Friday, January 27, 2012

Good News Friday: Zac and His Two Dads

Zac didn't have that Norman Rockwell childhood so many of us picture in our heads while reminiscing. On  his eighth birthday, Zac was surrounded by police, watching his birth mother being arrested because, as Zac remembers, she had "many boyfriends and she did a lot of drugs and partying."


After that Zac moved from foster home to foster home.....to foster home--twelve in all--until, finally, a couple in Berkeley wanted to adopt him. Arturo and Dave wanted to be his dads. Zac's first thought? "I never had a dad, now I get to have two!"


This past Christmas, Zac wrote a letter to his fathers--whom he calls Dad and Dadio--and to his adopted brothers, Nick and Derrick. It was his Christmas gift to them:
To my Family, This is the first Christmas letter that I have ever written. I feel like since I am getting older, I should start writing a letter to the family or just talk about how I thought the family's year has gone until Christmas.
Ever since I ended up in this family people have told me that I was lucky. I have always known that I am lucky, especially when I have two dads that love me so much as Dad and Dadio. My family is very special to me. Even when we fight and even when we argue, I know they will always love me. Yes I am a lucky boy to have ended up here after spending so many years in foster care and not knowing if I would ever have a family.
I didn't grow with a dad. My birthmom had many boyfriends and she did a lot of drugs and partying. My sisters and me were taken from her on my eighth birthday. It was not fun to have police in my room on that day. It made me sad and this sadness I carried for many years and it got me in a lot of trouble. Then I landed in a great foster home after having lived in 12 different homes in three years. It was when I lived there that both my foster mom and social worker told me there was a family that wanted me. There was a catch: it was two dads!
Honestly, it didn't matter to me. I told them, "well, I never had a dad, now I get to have two!"
The start was tough and rough, and I put them through hell and back. I did awful and nasty things to them both. I stole their credit card and spent thousands of dollars online. When we went on my first vacation out of the country, I stole stuff from a souvenir stand - they found out and made me go back to the shop to return the souvenirs and made me pay the lady who owned the shop for the stolen property which then I had to give to a local kid. I didn't get it and thought they were being mean.
When I stole their American Express and maxed it buying stuff online I was only 12 years old. They were very upset, but Dad made sure I got the message of how serious this was. He took me to our local police station and reported me to the police captain for having stolen again. I was taken to an interrogation room and talked to by three police officers. All the time there I only wanted my Dad to come in and bring me home. I wanted to turn time back to before my stealing so I would not be there and I would not have hurt my parents so much. I learned my lesson and NEVER stole again!
But Dad and Dadio brought not just me into this family. They also added my brother Derrick. What I can say about Derrick is that he is really cool, he is funny, he is an awesome gay guy, he is a one of a kind guy, he is my bro. Next they added Nick. Nick can get on my nerves sometimes, but in the end he is pretty cool. He is a fast learner when it comes to math and multiplying numbers. And with that said, I will go to the roots of the family.
Dad and Dadio. They are my parents and they are always here when I need them.
When it is dark they are the light, When I feel frightened and chill's, They are the warmth I feel. When I am hungry they cook my meals.
I did not put a lot of time into the poem, but in the poem you see my parents. The people that show me the light. The people that warm my heart when it gets dark. The people that cook my meals. If I could only ask for anything for Christmas I would only ask for my family.
By Zac 
Well. Whenever i hear a Rick Santorum, or a Michele Bachmann, or Newt or Sarah or Mitt, say that a child needs a mother and a father, I'm gonna think of Zac, and Dad and Dadio.


Family isn't always what you're born into, quite a lot of times family is what you make of things.


source

11 comments:

  1. I loves a happy ending!

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  2. WOW. I'm not usually speechless.

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  3. Here's the part that really got me, that next to last paragraph, the poem.

    It gives lie to all the bigots who say we LGBT people can't be parents because a child needs a mother and father.

    Zac is a young man who was bounced from foster to foster allegedly straight couples who couldn't deal with his issues. It took a gay couple to actually want him as their son and who worked with him to better his life.

    And if you're wondering why I don't use my OpenID credentials, blogger did something where if capchas's are used, and I use OpenID it will never accept the typed characters as valid.

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  4. Amazing kid, amazing parents. This is love as it was meant to be.

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  5. amazing. having first hand experience with the foster care system i can honestly say that holding sexual orientation as a qualification is the stupidest reason to deny a child a loving, stable home, esp when the 'normal' parents couldn;t get it right in the first place.

    it's just love and wanting to be with someone and have a family with them and it's the most natural basic need in the world and asshole politicians and religious nutjobs make it seem horrible just to try to make themselves look better. it makes me vomit to think of all the kids who will never know a loving family because of petty prejudice.

    xxalainaxx

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  6. That is one lucky little boy.

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  7. Truly inspirational. Thanks for sharing.

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  8. Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachmann and all those hateful, stupid people that believe the only family a child can grow up in MUST contain a mother and a father will never get it. They're missing that part of their brain that is called Common Sense.

    Any child who has two loving parents, whether they be male, female or two males or two females is very fortunate. I feel bad for those children that grow up with no parents. Thank God there are GBLT couples who adopt those children.

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  9. beautifully written.
    :S
    a touch of happy ending..

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  10. It's sort of thing that has me holding on to the possibility of someday becoming a parent.

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