Dedicated to Change

Fast forward about fifteen years and that’s where I come into the picture. At the lunch counter in the Fairlee Diner, I first laid eyes on Linda. This beautiful young Asian gal, with hair that went on for days, was working as a waitress while she was attending college. She had my immediate attention. From that moment on, my destiny was about to be changed forever.

So, we married in 1977 when we were both young, I started playing with The Breakfast of Champions band at the same time, a year later I started my own business and in 1981 we had our first son Todd.  So, things were not boring in the early years of our marriage by any means.

One day in early 1982 we started talking about Jim and Kathy, wondering what their lives have been like and how great it would be to see them in person.  Fortunately, the family who adopted Jim and Kathy had managed to keep Linda’s family informed on their whereabouts, but there was little or no contact.  At that time Jim was a student at Duke Law School and we decided to call him up totally out of the blue. As you can imagine, it was an interesting conversation, but it led to us getting an invitation to his graduation from Duke.   So, with 9-month old Todd in tow, we headed out for Duke to meet Jim and Kathy and their adopted family for the first time, not knowing what to expect.  What could have been an extremely awkward meeting turned out to be just the opposite. After not seeing each other for almost 20 years, Linda, Jim, and Kathy were so comfortable with each other. Their mannerisms and personalities were so similar, that it was somewhat surreal. This family was finally one again. And now it was an extended family, as there were many more people that would be impacted by the reunion.

Here we are now, so many years after the reunion at Duke. Our families became very close from that moment onward and remain extremely close today.  There are so many other stories that I could tell, but if there ever was a perfect example of how destinies can be changed than this is one for sure.

So, I think it should be obvious to you now as to why the Gift of Adoption is a very special organization for my wife and I. When you attend a GOA function the focus is all about the kids and their goal of creating opportunities for these kids to have a normal life with families that want children of their own, many of which have struggled unsuccessfully to conceive.  And unlike many other non-profit organizations, whose purpose is to raise funds to find cures for cancer, heart and lung diseases, etc., the purpose of the GOA is to create a lifetime of opportunities - not just for the kids but for everyone whose lives they will touch all along the way. This is the point that strikes home for me.

If it were not for the adoption process, I would not be sitting here writing this. Who knows what different paths I would have strayed down if I had not fallen in love with Linda and created the life, family and incredible network of friends that we have built around us?  And there are so many other kids and families who deserve the same chance to create a new life for themselves and develop their own network of friends that will last a lifetime.

So we started the New Hampshire Chapter for the Gift of Adoption, and every penny we raise goes directly to families in NH who need help to complete the complicated and expensive process of adopting children. I guess that is about enough rambling from me at this point.  I truly hope you can be a part of our efforts to change lives forever.