What was I doing 25 years ago today and where was I doing it? That is an easy one. I was giving birth to my first born son. Actually, his time of birth in the evening was about the same as when I began typing this story. We were in Midland Texas during the oil boom for a few years, which included his birth. Many people flocked to West Texas during the boom because there were many jobs and lots of money. That was long before our adoption journey began. We parented close to a hundred children in the past 14 years hoping to adopt a baby girl through the Michigan foster care system. We finally realized that we were not getting any younger and we had waited a very long time without success. That is why we finally pursuing a private adoption.

Ironically, we returned to Texas for the birth of our youngest daughter through adoption nearly two years ago. So our oldest and our youngest children were born in Texas, the other eight were born in Michigan. Sort of like coming full circle, isn’t it. Although I hadn’t been back to Texas in over 20 years, I found that I was still in love with the people and the culture there. It doesn’t matter where you go in Texas, people are friendly, not afraid to smile, and say hello. Of course, there is the food, nothing I like better than authentic Mexican cuisine.

We had a little trouble getting ICPC to leave Texas so I was able to enjoy the food for nearly two weeks. Texas adoption has a few specific requirements that differ from Michigan and the worker didn’t notice the items were missing. Of course, the people in Austin, responsible for Interstate compact noticed, though. Michigan only requires police and protective service clearances for adults, but Texas requires them for anyone over 13. Fortunately, since I am still a licensed foster parent, I was able to get the clearances for our three teenagers within a matter of hours even though I was 2600 miles from home.

At that time, Texas also required FBI clearances for all adults who wanted to adopt or foster children, which we found unusual. However, most states are changing their policies now to require federal clearance, including Michigan.

Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2006
The first and the last, together