Karl Minges, center, and Michael Urban, right, with their children in Central Park, near their new Manhattan apartment. Graham Dickie for The New York Times

Karl Minges and Michael Urban met in Manhattan in 2009, when Dr. Minges was a graduate student at Columbia University, and eventually settled in South Central Connecticut, where both had grown up.

In the years after their 2014 wedding, the couple adopted four children, now ages 3 to 10. Their house in Cheshire, Conn., with four bedrooms and four bathrooms, provided plenty of space and an easy walk to school with the kids. Both worked in West Haven, about 30 minutes south.