the boy’s eyes
At age 11, my son Casey was an enthusiastic novice. Those things I’d seen so many times—the road, the bridge, the people, the view—are fresh to him, and with newness he LIVES! I see through his eyes, his…
Casey’s Story (part 6)
Our last few days in China We took daily walks to Starbucks, our little piece of home turf in the foreign land....
Casey’s Story (Part 5)
From that moment on—the Skype sessions, the tupperware-on-his-head games, the smiles—we didn’t look back, he was ours, here we go. We drew a bath, Casey looked wide-eyed at the watery oblong tank. When we tried to put…
Casey’s Story (part 4)
We were told, “Here he comes…” Through the opaque glass door, two adults—an older, sadder-looking dark haired man with sorrowful eyes and tired face; and a younger woman, smiling eyes sparkling like she’d been let out of…
Casey’s Story (part 3)
Finally, the long, long flight to China. We asked our doctor for sleeping pills, he prescribed some ‘anxiety relief’ drug which helped very little—I was anxious about not sleeping! For most of the flight I sat slumped,…
Casey’s Story (part 2)
Three months before we were to get our little girl child from China, Susie said to me, “Wouldn’t it be great if they gave us a boy?” (We already had three biological daughters) “Sure, that’d…
Casey’s Story (part 1)
Susie and I chatted for years about adoption but never took action until one evening when, gazing off to the horizon, she sighed and said she’d be “unfulfilled” if she died without adopting. Which surprised me. I hadn’t…
How We Raised Three Passionate Daughters*
(*Previously published in The Gang Magazine) We have three daughters—Nikki, Michelle, and Shayna—and one much younger son, Casey. I remember leaving the hospital after Nikki was born, going to some Denny’s type restaurant in Burbank, bumming a cigarette (I don’t normally…