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Photo Story: Bringing Abby Home

14 images Created 7 Apr 2016

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  • Justin Karas, left, and Jason Holling, right, look at baby formula on July 13, 2014 at Baby's R' Us in Omaha, Neb. The couple started researching and began their adoption journey in 2012. In Nebraska unmarried couples, regardless of gender, cannot adopt jointly. "We had gone for years thinking we couldn’t adopt because of the state laws," Holling said. "We even called agencies in Nebraska who basically hung up on us and said, sorry, we won’t work with same-sex couples." A Gallup poll in 2014 showed that more than one-third of Americans oppose that same-sex couples should have the legal right to adopt a child. Holling and Karas eventually matched with a birthmother who would have her baby in Illinois, a state that allows unmarried couples to adopt jointly. In August 2014, after many hurdles and disappointments, they adopted their daughter Abby Holling-Karas as a newborn in Illinois.
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  • Jason and Justin attend church at First United Methodist in Omaha.
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  • Jason and Justin prepare and pack awaiting the call that Abby will be born soon and they should leave for Chicago.
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  • Justin Karas and Jason Holling leave Edwards Hospital with their newborn daughter Abby on August 29, 2014 in Naperville, Il.
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  • Justin Karas holds Abby after arriving at their hotel on August 29, 2014 in Illinois. "Watching her grow up that's what I’m looking forward to. I think its going to be quite an adventure," Holling said.
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  • Jason Holling, left, and Justin Karas, right, give Abby a bath on August 29, 2014 at their hotel in Illinois. "Even in the first couple days you can already see differences in her and she’s already getting bigger. You can see different motions and little smiles," Holling said.
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  • Abby Holling-Karas, less than a week old, sleeps on couch cushions on August 30, 2014 at Jason Holling and Justin Karas' hotel room in Illinois. Holling and Karas were required to remain in the state until they are granted permission from a judge to bring Abby back to Omaha, Neb.
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  • Jason Holling, left, and Justin Karas, right, take a nap with Abby, center, on August 31, 2014 at their hotel in Illinois. "You've got to experience the whole thing from birth all the way through school and everything else," Holling said. " I think holding her for the first time in your arms and the first bath and all those type of things its just surreal."
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  • Jason Holling prepares formula to feed Abby, one week old, before her first doctors visit on September 2, 2014 at their hotel in Illinois. "Its worth some of the sleepless nights," Holling said.
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  • Jason Holling, left, and Justin Karas, right, sit in the waiting room for adoptive families to take Abby to stand before a judge on September 3, 2014 at the Richard J. Daley Center in Chicago, Illinois.
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  • Jason and Justin take Abby to her first doctors visit on September 2, 2014 at Pediatric Health Associates in Naperville, Illinois.
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  • Jason Holling, left, and Justin Karas, right, leave the waiting room for adoptive families after taking Abby to stand before a judge on September 3, 2014 at the Richard J. Daley Center in Chicago, Illinois.
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  • Justin Karas, left, and Jason Holling, right, leave their hearing with a judge at the Richard J. Daley Center on September 3, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois.
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  • Jason Holling holds Abby in the doorway as she arrives home for the first time on September 14, 2014 in Omaha, Nebraska.
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Sarah Hoffman Filmmaker & Photographer

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