5 years later. Just wow. I now have seen, both my birth parents. I walked away, with the knowledge of.   That’s all. And will have to suffice. I belong to no one. It started with, me.  And I carry this, knowing it will never be what I thought, it should be. I came alone.  And will leave, alone.  Slowly realizing. accepting albeit begrudgingly. Life. And you can’t make it be, pretend it to be. It is, what it is. On another note. I hate what our country is becoming. This note, looms over me right now, more than anything…

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Its a profound loss. That I’m working on.  To recover from. Not having a mother or father. I’m not sure that the feeling of loss, is valid.  But. I’ve always felt the loss. Maybe didn’t know the right words to express, or even know what the emotion, feeling was.  But. What I do know, is that the feeling, the mourning. The emotion is real. Not having a mother or father, is not upfront. I had parents. The experience, the life. As I’ve shared, wasn’t ideal.  But, I’ve known folk that experienced, even worse.  But my experience.  Is all that I…

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I am a parent of multitudes. A parent of three, a stepparent of three, a grandparent of six, and a previous foster parent of two. Of course, most people would say I am a parent of three, and some people may even deny me that label. I adopted my three, existentially mine forever, beloved and delightful children from abroad. It is somewhat controversial now, but it wasn’t so much then. Let me tell you how it came to be my way of parenting. There I was, a poor college student with a seemingly intractable health problem, one that would make…

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We were the white parents of 2 daughters, ages 4 and 2 in 1971, when we decided to add to our family through adoption. We were living in Columbia, Missouri at the time and though we lived in a college town and our social network was made up of people linked to the University, it was not exactly a bastion of liberal thinking. The Civil Rights Act, essentially outlawing discrimination in public places, integrating schools, and public facilities, and making discrimination illegal, in regards to employment, did not exist until 1964. It was said to be the most expansive civil…

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Before my adopted brother came into our family’s lives we had lost two potential babies.  My birth mother died at a young age due to a misdiagnosed ectopic pregnancy in the 1940’s.  Then my dad married again and his new wife lost a baby girl pre-birth. Instead of my continuing to face the world as an only child, Peter came into our family.  He was a foster child, about 3 and several years younger than I. One day we met him and a social worker in a park — I think it was staged as a chance meeting but what…

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Perhaps the best known feeling of an Adopted Person, is the thinking of the Unknown. The Wondering. Both, in mind and soul. Who am I. Where did I come from. I can see Your parents, know Your parents. But, where are Mine. We. Are your Parents. States the Adopted Parent, adamantly. And we love You. As if you were our own. One of ours. Except, I’m not. Thinks the Child. A real notion, that is not dared said out loud. At that moment. You say I am. This Birth Certificate. Says you are. But, we all know. The Truth. Or…

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I was born March 23, 1978. In Corsican, Texas. The story was always told was my birth mother gave me up after she gave birth to me in the hospital. Then I was sent a foster home in Fort Worth, Texas. I was adopted at 2 months. My adopted family was from North Branch, Minnesota. They are a white and I am black. They went through Catholic Charities in St. Paul, Minnesota. The adoption was legal. They decided to have the adoption be closed which meant that I would not know anything about my birth family. Because it was legally a…

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