Adoption

Think you can name famous adopted people? You don’t know Diddley!

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November is National Adoption Month! Throughout the month I’ll feature famous folk who have been adopted! 

 bo diddley

Culled mostly from Wikipedia:

 Ellas Otha Bates (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known by his stage name Bo Diddley. Bo Diddley is best known as … well, if you don’t know you are reading the WRONG blog… let’s just say anyone who has picked up a guitar since 1955 was influenced by his style and playing.

Born in McComb, Mississippi, as Elias Otha Bates, he was adopted and raised by his mother’s cousin, Gussie McDaniel, whose surname he assumed, becoming Elias McDaniel.

 

Be sure to visit Abby’s Road on Facebook for more Spotlights!

 The cover of Abby's Road

The cover of Abby’s Road

 “Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

 

Winner, Honorable Mention, 2014, Great Midwest Book Festival


Abby’s Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending


at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532


and at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457270

 

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

 

 

Scott Hamilton: the adoption (skating) circle is complete

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I have more National Adoption Month Spotlights on the Abby’s Road Facebook Page (please friend me!) and relatively few blogs. One of the posts was Scott Hamilton. Just after my Spotlight post he made headlines for a wonderful thing. He adopted two children from Haiti! You can read about it here: http://www.today.com/parents/scott-hamilton-opens-about-adopting-two-kids-haiti-1D80310020

hamilton2

For THAT, he deserves a blog post!

National Adoption Month Spotlight on Olympic Gold Medalist Scott Hamilton: born August 28, 1958 in Toledo, Ohio.He was adopted at the age of six weeks by Dorothy McIntosh and Ernest S. Hamilton and raised in Bowling Green, Ohio.

hamilton

Be sure to visit Abby’s Road on Facebook for more Spotlights, including Nancy Reagan, Gary Coleman and Steve Jobs!

  

“Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

 cover

Winner, Honorable Mention, 2014, Great Midwest Book Festival


Abby’s Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending


at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532


and at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457270

 

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

 

 

 

To be the Man … you have to Adopt the Man!

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November is National Adoption Month! Throughout the month I’ll feature famous folk who have been adopted!

 ric flair

Culled mostly from IMBD:

 

Ric Flair, or Richard Morgan Fliehr, was born February 25, 1949 in Memphis, Tennessee. In the opening chapter of his autobiography To Be the Man, he notes that his birth name is given on different documents as Fred. His adoption was arranged by the notorious Tennessee Children’s Home Society (from which Christina Crawford was also adopted), later shut down for adoption fraud. The opening chapter of his autobiography is titled “Black Market Baby”). After his father completed his residency, the family settled in Edina, Minnesota, where Rick lived throughout his childhood. Wooooooo!

 

Be sure to visit Abby’s Road on Facebook for more Spotlights including Scott Hamilton, Nancy Reagan, Steve Jobs and Gary Coleman (never thought you’d see those people in the same sentence, did you?)!

 

The cover of Abby's Road

The cover of Abby’s Road

 

“Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

 Winner, Honorable Mention, 2014, Great Midwest Book Festival


Abby’s Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending


at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532


and at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457270

 

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christina Crawford: A National Adoption Month Spotlight

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My sister Kathryn asked if I was going to include Christina Crawford. I said I was and would move her up the schedule a little …

 November is National Adoption Month! Throughout the month I’ll feature famous folk who have been adopted! And now a view from the dark side…

 Christina-and-Joan-Crawford real

Culled mostly from Wikipedia:

 

Christina Crawford (born June 11, 1939) is a writer and actress, best known as the author of Mommie Dearest, an autobiographical account of alleged child abuse by mother, actress Joan Crawford.

She was born in Los Angeles, California to unmarried teen parents.

According to Christina; her father, Larry King (yes, THAT Larry King), supposedly in the Navy, was married to another woman while her mother was unmarried. Christina Crawford was adopted from a baby broker in the state of Nevada because Joan Crawford was formerly denied an adoption by Social Services for being an unfit candidate in California in 1940. Subsequent documentation showed that the adoption was handled by Georgia Tann through Tann’s infamous Tennessee Children’s Home Society. Christina was one of five children adopted by Joan Crawford.

mommie-dearest

One photo I selected had the fabulous Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford (also pictured above) wielding a wire hanger. I also found the wonderful Gilda Radner in the classic Saturday Night Live skit spoofing Mommie Dearest. But I decided not to use them in this venue. Mean-spirited humor has its place, and I can be as mean as the next guy. But then again, child abuse is never funny. Never. 

Be sure to visit Abby’s Road on Facebook for more Spotlights, such as Gary Coleman and Nancy Reagan!

   

“Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

 Winner, Honorable Mention, 2014, Great Midwest Book Festival

cover
Abby’s Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending


at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532


and at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457270

 

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

 

 

 

 

 

Dean Cain: a National Adoption Month Spotlight!

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November is National Adoption Month! Throughout the month I’ll feature famous folk who have been adopted!  

