How Adoption Changes the World
If you had been walking through the dusty streets of Omaha, Nebraska in late July of 1913, you might have unknowingly witnessed one of the most dramatic moments in American presidential history.
From the fourteen-room Victorian house on Woolworth Street slips twenty-one-year-old Dorothy Gardner King. She is carrying her 9-day old son, Leslie Jr. The auburn-haired mother is on the run, her newborn baby wrapped in blankets. Dorothy is desperately trying to escape from the clutches of her estranged husband, a raving mad man who has threatened to kill both mother and child with a butcher's knife. Successfully hailing a horse and carriage, Dorothy and little Leslie are ferried safely across the border into Council Bluffs, Iowa, where the pair is rescued by Dorothy's parents.
In time, Dorothy would divorce Leslie King and shortly thereafter meet her future husband Gerald at a church social event. In many ways, her new mate was everything her first husband was not. He was disciplined, courteous, respectful, steady and even-tempered.
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At twenty-four years of age, Gerald Ford was a hardworking paint and varnish salesman. Ecstatic to be a father, he eagerly adopted Dorothy's son and the couple changed the boy's name from Leslie King Jr. to Gerald Ford Jr. Fifty-eight years later, in the aftermath of Watergate, that same boy who had been breathlessly whisked away to safety would be sworn in as the 38th president of the United States and called upon to help bind up the wounds of the nation.
As we celebrate National Adoption Day today, it's good to be reminded that the history of adoption is the history of the world itself.
From presidents to inventors, scientists to composers and novelists to sports stars, many of the world's most accomplished figures have been adopted. Few, if any, have talked much about their respective starts to life, but the fact remains that none of them succeeded in spite of being adopted — but rather because of it.
Simply put, adoption was the golden key that unlocked and unleashed their potential, thus allowing them to rise to the pinnacle of personal and professional success.
Take for example George Washington Carver, the famed inventor and botanist. George was born to Mary, a slave owned by Moses and Susan Carver of Diamond Grove, Missouri. When he was just six weeks-old, George, along with his mother and sister, were kidnapped by a group of Confederate guerilla warfare fighters. The Carvers eventually rescued George, though they never found neither his mom nor his sister.
Bringing the baby back home, the Carvers adopted George as one of their own, providing shelter, food, an education — and most important of all, unconditional love and assurance. A frail and sickly child, his new mom and dad didn't require him to take on as many chores as his siblings. George would use the time to explore and ponder the wonder of nature, a habit that would eventually lead him to discovering over two-hundred new uses of the peanut and over one-hundred uses of the sweet potato. He would go on to work for Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute and teach for 47 years.
When Tom and Edna Perry of Mississippi adopted their daughter Audrey in 1967, they were delighted to finally add some femininity to a house full of roughhousing boys. As soon as she expressed interest in singing, they immediately plugged her into their church's music program. It was at Star Baptist Church where she thrived and developed a passion for performance. When Audrey called home from Nashville in tears, frustrated at a lack of opportunity and threatening to quit, her mother encouraged her to hang up the phone and get back to work.
It wasn't long after that Audrey Faith Hill landed her first big contract.
If you don't think your life has been touched by adoption, think again. From being moved by a stirring piece of music (Johann Sebastian Bach), to reading a great novel (Leo Tolstoy) to using an iPhone or iPad (Steve Jobs), eating at Wendy's (Dave Thomas) or Domino's Pizza (Tom Monaghan) or cheering on the United States in the Olympic Games (Scott Hamilton and Simone Biles) our lives and loves are inextricably linked to it.
So, it is a right and good thing to celebrate adoptees and the gift of adoption today. But it's also important to laud and lift up the giver of the gift. Every birthparent that has chosen life and courageously made an adoption plan for their son or daughter is worthy of high praise and commendation.
Adoption doesn't just change the world of a child — adoption has changed and is changing the world itself.
