Our Daughter Has Arrived!
Updated: Apr 19
From my mother’s journal “Some Notes on the Life of Cill T.” last entry December 2007
Cill and Carl T. are my adopted parents, now deceased.
August 1956
As a note of explanation, my mom, Cill, had difficulties carrying babies to full term. She had several miscarriages, followed by a still born baby. Her doctor told her that she should not consider trying to conceive further babies.
“Carl and I had discussed adopting a baby and we decided to follow that course. We started looking into various adoption agencies. The process was complicated, but much easier than it is today. Adoption was common and there were a lot of available babies. There was no such thing, in 1956, as a “single mom” unless she was a war widow, and those women tended to marry again. Lots of young women “took trips to Europe” and homes for pregnant women were shrouded in secrecy."
“Infants were matched closely to prospective parents in terms of appearance, ethnicity, cultural, and educational backgrounds. We decided to work with the Elizabeth Lund Home in Burlington, Vermont, which had an excellent reputation. (NB: my grandfather, who lived in Montpelier, VT knew of the reputation of this agency and suggested it to my parents.) There was also a shorter waiting period in Vermont than in Massachusetts (where my adoptive parents lived). We had interviews in Burlington, VT and then a case worker was sent down to check out our Cambridge, MA apartment. I was a nervous wreck, cleaning like crazy and even making sure that the refrigerator was well stocked with healthy food.”
“In late December we had a call from Burlington telling us that our daughter had arrived! A “matching” baby, English mother and German father, had been born, so we jumped to the top of the waiting list. We were of course very excited. Massachusetts would not allow an adopted infant to come into the state until the baby was a month old, probably in order to ensure that there were no serious birth disorders that would cost the state money in future years [sic]."
Exactly.
The minute my birth grandparents found out my birth mother was pregnant they sent her to Texas to live with her sister. Back then women worked until they began showing so my birth mother waited tables and then went into a home situation with a host family until she gave birth. Interestingly, the host home was just a mile or two around the corner and down the street from my uncle's house.