Gay couple wins international fight for their baby girl

For the better part of the past year and a half, Gordon Lake's dream didn't look like it would ever come true despite the simplicity of his wish.

But after putting their lives on hold, shuttling to Spain, the U.S. Embassy and a courtroom in Thailand and dealing with gay bashing and accusations of human trafficking, it appears as if Lake and his husband, Manuel Santos, will get their wish.

They simply want to sit on their couch in their home in Valencia, Spain, read books to their two children and "be boring."

Their lives have been anything but boring since an international custody battle that garnered worldwide headlines began 16 months ago. That was when a woman who had contracted with a gestational surrogacy agency to carry the couple's baby decided she did not want gay men to raise the child.

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She wanted custody even though the child is not biologically hers.

Lake's parents live in Indialantic Fla., and he visits quite often. His next trip to his parents' house undoubtedly will include one more in his entourage.

But you can't appreciate just what Lake and Santos have gone through without starting at the beginning.

Like every good love story, it began with a chance encounter.

Lake, originally from New Jersey, moved to Madrid in 2010 on a "temporary basis."

"I was going to stay for six months or a year teaching English to make money and to learn Spanish," he wrote e-mail this week. "I ended up learning Spanish, then getting my MBA."

He landed a job with a prestigious business school. But only a short while after arriving in Spain he met Santos, who had traveled to Madrid on business from Valencia.

They hit it off and started a long-distance relationship.

When things started getting serious, they sat down over gin and tonics to figure out what they were doing. Santos told him he wanted a relationship but only on two conditions: He did not want to move back to Madrid, were he had lived for several years, and he wanted to have a family.

Lake soon moved to Valencia, about a four-hour drive from Madrid, and in July 2012 the couple got married. Same-sex marriage has been legal in Spain for nearly a dozen years.

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Lake found a job in marketing at the Berklee College of Music’s campus in Valencia and Santos started a production company working mainly on television commercials.

Things got better in 2013 when their son, Alvaro, was born. The couple used an agency in India that arranged for an egg donor and surrogate with Santos as the biological father. Lake then adopted the boy.

"Santos is an amazing father. It all comes naturally to him," Lake said. "He is so giving and funny and protective."

Fast forward nearly two years and the couple was ready for another addition to the family, but this time Lake would be the biological father. They chose an agency in Thailand, once again opting for gestational surrogacy.

They would be adding a little girl named Carmen to their family.

That's when the world came crashing down around them.

In January 2015, Lake was unable to reach the surrogate mother who had to complete a last bit of paperwork that would allow them to take their daughter out of Thailand. He started getting antsy.

His worst fears were realized when she basically announced that she wanted custody of the child because she objected two gay men raising the girl that she birthed. She embarked on a media campaign and painted Lake and Santos as human traffickers.

"We pretty much went into shock," Lake said. "The whole situation was terrifying and extremely stressful."

So, for 16 months the couple was forced to keep Carmen's location in Thailand a secret because they were afraid that the surrogate would try to take her. Legal battles, media campaigns and courtroom drama ensued.

Santos had to close down his company and let his employees go. The couple tried to keep things as normal as they could for Alvaro but kept traveling back and forth because one of them needed to be in Thailand at all times.

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They relied on social media and fundraising sites to help pay their travel and legal expenses.

Even with a signed contract, they had no guarantee the Thai courts would rule in their favor. Same-sex marriage is not legal in Thailand, and Thai surrogacy law only contains language referring to a husband and a wife.

The case went through mediation sessions, legal meetings and hearings. Finally, just last month the court was ready with a decision.

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"We were very confident and optimistic, but it is a court hearing and you never know," Lake said.

The court ruled in the couple's favor, meaning more than a year and a half after Carmen's birth she finally would be able to go home and be with her entire family.

Santos and Lake were overcome with emotion.

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"The experience has been a nightmare, but at the same time a lot of positive has come from it," Lake said. "We have been given so much positive energy from love and support from people around the world, but above all the Thai people who have been so amazingly supportive, in social media, sending messages, donating money to our legal fund, lending us apartments to stay in, translating documents."

Carmen should be going home any day now. For Lake, only one thing now remains — his dream of a paella lunch and cozying up on the couch with Santos and the children and reading to them.

"We did what we had to do. There was really no other option." Lake said. "Just like with parenting, we just had to try to make the best decisions we could along the way and hope for the best."

Follow John A. Torres on Twitter: @johnalbertorres