The day after election day this year, we were ECSTATIC about the advances in legal recognition of same-sex marriage in our home state of Maine, and in Washington and Maryland.

We wanted to do SOMETHING to celebrate, and we wanted it to be clear that we weren’t just trying to “make a buck” off a new wedding market. (I’ve written here about why marriage equality isn’t about the money for us.) We decided to do a giveaway of TWO engagement rings to one couple, leaving a month for people to tell us their stories and send us their pictures explaining why they should win.

Judging the entries submitted turned out to be A LOT more difficult than we’d anticipated. There were so many super-convincing candidates that it was heart-wrenching to choose among them. And there were so many sympathetic stories of loss and heartache that it hurt to know that we couldn’t add a “win” to those stories. It was a relief to remind ourselves that the vintage engagement rings that we are giving away aren’t something that any of the entrants actually NEEDS.

The TurtleLove.com staff carefully combed each story and discussed. We ended up talking about what marriage equality means, about freedom of religion, about the goals of TurtleLove.com as an organization, and about the incredible breadth and diversity of human experience. It was a growing experience for each of us, and it was A LOT harder than we expected. We are grateful to each of the entrants for sharing their stories with us and allowing us to view the world through their eyes for a period.