HAZEL PARK, Mich. — On a snowy night in 2011, April DeBoer, Jayne Rowse and their three children were driving in their minivan down a rural road when a truck, attempting to pass another vehicle, came barreling toward them.
“At the last second, he swerved off the road and veered into a field,” Ms. DeBoer recalled. “I don’t think Jayne and I would have survived the impact. It was that moment, that realization, that we needed to get things in order.”
They figured they could draw up wills and assign custody of their children during a quick meeting with a lawyer. Instead, they are headed to the United States Supreme Court.
After talking to a lawyer in Detroit, Ms. Rowse and Ms. DeBoer were stunned to discover that, as a gay couple living in Michigan, they were unprotected under the law: Michigan does not allow two unmarried people to jointly adopt a child, so their children were technically adopted by a single parent, either Ms. Rowse, 50, or Ms. DeBoer, 43. Each parent legally had no claim to the children her partner had legally adopted.
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Lawyers for the state are expected to argue that decisions on same-sex marriages are best left to the popular vote and that children benefit from having parents in heterosexual relationships. But if the Supreme Court rules in Ms. Rowse and Ms. DeBoer’s favor, their wedding day may come soon.
They are nervously awaiting their trip to Washington — their first visit to the nation’s capital.
“I think that’s just going to be overwhelming, seeing the justices,” Ms. Rowse said. “We’re optimistic and hopeful that they’re going to be on the right side of history.”
A version of this article appears in print on January 25, 2015, on page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: One Couple’s Unanticipated Journey To Center of Landmark Gay Rights Case . Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
