Coming together...

One great big happy family


By MARTIN C. BRICKETTO
Staff Writer
Courier News

SOMERVILLE -- When Gene and Diane Huntington married in 2004, they instantly had a full house.

Gene, who works in wildlife management, had four girls from his first marriage. His wife, Lorelei, died following a three-year battle with uterine cancer. Diane, a former teacher, had two boys from her first marriage. Her husband, also Gene, died of leukemia at 33.

With time, the two families became one, but legally there were occasional snags.

Diane couldn't help 16-year-old Sydney Huntington get a passport for a trip to Mexico in 2005. Gene couldn't sign off on the releases required for the boys to use a local skate park.

But now the couple and their six children are moving on to what they call a "new chapter."

During an ceremony before state Superior Court Judge Thomas Dilts on Friday, Gene Huntington adopted the boys -- 12-year-old Joshua and 10-year-old Christopher -- and Diane Huntington adopted the girls -- Sydney, 11-year-old Abbey, 9-year-old Ellie and 8-year-old Maddie.

"We told the kids when we got married, in the sight of God, we were your parents, but now in the sight of the law, we're your parents officially," Diane Huntington said.

While they've all been under the same roof for more than three years, the ceremony gave the children a chance to step back and look at the family they'd become.

"I'm going to have a really big family, and I'm really excited," Abbie Huntington said. Before her brothers entered the picture, the smiley redhead said she "wasn't really athletic."

"Now I have people to play with who are (athletic) and fun -- not that my sisters aren't," Huntington said.

More than a dozen friends and family members came to the ceremony at the Somerset County Courthouse. Even more people were expected to attend a party afterward at the family's home in Hillsborough.

"I'm just really excited that it gets to be official," said the oldest child, Sydney. "We bonded so well after we first met and it just grew after my mom and dad got married."

The boys came out of the ceremony Friday as Huntingtons. Both will use their biological father's last name, Hintze, as a second middle name. Joshua said they were becoming "one family," adding that it's felt like that anyway.

The loss of one parent is fresh for all the children. Gene Hintze passed away in 2001, and Lorelie Huntington passed away on Thanksgiving Day in 2002.

Gene Huntington said he first met Diane at his first wife's funeral because she was the sister of a friend. They didn't go out on a date until several months later.

Diane said the couple didn't want to rush into the guardianship process and wanted the children to be ready. Admittedly, they said, it took some time.

A cross-country trip last summer where the family hit 31 states in 33 days in what they lovingly call a "closet on wheels" became one important bonding experience, according to Gene.

"It was like a pressure cooker, it fleshed out some of the last issues we had," Huntington said. "Now we're back to what I call normal chaos."