MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A judge has ruled that a Minneapolis woman may pursue custody of two children legally adopted by her estranged lesbian partner.

Nancy SooHoo and Marilyn Johnson adopted infant girls from China in 1997 and 2001, but Johnson became the sole legal guardian because the Chinese government refused to allow lesbian couples to adopt.

Initially, the couple had planned to seek a court ruling that would also make SooHoo a legal parent, SooHoo said. However, she said Johnson later changed her mind, a decision that led to the breakup of the couple’s 22-year relationship last September.

SooHoo has been seeking joint custody so she could make decisions regarding the children’s health, education and everyday life – decisions now left solely to Johnson.

“It was devastating,” SooHoo said of the separation from the children, now 3 and 7.

Johnson said it was not in the best interest of the children for her to comment.

SooHoo and her lawyer, Michael Perlman, received Hennepin County District Judge James Swenson’s decision after two days of testimony.

Court documents show SooHoo was often the children’s contact on medical documents, was well-known to friends and teachers as one of the children’s two mothers and that both she and Johnson shared daily parenting tasks and one home.

SooHoo, Johnson and the children acted as a “family” and SooHoo was not just a “good friend” or “aunt-like presence” as Johnson contends, the judge wrote.

“In almost eight years as a full-time family court judge, this court has seen few, if any, cases involving long-term lovers who combine efforts and income to raise children, yet only one adopts the children, and then they part company, leaving the court to address custodial and parenting time issues,” Swenson wrote.

A custody evaluation will now proceed to determine if SooHoo is awarded any legal rights over the two children. The process takes three to four months.

Meanwhile, SooHoo has visitation rights and remains optimistic. If SooHoo is denied joint custody, she and her lawyer said she would be awarded “parenting time,” which strips her of any legal rights but allows her to see the children, who live with Johnson in Minneapolis.