and started kissing his fingers. "I'm tense and I can feel that you are too. I think it's unavoidable. Scoot back a bit."
Sebastian scooted back and lay on his back.
Kurt moved to straddle his lap and leaned down to kiss him. "So rather than try to convince us to be calm, I'd like us to distract ourselves and make out."
"Excellent plan. I'd like to suggest and addendum to your plan." He slipped his thumbs under the lower edge of Kurt's boxer briefs.
"Yes."
Kurt was glad that he had overplanned the night before because after distracting themselves, and taking a quick shower were they distracted themselves again, they were running behind schedule. Amaline had already left and the girls were sleeping in their carriers. Kurt grabbed leftover slices of banana bread and handed one to Sebastian. They ate them quickly and washed them down with milk because their coffee was still too hot to drink.
They met Daniel at the courthouse at 9:30. They had brought their single strollers and fastened the girls carriers to them as carefully as they could to keep them asleep. Fortunately the vibration from the strollers moving helped lull them back to sleep. They finished up the coffees they had brought with them and put their travel mugs in the bag under Aliza's stroller. They had brought already prepared bottles with them to keep the girls quiet if the hearing ran long and they woke up hungry.
They walked up and down the hall together a few times. The last pass they slowed their pace so that when they stopped, it wouldn't be a sudden change. They sat one on each side of Daniel and waited.
"Kurt Hummel-Smythe and Sebastian Hummel-Smythe."
They looked up to see a middle-aged woman, smartly dressed in a deep blue business suit with a knee-length pencil skirt. They stood up and followed her into the courtroom. Daniel followed them.
There was no one else in the room. The woman who had called their name sat down at a computer to take notes. A moment later, a man who appeared to be in his late 30's or early 40's sat down at the large, elevated desk.
"Kurt Hummel-Smythe?"
"Yes, sir," Kurt answered politely.
He looked between the stroller and back at his paperwork. "I assume that you have Rose Smythe in the stroller."
"Yes, sir."
"Very well. And you're Sebastian Smythe with Aliza Hummel?"
"Yes, sir," Sebastian responded.
"And lastly, Daniel Montgomery, the Hummel-Smythe's attorney?"
"Yes, your honor."
"This is an unusual case and I've done more research on this than my other six current stepparents adoption cases combined."
Kurt and Sebastian both nodded.
"I've never been presented with a stepparent adoption case that involved same-sex parents because Ohio does not legally recognize same-sex marriages. But France does, as does New York, where you two were married and where Kurt lived for eight months before returning to Ohio last May. You are individually named on your daughter's birth certificates as their only parent. That makes this process less complicated because there are no parents to potentially contest to the stepparent adoption."
Daniel nodded once.
"I have read through everyone's letters carefully. I have meticulously reviewed the home study. I have found no reason why these two children should be prevented from being adopted by their loving stepfathers."
Kurt forced himself to remain calm. He smiled and kept himself from biting his lower lip.
Sebastian's face lit up with hope, but he didn't allow himself to believe it yet.
"I am stating for public record and I will be certain that the final order states that this case should not be used as a legal precedent for other same-sex couples living in Ohio. But because you two are legally married in one of the countries in which all four of you have citizenship, specifically France, and according to all of my research, France does allow for stepparent adoption through the required legal steps there, and you are legally married in New York, which also grants stepparent adoption rights to same-sex couples, I see no reason to hold up this adoption for you to either appeal here, or move back to New York or travel to France and begin the process in either of those locations, which will no doubt take time and might require you to stay longer than you can to be able to return to your schooling here in Ohio in the fall. Your academic records and letters of recommendation from your professors were quite impressive. You both have significant wealth and would have no need for support from the state should the two of you split at any point in time."
He looked down at his notes again before he resumed speaking.
"Your request that their birth records be sealed will be granted. No one will be able to access their original birth certificates without authorization from one of you, even the girls after they turn 18. You may rescind the restriction at any time if both of you sign jointly."
Kurt and Sebastian nodded.
Kurt said, "Thank you, sir."
"I hearby grant the petition of adoption of Aliza Grace Hummel by Sebastian _ Smythe." He looked down again to double-check his notes. "And Rose Alexandra Smythe by Kurt Eli Hummel. Both children have resided in the same home with the petitioners for six months, as required by law. This court finds the home environment more than acceptable and has deemed their letters of reference to be in good order and supportive of the adoption. This is a permanent and legally binding decree, granting all rights and requiring all legal obligations of parenthood to be fulfilled by both adopting parties."
He shuffled through the papers in front of him again.
"Since both girls were born here in this county. Mr. Montgomery will be able to pick up new birth certificates for Rose Alexandra Hummel-Smythe and Aliza Grace Hummel-Smythe at the Office of Vital Records on Monday."
Kurt couldn't contain himself. He turned to Sebastian and hugged him. He held onto him for a few seconds before turning back to the judge. Kurt pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his eyes. "Thank you, sir."
Sebastian was in shock, but eventually spoke up. "Thank you. You have no idea how much easier this will make everything."
The judge chuckled. "I have a good idea. I had to have several pages of French legalese professionally translated into English just to figure out what the laws regarding this issue are in France. As I previously stated, this is not a precedent-setting case. I do wish you all well. Your girls are lucky to have such devoted fathers."
He stood and exited the room.
Kurt turned to Sebastian again and threw his arms around him. "It's done. He said 'yes'!"
Sebastian buried his face in the nape of Kurt's neck so tight that his voice was nearly muffled. "He did. Their ours together."
"I have to call my dad."
Daniel smiled and ushered them towards the door. "Let's do that in the hall. There are other cases on the docket."
"Yes. Right. Of course." Kurt let go of Sebastian and they pushed the girls back out into the hall.
Kurt dialed Burt's number and he heard his 'Defying Gravity" ring tone. Kurt looked up and saw Burt came around the end of the hall. Kurt practically hurled himself into Burt's arms. Carole pulled Sebastian into a hug. They switched after a few seconds.
"I think this calls for a celebration lunch," Burt proclaimed enthusiastically. He looked at Sebastian. "Text your grandparents and have them tell us where to meet them." He turned to Daniel. "Would you be able to join us?"
"And maybe even Lia?" Carole asked. "We know that you've done so much for our family, we'd like to treat you to lunch as a thank you."
"Let me see." He pulled out his phone and texted Lia. He got a quick reply. "Her 11:00 cancelled at the last minute. She should be able to meet us. I just need to tell her where. Let's head outside and get the girls loaded up."
Sebastian's phone vibrated and he glanced down. "They said they can meet us at the Bob Evans off 270."
"Sure," Burt said. "I'll put it in my phone and get directions."
Daniel nodded. "I'll meet you there. I'm parked out the other side of the building where there are reserved spaces."
"I'm going to run to the restroom really quickly before we head out," Kurt said. He winked at Sebastian where neither Burt nor Carole could see him.
"That actually sounds like a good idea. I drank all that coffee when we got here," Sebastian said.
"Give me your keys and we'll get the girls loaded up. We saw where you were parked on the way in." Carole reached out for Kurt's keys.
Once they were in the restroom, Kurt locked the door behind them. He wrapped his arms around Sebastian and kissed him. "Their ours."
"They are." Sebastian pressed in and they kissed until they were breathless. "I love you."
"I love you too. We better actually hurry up and use the restroom or my parents will wonder where we are."
"One more kiss."
"Of course."