Richard Avila Winburn

“And they have their alone time and it's usually high jinks like this, or climbing on top of each other, or you toss them across the bed, or, you know, they're rolling around having fun...I'm more of the, kind of, take the kids to school, clean up their mess, feed them parent and he's more of the playful parent. So they love their Papa.”

“They like to take all of their stuffed animals and bury themselves underneath it... They usually will do that and not say anything for a few minutes until I realize, ‘Where are they?’ and they're too quiet, and I go looking for them. I can't find them. I'm calling out for them. They're not answering me. And I'll go back in the room because I swear, that's where they were last… And then finally, 'I'm yelling, where are you?' And I can hear, 'hee hee hee.' They think it's the funniest thing to hide from me.”

“We heard about fostering ... and we went through the courses, five weeks of courses, and then we became certified. And then a week later, we got a call about Jackson. We told them we wanted a newborn. So we were quite shocked when we got a call about a 5-month-old, and we said, ‘Yes!’ And as soon as we said yes, he showed up at our door five hours later.”

“[When Jackson first arrived], the lack of sleep was a shock for us. He would not sleep, and we were up literally taking turns walking around the room with him. There's just a brand-new child in our house, and we’re responsible, that I think that was the biggest thing for us. If something happens, it says, you know, it's on us.

“And then you just kind of go on instinct. That kicks in and you make mistakes, obviously, but he's still here, we're still here, so we did something right. So as with any parent, it's a struggle. It's always a struggle. But the rewards are so, so great.”

“They love us even though they tell us sometimes, ‘I don't like you. I don’t want to talk to you.’ And they'll turn around and say, ‘Daddy, I love you. I love you.’ It's just those little moments that makes it all worthwhile."

“I think a lot of people might have preconceived notions of what gay couples do as far as like, where they go, where they eat. And we're not, you know, we don't go to fancy restaurants, we don't eat out every night. We're just like every other family, make dinner here... we go to public school. We’re just a normal, regular, average family.”