A New American Family: A Love Story

Introduction

Introduction If I had been a dreamer as a child, I would have dreamed the wrong dreams. I didn’t have enough imagination to conceive of the wonderful life that has opened up for me, each chapter unfolding unpredictably over time. I didn’t know enough about the world even to fantasize about the opportunities that would in fact be mine to explore. I didn’t know enough about myself to see what others would someday see in me. Perhaps most importantly, I didn’t know that the beautiful stranger I boldly asked for a dance at my junior high school graduation party would become my life’s partner, my best friend, and my accomplice in all of life’s adventures. I was still thirteen; how was I to know? If Pat and I had not met in 1950 and married in 1955 at age nineteen, we would surely have missed the greatest adventure of our lives together: creating our multiracial family with six adopted children. It was not uncommon for friendly observers to comment on our“international family.”Always we were quick to correct them. Our children were all born in the United States of America. Ours is an all American family. I will tell our story as candidly as a lifetime of disciplined honesty makes possible. Ours is not always a pretty tale and it is never a simple narrative, but it is a true story of an American family that speaks to the complexities of contemporary life in our country. I hope there is something of value here for every American and perhaps even for other citizens of the world who do not yet see clearly the American people as we are today. Although this book is ultimately about our children, I must establish the foundations of our family by first introducing my wife and myself, Pat and Pete Likins. Because our work as teachers was inextricably intertwined with our lives as parents, I must describe our professional lives in parallel with our personal lives. I will tell our story retrospectively, looking back from the vantage point of the beginning of the Obama era, when in my early seventies I can pretend to the wisdom of advancing age without yet acknowledging fading memories. A New American Family ...