Oh, honey, you have no idea how similar our stories are. I was born as a result of a controversial liaison between a white woman and a Black man. My birth mother died when I was 3 weeks old.

Enter my birth father's big brother. He adopted me. He and his wife were well into their 40s, raised with Depression era values and ill equipped for a baby girlchild born in 1971 and coming of age in the 80s.

There were issues, but now, on this end, I'm thankful for the old school values I learned but also recognize how their limitations crippled me in some ways.