| I was born on a hot summer morning in | | | | man at our door. "Some woman ordered it," he |
| Minneapolis, MN. Six months later I was | | | | said. It was Clint. Later he started to run |
| adopted. I grew up in a working-class | | | | afoul of the law by stealing hubcaps and |
| neighborhood in south Minneapolis, just a few | | | | escalated to frequent trips to the Anoka |
| blocks away from the Mississippi River and | | | | County Jail. He finally was sentenced to a |
| Lake Street. Evie was born 23 months later | | | | community corrections program, where they |
| and grew up in the "poor section" of the | | | | forced him to attend school and finish his |
| Washburn High School district. Our fathers | | | | high school degree. Since then he has worked |
| were middle-class workers, my Dad with the | | | | in any number of jobs, including owning and |
| Minneapolis Gas Company, and hers as an | | | | running his own businesses, and has added |
| inspector with the City of Minneapolis. My | | | | numerous certificates for car and computer |
| Mom was a full-time homemaker, hers, a | | | | repair, as well as a low-voltage electrician |
| working mom doing part-time bookkeeping | | | | license. Besides being unlike us in |
| during the war. We each have an adoptive | | | | interests, he is also unlike us politically. |
| sibling, Evie a brother, Jim. I have a | | | | He is a hard-core Republican and we are |
| sister, Mary.At some time early in my life my | | | | life-long Democrats.Our daughter Katie is |
| parents told me I was adopted. I didn't | | | | totally unlike him, and us. She is bright, |
| understand what that meant and didn't think | | | | sweet and artistic. Like Clint, she hated |
| much about it. I could never understand why | | | | school. An undiagnosed ear infection caused |
| some kids laughed at me when they found out. | | | | hearing problems during the crucial language |
| One even called me a bastard. I just shrugged | | | | development stage. Her speech is fine, but |
| my shoulders and walked away. For me, being | | | | she has difficulty understanding figurative |
| adopted was just a fact of life.Unfortunately | | | | language. She also was diagnosed as learning |
| for my sister, it wasn't. She learned when | | | | disabled, but not at a severe enough degree |
| she was seven and it destroyed her. I asked | | | | to require Special Education classes. (To me, |
| my parents why they hadn't told her and they | | | | this always sounded like having only one leg, |
| said that she wasn't ready to find out. I | | | | but not being eligible for services because |
| never was able to understand why I was ready | | | | you didn't limp badly enough.) Her academic |
| to know at three and she wasn't at seven.Evie | | | | problems were compensated by her artistic |
| learned early on and fantasized that she was | | | | gifts. She is a very talented writer and |
| the lost daughter of a princess. Her parents | | | | keeps a diary. Once, when little, she |
| regularly read her The Chosen Child, which | | | | described an extended trip to northern |
| dealt with adoption. We both led normal | | | | Minnesota. "We drove and we drove and we |
| lives, but I had a strange experience when I | | | | drove." She also won an award for a statue |
| was four-years-old. I was told from the | | | | she made in a school art's class. She also |
| beginning that no one knew who my other | | | | has high moral standards, and went through |
| mother was. But one day I came in from | | | | her teens drug and tobacco-free. We couldn't |
| playing and found her crying. "your other | | | | be more proud of her. After she finishes a |
| mother died," she said. How could she have | | | | course in aesthesiology she intends to become |
| known if nobody knew who she was I wondered. | | | | a make-up artist. We're sure she'll do a |
| I still wonder to this day, but I did find | | | | wonderful job. |
| out that my birth-mother wasn't as anonymous | | | | |
| as I was led to believe. More of that in Part | | | | Like us, she's an animal lover. She |
| II.Evie and I lived through the 'Forties and | | | | graciously is leaving two dogs for us to care |
| 'Fifties and graduated from High School. Evie | | | | for.In short, being adopted doesn't seem to |
| went to Washburn and I attended Minnehaha | | | | have been such a big thing for our family. As |
| Academy, then went on to college. Evie went | | | | we grew up, Evie and I would have liked to |
| to Hamline University and the University of | | | | know more about family health issues. That |
| Minnesota. I graduated from the University | | | | problem has been solved because we both have |
| with a three-year break with the Army after | | | | found our birth-families. Neither of us have |
| my Freshman year. We met in 1966 and married | | | | had abandonment issues, or at least not |
| in 1967. In 1973 our son Clint came | | | | conscious ones, and I don't think Katie or |
| along.Clint was healthy and happy, but | | | | Clint do either. Since we have met out |
| definitely like neither of us. He shares our | | | | birth-families, it has been nice to know |
| facility with language, speaking full | | | | people who look like us. Our children seem to |
| sentences at 9 months and able to carry on | | | | be comfortable that they are adopted, and we |
| adult conversations from the age of seven. | | | | can always think that the really good things |
| But while Evie and I have trouble changing a | | | | about them are due to their upbringing, and |
| lightbulb, Clint is literally a mechanical | | | | the things we don't like, to heredity.The |
| genius, scoring at the 9999th percentile in | | | | discovery of our birth families is told in |
| an mechanical aptitude test. From the | | | | Part II.John Anderson is very anxious to |
| beginning he was fascinated with cars. I've | | | | learn of adoption experiences/issues and |
| always liked them, but I didn't have to have | | | | invites you to contact him at He is the |
| one next to me on my pillow when I went to | | | | author of a mystery-thriller, The Cellini |
| sleep. His intelligence has worked against | | | | Masterpiece, written under the pen name of |
| him. Bored in school, he began to get in | | | | Raymond John. If you would like to read the |
| trouble from an early age. When he was seven | | | | first chapter of the book, it is available at |
| we were surprised to find a pizza delivery | | | | the above web-site. |