2Dads2Daughters: One Ordinary Family Built on Extraordinary Love

Jeff and Mack Fernandez-Williams are raising two daughters in Ilocos Norte, showing that LGBTQIA+ parenting is rooted in the same everyday love and care as any family.

Mack Williams and Jeffrey-Roy Fernandez Williams never imagined that parenthood would become part of their story. Yet, today, they’re raising two daughters in Ilocos Norte, proving that while their family may look different to some, the heart of parenting remains wonderfully familiar.

Long before social media knew them as 2Dads2Daughters, the couple spent years navigating fertility specialists, legal paperwork, surrogacy, and countless difficult decisions. Today, those conversations have been replaced by school projects, piano lessons, spilled milk, sibling squabbles, and the familiar chorus of “Hay, Dad!”

“It’s music for our souls,” Jeffrey-Roy says.

Because for most of their lives, children felt like an impossible dream.

The Start of Their Little Family

Mack and Jeffrey-Roy always believed honesty is one of the greatest gifts they can give their children. It’s because of that they’ve been quite open with telling their daughters about surrogacy.

“Our daughters know they were created with God’s grace, a lot of love, and a little science,” Jeffrey-Roy says with a smile.

But the journey began long before Maria and Olivia were born. The couple spent months searching for an egg donor, carefully reviewing detailed profiles that included family medical histories, education, and personal backgrounds. Because Jeffrey-Roy carries a rare recessive genetic condition, the search became even more meticulous. They even requested additional blood tests to ensure their chosen donor did not carry the same gene.

“It was a very extensive search,” he recalls. “Everything worked out, and our egg donor became the biological half of both our daughters.”

The surrogates who carried Maria and Olivia had no biological connection to either child, a legal safeguard commonly used in many surrogacy arrangements in the United States. Jeffrey-Roy notes that while they were fortunate to have smooth experiences, surrogacy laws differ widely across states, making experienced legal guidance essential for any family—whether LGBTQIA+ or heterosexual—considering the process.

Years later, those relationships remain part of their family’s story. Maria’s surrogate has chosen to keep a respectful distance over time, while Olivia’s surrogate has become a close family friend.

“She, her husband, and their two children have spent time with us in our Florida home, and we still keep in touch regularly,” Jeffrey-Roy shares.

They’ve never referred to either woman as the girls’ mother, not out of secrecy but for clarity. Both surrogates have families of their own, and for Mack and Jeffrey-Roy, openness has always mattered more than avoiding difficult conversations.

In many ways, that’s what makes their family feel so familiar. The path to parenthood may have looked different, but the destination has always been the same: building a home filled with love, honesty, and the certainty that their daughters have always belonged.

When the Loudest Critics Live Online

Living in Ilocos Norte, the family says they’ve been embraced by neighbors, classmates, teachers—even their Catholic community.

“Mack and I are Roman Catholics,” Jeffrey-Roy shares. “Our priest in the USA, as well as our Monsignor Tito here in Ilocos Norte, have always been exceptionally welcoming, loving, and kind.”

That welcome extended beyond Sunday Mass. Mack was elected PTA president of their daughter’s kindergarten class and later vice president of the entire school—an opportunity he eventually declined because of travel commitments.

“The students, parents, teachers, and staff have never uttered a negative or hurtful comment towards our children or to us.”

Their daughters, Maria and Olivia, have likewise never experienced direct bullying because of having two fathers. Whether at school, restaurants, malls, or around their community, Jeffrey-Roy says they’ve largely been treated like any other family.

Online, however, is another story.

With more than a million followers through 2Dads2Daughters, the family has received anonymous messages accusing them of “grooming” their daughters—comments Jeffrey-Roy describes as ignorant and deeply hurtful.

“The ignorance of these haters never ceases to amaze us,” he says. “But they’re just a minority. With well over a million followers, our overwhelming responses are exceedingly supportive and thoroughly enjoyable.”

Rather than allowing anonymous criticism to define their family, Mack and Jeff choose to model the values they hope their daughters will carry long after childhood: compassion, humility, and respect.

“We always tell our daughters that Jesus gave grace not just to us, but to all people,” Jeff says. “Straight, gay, bi, trans, lesbian—everyone is created in the image of God.”

Love Doesn’t Need Defending—It Needs Living

Although their daily life feels wonderfully ordinary, the legal realities surrounding LGBTQIA+ families are extraordinary in their stress. Jeff points out that while the United States currently recognizes many parental rights for same-sex couples, those protections continue to face legal challenges. At the same time, the Philippines presents its own gray areas.

“Our children, who are biologically Mack’s and our egg donor’s, are only welcome as Balikbayan for one year,” he explains. “We’re hoping one day they’ll be able to obtain dual citizenship.”

Despite navigating legal paperwork, surrogacy, and citizenship concerns, the Williams family refuses to let bureaucracy become the defining chapter of their lives.

Despite navigating legal paperwork, surrogacy, and citizenship concerns, the Williams family refuses to let bureaucracy become the defining chapter of their lives. Instead, their days are filled with the beautifully ordinary moments that make up family life: sharing dinners with grandparents, watching their daughters run around the family farm with chickens and cattle, helping with homework after school, and cleaning up broken dishes, spilled milk, and every other wonderfully messy surprise that comes with raising young children.

Along the way, they’ve also learned a lesson familiar to many parents—that no two children, even sisters growing up under the same roof, experience childhood in exactly the same way. Each daughter has her own personality, strengths, and dreams, and both fathers see it as their role to nurture each child for who she is.

LGBTQIA+ parenting isn’t about redefining what family should look like—it is about showing up, day after day, in the countless ways that matter. It’s packing lunches before school, reading bedtime stories after long days, cheering from the sidelines, celebrating victories with humility, and teaching children to face disappointments with grace. Long after debates over family structures have faded, children rarely remember the arguments adults had about them. They remember who held their hand when they were afraid, who listened when they needed comfort, and who came home every single day.

And for Maria and Olivia, those people simply happen to be Dad—and Dad.

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