Everything, animate or not, has a platform upon which it forms or a “womb” from which it emerges. Ours, and by “ours” I mean Thulani’s, Nathanael’s and mine, is quite complex. It is at least as complex as yours might be.
I am single – never married – white, South African. Thulani was born in the USA to an Zimbabwean woman who returned to Zimbabwe when Thulani was 8 days old. Nathanael was born at the local state hospital to someone unknown to me. Now, through the miracle of adoption, we live here, a family in the Midwest of the USA. From the most diverse of origins we “found” each other; through the miracle of adoption we are family; through the Grace of God we continue to grow, to learn, and to love.
I hope you will read this website as you would read a book. Each chapter is of course related to the whole but it can be read in any order. Skip all over but be sure to get to all 40 or so chapters. It grows every week.
There are over 40 vignettes and stories (many more than the 15 titles that are listed down the side of the page). Please try, over time, to read them all. I will, over time, write more.
Thus I have juxtaposed stories from “then” and “now” – to make the reader aware of the power of love and change my children (and life) have allowed me to enjoy.
I make no apology for the brutality of many of the “then” stories. All are absolutely true and were my first-hand experience. I trust these vignettes will help the reader get the picture of just how brutal and mind-conditioning Apartheid really was. While it was not my initial intention to go into areas such as my father’s alcoholism, it has become clear to me that it forms a significant part of who I am and who we are as a family. The same is true for the dispersal of my mother’s ashes and other seemingly unrelated moments you will find in the collection.
Rod Smith and sons 