I think I've posted this story a million times...and you would think I would just have a "cut-and-paste" to make it easier. Alas, here's the short version...

My partner (Mark) and I met online in January 1998. I had just graduated from college, and moved to the Philly burbs. I was looking to make some new gay friends in the area and Mark IM'ed me. We started chatting and discovered that we have the same birthday (a few years apart). We decided to meet in person at a club in the city, and went on our first date the following week. We've been together ever since, inseparable...best friends.

Even though we were always together, we made official in December 1999, and moved into a townhouse. Soon after Vermont passed their Civil Union law and we decided to go for it! Our Civil Union took place in Essex Junction on January 6, 2001.

The following year we bought a single family home. Soon after, we started thinking of becoming parents. After looking at the various options available to us, we chose to use surrogacy as our method. We found our surrogate in April 2003...we were pregnant by November 2003...and our beautiful baby boy was born on August 2, 2004.

Despite being gay, we feel like a regular family unit...we generally have the same experience as any other family. We couldn't be happier with our lives (well...maybe winning millions and retiring to Hawaii would be just a little better), and we're looking forward to growing and sharing our future experiences together. Of course, in the meantime, we're busy living in the moment with baby, home maintenance, and trying to keep the house clean!

BTW...nice site! Quite impressive [:)]

Ron Baumann-Erb