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