Adoption story all about love

Apr. 13—GEORGETOWN — When Susy Riggle set out to write a book about adopting her daughter decades ago, she knew it was going to be a book about love.

Susy recently published her book, "What Is Real and the Journey to Find It."

She says, "Forty-six years ago, we adopted a baby girl (Amy). It is essentially her story. Of course I'm biased, but it has been a beautiful life journey. She has been and continues to be such an 'imprint' on the lives of so many people. It is my first book."

The book was published by Christian Faith Publishing, and is available through Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

Susy lives three miles east of Georgetown, on land that's been in her family since 1837.

She's a former history teacher, 20 years retired. She was a teacher for eight years at Westville High School. Then the rest of her years were at Georgetown. She was an elementary principal for 13 years and assistant superintendent for nine of those years.

Susy is married to her high school sweetheart, Richard (Rich). Their biological son, Matthew, was born in 1970.

As they were busy working and Matthew was growing up, Susy said she thought "we need another baby."

She said she talks about it in the book, of just having this feeling that she was being called and there was a child, not a biological child, for her.

"And you know, it met with resistance from people," Susy said, of adoption views during the 1970s.

She said a friend from Chicago sent her six pages of potential adoption agencies.

Susy said another biological child didn't happen either.

"So here was this emptiness," Susy said.

She said one of her favorite parts of the book is where she talks about being outside working in the shrubbery in late fall, and she's always been leery of people saying God told them something, but she said there was a voice that told her 'there's a baby, Susy.'"

She said she was just a mess and beside herself, not knowing what to do.

Finally, there was a place, Easter House in downtown Chicago, which made an appointment with her and Rich to talk about adopting.

They drove to Chicago in Dec. 1977 and got on a list. A woman with Easter House also visited them at their home the following February.

By the end of June 1978, they got a phone call that Easter House had a baby girl. A month earlier they'd gotten a call about a baby boy, but as much as she wanted a baby, Susy said she talks in the book about how she dealt with the feeling that there was just something that wasn't right with that situation.

Susy writes in her book, "How do we prepare for the deep valley or mountaintop experiences of life? I really don't think we can. We handle them as they come. This one, by far, exceeded any expectations."

She and Rich picked up their daughter, Amy, in Chicago.

Susy said then the book is Amy's story, through Amy's school years and into becoming an adult, getting married and now with her own children.

Amy is vice president of the largest school board in Indianapolis.

Loved from the start"We got her, she was eight years younger than our biological son, and she just did everything right," Susy said.

In high school, Amy wrote a class paper on "The System of Adoption." Amy wrote, "From personal experience, being adopted has added a unique spectrum to my life. I have nothing to be ashamed of or to hide. I believe I have been placed with my family for a reason. Only they can help me nurture my talents and grow as an individual."

Amy graduated third of 116 students at Georgetown-Ridge Farm High School and she left 11 sports records in volleyball, basketball and track. She's a talented artist, with some of her art samples in the book.

She had a volleyball scholarship to attend Georgetown College outside Lexington, Ky. She got her degree there in biology. She now contracts and does part-time work.

Susy said Amy was never very interested in her past and where she came from. But Susy said she's nosy and wondered.

Through an attorney who handled the adoption, Susy had a name and sought out a researcher. They narrowed where Amy came from to the Upper Península of Michigan.

Susy said they made some trips up there and she came across an obituary of Amy's biological grandmother, who was Native American.

They met Amy's biological mother in 2007.

Susy says in the book that she was going to scope the situation out, and if it was a good, safe situation for Amy, she was going to proceed, but if not, they were going to walk away.

"It has been good," Susy said.

Earlier in the book, Susy writes, "I visualized in my mind what her biological parents were like. I had always wondered, when the time came, what I would feel for this young woman, who was paying such a great price. If only she knew how badly we wanted this child, and for the rest of our lives, we would love and care for her with all our beings."

Susy and Rich met Amy's biological mother first at a powwow. Then Amy met her.

Amy, 45, who is married and has three children and lives in Indianapolis, is now an official member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

In correspondence with her biological mother, Amy told her, "It sounds like a cloud has been lifted in you finding out about me and the fact that I turned out okay."

Amy also told her biological mother, "my life has been very blessed" and Amy thanked her for what she did.

"I have been and will always be grateful to you for your decision," Amy told her.

Susy said the book idea came after she kept a journal and would write special thoughts down throughout Amy's and Matthew's lives. Matthew is a mental health therapist living south of Fort Wayne, Ind.

Susy said she probably worked on the book a couple years in putting her notes together.

"I've always liked to write," Susy said.

She looked online to find a publisher, and she's happy with the finished product.

Susy said Rich and Amy didn't read the book until it was fully completed and in print.

"It's quite a journey," Susy said. "I think it's a story that needs to be out there. If it touches hearts, that's what I want."

"I was so blessed to be both a biological and an adoptive mother," she added. "In so many cases, you're either one or the other. You don't have to give birth to a baby to love that baby as your own. I said in the book, I carried this baby in my heart for years."

She also encourages people considering adoption to seek it out. People are more open to fostering children and adoption, it's so much more common, Susy said.

She said the bottom line, spiritually, she believes that love is what it's all about.

In the book, Susy writes, "It is not the flesh-and-blood tie that makes us love a child; it's the touching, the caring, the responsibility, the dependence and the 2 a.m. feeding!"

At the end, the book also includes eight other friends' brief adoption stories, which can be so different, including Susy's daughter-in-law's parents who had three biological children and adopted a girl and four boys.

"I just love the beautiful adoption stories out there," Susy said.

In the book, Susy writes, "Our family adoption journey began almost 50 years ago. It has surpassed anything imaginable and is not over. We never know the legacy we have. This story has literally climbed out of my heart and soul and, hopefully, spilled over into the world. And maybe, just maybe, I can honestly say that I have found what is real."