Gay dads, 12 kids are officially a family
by Karina Bland – Aug. 11, 2012 – The Republic
Steven and Roger Ham, gay men raising 12 children adopted from foster care, were recently named to Esquire magazine’s list of the 10 best dads of 2012. But the two had no idea until it was pointed out to them.
They’re a little busy.
Steven spent six years at home taking care of the growing family. In January, he went back to work full time now that Olivia, the youngest, is 3 and eager to go to preschool like her siblings.
Roger, who works as a school-bus driver and had the summer off, took 11 of the kids on a three-week, 4,248-mile road trip that involved four DVD players, three iPads, a 11/2-pound dog named Zeus and a tiny orange kitten that Elizabeth, 13, found recently.
Vanessa, 17, the oldest, bailed out of the 15-passenger van at their first stop in Las Vegas. She opted for a sibling-free visit with Steven’s brother and his wife while the rest of the clan headed up the West Coast, camping near beaches along the way to Washington state to visit family, and then back to San Diego.
The family appeared in a story last year in The Arizona Republic chronicling the dads’ efforts to adopt in Arizona.
Roger and Steven, partners for almost 19 years, have pieced together their large family here in Arizona, where two men can’t marry and where conservative lawmakers have tried a half-dozen times to keep single people, including gays and lesbians, from adopting foster children. Last year, lawmakers passed a bill that moved married couples to the top of the waiting list for adoptions.
After the story, the pair got calls from journalists around the globe and accolades from human-rights groups.
The publicity even garnered Steven, 44, and Roger, 48, two spots among 10 fathers “who showed us how it’s done” in an issue of Esquire dedicated to fatherhood.
Amid all this, they also got a phone call from Washington state that would bring their family even a little bit closer.
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