Two unconventional but successful families

[pegkerr]

Two nice little pieces about two different families caught my eye today:

Here's a story about Devin and Geoffrey, a gay couple raising three (high energy) little boys, who will be celebrating a double Father's day this Sunday.

David and Elizabeth Weinlick celebrate their tenth anniversary. Perhaps you remember this story, when they married at the Mall of America ten years ago: David had decided his senior year of college that he'd get married on a particular date: June 13, 1998. Trouble was, he didn't have a girlfriend. So he set up a website and made a commercial, asking women to apply to be his wife, and he had his friends pick out his bride for him. Elizabeth Runze was the one who ended up taking the plunge. They'd had a five minute conversation before they married, and their first kiss was at the altar.

Many (including David's family) didn't give them a snowball's chance in hell, but ten years later, David and Elizabeth have three children and consider their marriage entirely a success.

Comments

[bluewaterlilies.livejournal.com]

And, of course, Matt Logelin will be celebrating a very special Father's day of his own this Sunday.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I may actually meet him this weekend. He is coming to Minnesota to spend father's day with his family, and his wife's parents are having an open house at their home, and they've invited people who have been reading along on his blog to attend. I've commented a number of times to him, and I think I may go. Depends on how our own Father's Day shapes up.

[aome.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear the Mall of America couple made it!

And you've reminded me to call S&S this weekend to wish them a Happy Father's Day.

[moony]

I really liked that story about the two dads. Gives me hope for my own future with rugrats. :>

[naomikritzer]

I have periodically checked up on the MoA couple by way of Google and Wikipedia, to see if they were still going strong. (If they'd divorced, it would've made the news and therefore the Wikipedia entry, even if I'd missed it.) (I swear they had a Wikipedia entry last year but now I can't find it.)

I was fascinated by their story at the time, in part because I was a relative newlywed myself (Ed and I got married in July of 1996), and read ALL the coverage. It was pretty clear to me (particularly after reading a fairly lengthy Strib article that was based on an interview with the couple) that they were a really good fit for each other, and that they were a good fit in part because they were both very weird, but in the same (or at least in compatible) ways. "Do you share eccentricities, or do your eccentricities mesh successfully?" is an underrated success factor for marriage, I think.

One thing that impresses me now about the Weinlicks is that they neither attempted to turn their brief notoriety into money-generating celebrity on the reality show circuit, nor do they seem resentful of the fact that they will always be the Mall of American Couple. The impression I've gotten from the occasional follow-up articles is that should I ever run into them and say "ohhhhh, I remember you! you're the Mall of America couple!" they'd say "yup," laugh, and change the subject.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I was fascinated with the story at the time, too. I did have the impression at the time they married that they would surprise everyone and go the distance, for much the same reasons.

David Weinlick

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

I went to high school with that guy.

Re: David Weinlick

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Did you know him pretty well? What was he like?

[trogon.livejournal.com]

I was really encouraged that the two-dads story didn't feel the need to include a quote by frothing anti-gay lunatics about how horrible adoption by same-sex couples is -- we may have moved past the media needing to 'balance' every positive story about gay families. True, the article acknowledges the existence of opposition, but the tone is one of "here is an obstacle to wonderful parents like these" than "here is the other side of the story".

[kokopoko.livejournal.com]

Those are so heart warming!