MERIDEN, Conn. (AP) – Among the first things the Gossmans happily changed after their May wedding in Massachusetts was Kristin’s last name, and now they’re just waiting for her new driver’s license to make it official.

Her Social Security card has made the switch to say “Kristin Gossman” to take her partner Katy’s last name, but when the couple made the trek to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Wethersfield, the clerk was at a loss of what to do.

“He started to punch it into the computer, and then he looked at the marriage license again. He looked at us, he looked at the license,” Katy said. “He said he didn’t know what to do with us. They weren’t saying no, but they weren’t saying yes.”

The Gossmans were married in Worcester, Mass., on May 20, just three days after same-sex marriages became legal in Massachusetts, and now they are one of eight couples who have filed a lawsuit challenging a l913 law that was used to block out-of-state couples from marrying there.

The Gossmans say they want to save their marriage, and even more so, they want to preserve all the legal and health benefits that come with having a marriage license. Katy, a special agent with the FBI, wants to ensure that Kristin can continue to receive medical benefits under her health plan at work.

With the dangerous nature of her work, Katy, 40, also rushed to have Kristin, 38, listed as her beneficiary in her life insurance and pension policies, saying she worried about whether Kristin would be protected if something were to happen to her.

“When I was younger, I was told ‘deprived’ is when you have something and then it’s taken away. We don’t want to be deprived of our marriage, not after we’ve come this far,” Katy said.

In the lawsuit that was filed last month, the Gossmans and others challenge a law that bars couples who live outside of Massachusetts from marrying there if their marriages would be illegal in their home states.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has said that Connecticut law does not allow for same-sex marriage, but he declined to say whether the state will recognize marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples in Massachusetts. In a letter to Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Blumenthal also wrote that any marriages performed in Massachusetts would not be automatically void in Connecticut.

“It was very important for us to hear him say that,” Kristin said. “OK, it’s not void here so it shouldn’t be illegal for us to get married in Massachusetts.”

With that in mind, the Gossmans jumped in their car and were married by a city clerk justice of the peace, who they say was well aware of their residency. The ceremony was small, with only Kristin’s parents attending, and informal.

Katy and Kristin, a full-time student who is studying to be an echocardiographer, have been together ever since they met while warming up during a softball tournament in Houston, Texas, in 1999. They later moved to Connecticut, where Kristin was raised, and have lived together in their blue Colonial in Meriden since October.

The Gossmans are joined by seven other couples from five New England states and New York in challenging the 1913 law cited by Romney and other opponents in disputing the authority of out-of-state couples to get married in Massachusetts.

So far, since the weddings began on May 17, thousands of couples have gotten married in Massachusetts. Most live in Massachusetts – but some have traveled from across the country to exchange vows in the first state to sanction marriages.

The weddings are the result of a decision handed down in November by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which ruled that gay and lesbian couples had a right to wed under the state constitution.

Opponents of same-sex marriage argue that the court’s justices didn’t have a right to issue its ruling, radically changing the state’s marriage laws. They have argued that the court was interfering with the Legislature’s job.

“The remedies that exist are through the Legislature. That’s the democratic process,” said Marie Hilliard, executive director of Connecticut Catholic Conference.

In the meantime, Katy and Kristin say they will continue to take their weekly bike rides and chase after their dog, who is a frequent visitor to their neighbors’ yards, and they haven’t forgotten about Kristin’s driver’s license. They plan to head back to the DMV, with their marriage license in hand.

They are also hoping to soon add an addition to the family. Through a donor, Kristin is trying to get pregnant.

“We want to be able to tell our child that we’re married. We want to be ‘Mom’ and ‘Mom,’” Katy said. “We want to be a family.”