 

Today’s Spotlight: Dean Cain. Wait, didn’t you already do Superman? Shut up…

 DeanCain

Culled mostly from Wikipedia:

 

Dean Cain was born on July 31, 1966 as Dean George Tanaka in Mount Clemens, Michigan, the son of Sharon Thomas, an actress, and Roger Tanaka. In 1969, Cain’s mother married film directorChristopher Cain, who adopted Dean and his brother (musician Roger Cain); they became his sons and the family moved to Malibu, California.

 

Be sure to visit Abby’s Road on Facebook for more Spotlights!

 The cover of Abby's Road

The cover of Abby’s Road

 “Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

 

Winner, Honorable Mention, 2014, Great Midwest Book Festival


Abby’s Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending


at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532


and at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457270

 

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

 

 

 

 

 

A National Adoption Month (dark) Spotlight: The Son of Sam

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November is National Adoption Month! Throughout the month I’ll feature famous folk who have been adopted!

 Sometimes the Spotlight shines darkly…

 072306sam

Culled mostly from Wikipedia:

 David Richard Berkowitz (born Richard David Falco, June 1, 1953), also known as the Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer convicted of a series of shooting attacks that began in the summer of 1976. With a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver, he killed six victims and wounded seven others by July 1977. As the toll mounted, Berkowitz eluded a massive police manhunt while leaving brazen letters which promised further murders. Highly publicized in the press, he terrorized New York City and achieved worldwide notoriety.

After his arrest by New York City police in August 1977, Berkowitz was indicted for eight shooting incidents. He confessed to all of them and claimed a demon that possessed his neighbor’s dog had commanded him to kill. In the course of the police investigation, he was also implicated in many unsolved arsons in the city.

David Berkowitz was born Richard David Falco on June 1, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York. His mother, Betty Broder, grew up in an impoverished Jewish family and later married Tony Falco, an Italian-American Catholic. The couple ran a fish market together. They separated before Berkowitz’s birth: Falco left for another woman, and Broder later had an affair with a married real estate agent, Joseph Kleinman. When she became pregnant, Kleinman threatened to abandon her if she kept the baby, so she put the child up for adoption and listed Falco as the father.  Within a few days of his birth, the infant boy was adopted by Pearl and Nathan Berkowitz of the Bronx. The Jewish-American couple were hardware store retailers of modest means, and childless in middle age. They reversed the order of the boy’s first and middle names and gave him their own surname, raising young David Richard Berkowitz as their only son.

 

Be sure to visit Abby’s Road on Facebook for more Spotlights!

 cover

“Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

 

Winner, Honorable Mention, 2014, Great Midwest Book Festival


Abby’s Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending


at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532


and at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457270

 

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

 

 

 

 

 

National Adoption Month Spotlight: The Six Million Dollar Adoptee!

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November is National Adoption Month! Throughout the month I’ll feature famous folk who have been adopted!  

six-million-dollar-man-lenticular-image 

Today’s Spotlight: Lee Majors

 Culled mostly from Wikipedia:

 Lee Majors was born born Harvey Lee Yeary on April 23, 1939 and is best known for his roles as Heath Barkley in the TV series The Big Valley, as Colonel Steve Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man and as Colt Seavers in The Fall Guy.

His parents, Carl and Alice Yeary, were both killed in separate accidents (prior to his birth and when he was one year old, respectively). At age two, Majors was adopted by an uncle and aunt and moved with them to Middlesboro, Kentucky.

 

Be sure to visit Abby’s Road on Facebook for more Spotlights!

  cover

“Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

 

Winner, Honorable Mention, 2014, Great Midwest Book Festival


Abby’s Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending


at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532


and at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457270

 

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

 

 

 

 

 

A (half) pint-sized National Adoption Month Spotlight …

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I wonder if she hates still being called Half-Pint?

November is National Adoption Month! Throughout the month I’ll feature famous folk who have been adopted!  

half pint

Culled mostly from Wikipedia: Melissa Gilbert was born in Los Angeles on May 4, 1964 (like the author she also turned 50 this year…) to David Darlington and Kathy Wood, and was put up for adoption immediately after her birth. She was adopted one day later by actor and comedian Paul Gilbert, whose real name was Ed MacMahon (can you imagine…) and Barbara Crane, whose father creates The Honeymooners.  The couple later adopted a son, Jonathan, who co-starred on Little House on the Prairie.  They had a biological daughter Sara Rebecca Abeles (the actress known professionally as Sara Gilbert of “Rosanne” fame)  in 1975.

Melissa is known for her turbulent run for president of the Screen Actors Guild against Valerie Harper in 2001 and mostly known for her childhood role as Laura Ingells Wilder in the “Little House on the Prairie” series from 1973 – 1984, a wholesome family series where each week, to paraphrase “WKRP”, someone either died in a fire or of a horrible disease…

 

Be sure to Like “Abby’s Road page on Facebook for more adoption bios – including Steve Jobs and Kristin Chenoworth!

cover

“Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

 

Winner, Honorable Mention, 2014, Great Midwest Book Festival


Abby’s Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending


at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532


and at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457270

 

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry