The Adoption-Beginning

So many times I have told a variety of stories about my life and people have told me to write a book. As someone who spends every moment doing something, and the difficulty of managing my ADHD enough to finish a project a book sounds overwhelming to me.  So I have chosen to write a blog.  Each day I will share a story.  Except for my name, all other names are changed, so that hopefully no gets too upset with me.  I will also try to refrain from telling other people's stories and remain true to my own.

Saying this I must start with the story of my parents.  Since they have both passed and cannot share their story, I feel that this will give a good background to my story.

My parents met in Jr. High.  I don't know many people who met in Jr. High and stayed married for their entire lives and my parents were no exception to this rule.  My father's parents were both alcoholics and he was a sickly child who didn't get much attention.  My mother's parents were raised on farms with a strong work ethic.  My maternal grandfather worked as an engineer and was gone a lot, he died of a heart attack at the young age of 56.  My maternal grandmother was a secretary, and a strong woman who was in charge of the home.  As you can tell I know more about my mom's side of the family than my dad's.

My parents decided to get married quickly while my father was on leave.  The wedding was thrown together quickly and they soon went off to Germany.  My mother didn't last long overseas, due to homesickness.  After my father was discharged they planned to have a family, but soon found out that my father was sterile because of having mumps as a child.  They chose to adopt and applied at a Christian adoption agency wanted both a boy and a girl.

My brother was adopted first at three months and the rest of that story belongs to him.  When he was two my parents let the agency know they wanted a girl.  That little girl was born on New Year's day while they were in Pasadena on the parade route with 40 junior highers from their church.  It was just three weeks later that they received a phone call that they could pick up their baby girl.  They belonged to a church, and the pastor went to the agency, and held the baby in the backseat of the car on the way home.  I was told many times over the years that I peed on the unsuspecting pastor.  He became a very important man in my life.

Back in those days it took a full year for an adoption to become final.  The adoption agency could drop by anytime to check on the family and make sure the baby was thriving.  I was told that I had a close relationship with my father, and that every time he came home, I would jump up and down and shake my crib or playpen until he would pick me up.  I was daddy's little girl.  So that my brother would not be jealous he was told that I was his baby and he became very protective of me.

We seemed like the perfect little family, and we had everything that my mother had ever dreamed of.....