by Lisa Powell

Created on: April 16, 2008

Adoption! I am an expert on the subject. No, I am not a social worker or a Child Protective Services agent. I am not a child physiatrist either. I am, however, an adopted child. Yes, that makes me an expert! Why you ask? Because I can share with you from a personal experience the feelings and opinions both good and bad.

I was 20 months olds in 1964 when I and my 8 brothers and sisters were taken into custody by the state of Texas. I was the youngest. We ranged in age from the oldest being 16 to myself, almost two.

The reason for the state to rescue 9 children from a farmhouse in rural east Texas was based on neglect. In the 60's adoption took along time to process. Foster homes were the quickest way to protect children and group homes and orphanages were the most popular means of housing children at the time. At that time there were no facilities large enough to handle so many children from one family and keep them together, except for a few privately ran institutions. So we were accepted to a home for children in central Texas.

All of my older brothers and sisters were housed in houses on the campus. I was very ill and was housed in the infirmary. After only several weeks, I was put into a foster home with loving parents that would keep me as their foster child until I was 10 years old. At that time they were allowed to officially adopt me. My brothers and sisters were farmed out to other homes and none of them were ever legally adopted by any families.

Adoption! It saved my life. If I had not been adopted I would most likely have ended up like the majority of my brothers and sisters. They were all in and out of foster homes as often as you change your calendar. They were considered trouble makers, hard to deal with children if you dare to label them. I believe that the reason for this was that they were all older children and no one really wants to adopt anything but babies. I also think they all were so traumatized by being taken from their home and family that most could not recover. I was the lucky one. I was raised in a good home with loving, caring parents and two older brothers. I was given every advantage that money could buy. I was raised as their daughter, not as their adopted daughter.

The love and courage it took to except me into their family was the greatest gift anyone could give or receive. I owe my life to my parents. They may not have brought me into this world but they gave me life. To be adopted is not a curse but an honor. Something I am not sure that I could do. My mother and I have often talked about me adopting children. And I have always told her that I didn't think I was as strong as she was and probably could not do it.

In 2001 my mother passed away from cancer. I was devastated. It took years before I could accept that she was gone. My husband once expressed that he could not understand why I was so grief stricken for so long about someone who was not my "Real" mother. After punching him in the face, (not really) I explained. If blood is thicker than water, then LOVE is thicker than blood. We are products of our environment. My mother could not have been more MY Mother if she had given birth to me herself. I am adopted. I am a daughter. I am a wife. I am a mother. I am who I am because she loved me.

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