Posted on 09/10/2006 3:16:16 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback
While searching for her birth parents two years ago, Mariah Mills found more than she bargained for: A hero of Sept. 11, 2001.
Mills' biological father, who had given Mills up for adoption when he and his then-girlfriend were in college, was Tom Burnett, a leader of a group that fought back on United Flight 93 before it crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.
Mills, 21, learned about her birth father in 2004 — after she turned 19, the legal age in Minnesota for requesting a birth certificate with names of birth parents — and subsequent DNA tests confirmed that Burnett was her father.
"Before I was even born, my birth dad made a brave decision — to give me a life," Mills told the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Sunday's editions. "It was a selfless act, just like his actions on Flight 93. And, as awful as it was that he died, and I never got to know him, there is good that came out of this."
Today, Mills has developed a relationship with Burnett's widow, Deena, her three daughters, husband and stepson, and other members of Burnett's family. She also celebrated her birthday with her birth mother, who lives in St. Paul with her husband and two children and asked not to be identified.
Mills transferred to the University of Minnesota and is entering her senior year. She will spend her first semester studying abroad. Her dream job, she said, would be writing about baseball and covering the Minnesota Twins.
Mills and her adoptive parents visited Jefferson High School in Bloomington during the spring of 2004 after Mariah found out about her birth parents. Mariah wanted to look up Tom Burnett in his senior yearbook. She found his photo and one of her birth mother, too.
"It was weird to finally look like somebody," Mills said. "I have her eyes, but mostly I look like a Burnett."
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Wow.
Amen.
Same heroic good guy. Should I ping our "special" friend?
So often we hear of kids given up for adoption who resent the birth parents' decision. This story is a good example of someone who did the right thing by giving up a kid then, and later did the right thing on United 93. Really nice story.
How sweet...
Minn. woman learns dad was 9/11 hero
AP via Yahoo ^ | 9/10/06 | AP
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1698797/posts
Posted on 09/10/2006 8:20:21 AM CDT by I_saw_the_light
MAJOR MISTAKE, often made. Those were not her "adoptive parents." Sheesh. Those were her PARENTS!! The "birth parents" were genetic donors only, not parents at all, though they deserve serious kudos for letting their offspring live and allowing her to grow up in an intact, loving home.
It really bothers me that journalists would never say words that denigrate SOME groups but they never hesitate in these "birth parent" stories to denigrate real parents who happened to adopt their children.
Ok. I am happy for her that she's found this out. I do think that it's an invasion of privacy for the heroic Mr. Burnett and his widow and three young daughters.
I met one (who shall remain nameless) here on FR a few weeks ago who was ultra-bitter, and believed there was nothing worse than being deprived of the birth mother's presence. When I pointed out that two loving, financially stable parents will always be better than one parent struggling in poverty, she acted as if I was saying money was more important than love. Very sad.
My search turned up nothing, so c'est la vie.
Well, this story is why I tell kids that "heros" aren't super-humans or "g-ds".
They are heros because they do awesome things even though they are just
imperfect human beings.
It's true that the parents who actually raise you are your real Mom and Dad, but the word "parent" simply means "a father or a mother...an ancestor, precursor, or progenitor," and when one is writing a story like this one has to use the terms "birth parent," "adoptive parent" or some variation thereof to avoid confusing the reader.
I met one (who shall remain nameless) here on FR a few weeks ago who was ultra-bitter
And I know someone who would give anything if her birth mother HAD given her up for adoption rather than subjecting her to a life of child abuse cruelty. It is all very sad.
Genetic relatives of children placed for adoption are usually quite receptive, and if they aren't, they certainly don't have to communicate with the person, much less have them fly in for visits and allow them to tell the story to the AP.
Great point!
I am related by marriage to a child who will likely have the same regret...not because of actual abuse, but because she is being raised alone by a girl who had her at the age of 15. In addition, she was supposed to be adopted by her great uncle, and she will see the boy they adopted later grow up in a loving and financially stable home. If she ever finds out what happened I think she will be very angry.
The real heroes are the folks who adopted her.
But Mr. Burnett had no say in this disclosure.
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