Two fathers living in the US have been forced to adopt their own children in order to bring them home to New Zealand.
Ron and Fabian Eckstrom-French have been fathers for six years and didn't anticipate the hurdles of New Zealand's surrogacy laws.
Fabian Eckstrom-French is a Kiwi through-and-through.
"I'm a NZ citizen, I was born here, my parents were born here, my grandparents were born here. Most Kiwis would hope their kids were entitled to citizenship," he says.
He's been living in the US with his husband Ron and their six-year-old twin boys, born thanks to a surrogate.
"Not only are we biologically related to our children but we're the only legal parents our children have ever had."
But on their first trip home to New Zealand, the couple received a letter from Immigration New Zealand.
"In New Zealand, you can't bring an unaccompanied minor and under NZ law you're not the legal parent or guardian of these children," Eckstrom-French said.
They were told they were breaking the law, which recognises the surrogate as the legal guardian.
Fabian says they've travelled all over the world with their children and this is the only country they haven't been treated as a family unit.
"Kind of heartbreaking and it almost led to us not coming back at all."
They faced more complications when deciding to move back to New Zealand.
Immigration denied citizenship for their twins and informed the couple they would have to adopt them here, undergoing a lengthy process.
"Your fitness as parents, your home, they interview neighbours and all sorts of things."
The couple chose instead to adopt their children in the US.
"The judge actually apologised to us in Seattle that we had to go through this before she started proceedings."
The surrogacy laws are under review as part of Labour's Rainbow policy.
"There'll be so many families in the future who'll be faced with the same challenges in the future if things don't change."
Hoping their story will help change the law a little fast.
