I am Maria.

On May 13, 1953, ten days after I was born, I was placed in the baby box just outside the orphanage in Patras, Greece. The orphanage became my home for three years until I was adopted by Richard and Ellen Pace of San Diego, California.

Meeting the Paces for the first time was a bit of a spectacle where almost nothing went as planned. Within minutes of meeting me, Ellen had a pretty good idea of the challenges she would face. I was going to be a handful! I had communication issues, food issues, and trust issues. My response to most things directed at me was to scream at the top of my lungs in Greek, much to Ellen’s consternation. But in six months, the communication issues were resolved, and the food issues were beginning to improve. My trust issues were negotiated by keeping everything I owned in plain view. I could finally call something “mine” and it was a very special feeling.

Richard was a history professor and Ellen an executive assistant at a mortgage company. Ellen was a Scandinavian beauty who grew up in a loving home with parents who adored her and nurtured her academic and musical talents in every way. In stark contrast, Richard was a tall, handsome Texan raised by two mentally unstable parents. His father drank too much and was home too little and his mother beat him every day for insignificant infractions. As a high school student, he endured a traumatic shock when his father took his own life in his law office. Such destructive child-rearing left Richard ill-equipped for life as a husband and father.

After the war, Richard and Ellen moved from Bisbee, Arizona, to San Diego, California, where they purchased a home and started planning a family. For years they tried to have a child, but Ellen could not get pregnant. Richard’s patience was exhausted, so he blamed Ellen for their fertility problems. Twelve years later, there was still no baby and they had all but given up hope. A fertility test finally provided the answer. Dad was sterile! With their dream of having a biological child shattered, they looked at adoption as their final chance to have children.