And so the Price family meeting continues...
...
We sat next to each other on the couch (Kevin sat between Jack and I) and held hands, facing our parents, who stood before us. After a moment of silence, our dad cleared his throat.
"Mom and I have been talking," he began. I squeezed Kevin's hand, and he squeezed mine back.
"And we realized some very important things," Dad continued. "Firstly…Kevin, we've only known that you are gay since this morning." Kevin hung his head in shame. A lump formed in my throat.
"But," Dad continued, "we've loved you since you were born."
We all sat up straighter. Jack and I looked up at Kevin. His eyes had lit up, but that familiar smile wasn't back yet. "Does…does that mean…" he stammered.
My parents smiled. This time my mother spoke. "Kevin, I gave birth to you," she said. "Your father and I raised you from the moment you came into this world. We watched you take your first steps…we heard you speak your first words…we gave you a brother, and then a sister to love, and love them you always have…we sent you off to school and watched you take each year by storm…we watched you grow up into a wonderful young man…we watched you graduate high school, and we cried tears of joy because we were so proud of you…we watched you answer Heavenly Father's call and become a missionary…we sent you away to Uganda for two years, and although we missed you, we were so proud of you…we welcomed you back home just a short week ago…and now we've heard you come out. We've watched your entire life pass before our eyes, and we've loved you the entire way. And we're not about to take any of that away."
My eyes widened. I couldn't believe it. My family was not about to be split apart!
Kevin smiled from ear-to-ear. I could see his eyes shining with imminent tears.
And just when I thought things couldn't get any better, my dad interjected, "We know that we could get excommunicated from the church. We know how people can and will treat us for this. But honestly, we don't care. After our faith, our children are the most important things to us. We're not about to shut out our own child just because our faith doesn't agree with who he loves."
Kevin practically launched himself off of the couch and wrapped both of our parents in a hug. "Why didn't you say anything before?" he asked.
My mom shook her head and chuckled. "Honey, in case you've forgotten, we're Mormons. As soon as you said the word 'gay', our religion kicked in. But that was wrong, because we were being selfish. Immediately we started thinking about how this was going to affect us, just your father and I. But it isn't about us. It's about you. And it's about our whole family, and that no matter what happens, we love each other."
Mom looked over Kevin's shoulder and smiled at Jack and I. "Right, guys?" she asked.
We responded by jumping up and forming a family hug…the biggest and best one since we picked up Kevin from the airport just a mere week ago…
...
Hooray! It looks like the Price family is going to be okay!
But this story doesn't end here...no way, we've got one entire summer to document!
Join us next time when we find out even more shocking news...