Finding Out:
Coming to Terms with Adoption
There’s a big circle. A circle big enough to hold 7.6 billion people, which is the approximate number of people in the world as of this writing. In that circle is a smaller one with 22 million, the population of the Philippines in 1952. According to the U.S. Census, there is yet another circle, with 10 million people representing the African American population in 1940. From these circles of millions, somehow by miracle or predestination, the people of the Philippines and the African American circles overlapped, and only three are in that unique set.
The circle for this story includes three individuals, a micro microcosm compared to the billions on earth. Crossing in and out of this small boundary, the count increased at various times. Some that are counted staying longer while others only briefly but their impact in the lives of the 3 remain immeasurable. What you are about to delve into is a journey of space and time. It is a direct trip into the lives of three individuals who would not have crossed each other’s path had it not been for luck or chance – and obviously would not have come to fruition had it not been for determination, steadfastness, and faith. Faith had been the cornerstone of it all. Especially when the circle of three sometimes became the circle of one.
This is the miraculous story of the coming together that includes Fred, Grace, and Paula Hicks. This is their journey – a journey that would redefine them as a family. It is the journey of becoming one as a family. This journey is about how an African American couple became the first American couple to adopt a two-year-old Filipino orphan whose only possession was the tee-shirt she wore to cover her chest and protect her from T.B.