What Do You Know?

One of the comments made about my last post asked  provocative question - what do I know abou my biological parents.

It's a bit of  funny question, really, and I'm not sure how to reply. I've always known from my earliest memories that I am adopted. I can remember my mother giving me this book titled, "Why Was I Adopted?" A few years later, I think I was 11 or 12, I asked for information about my biological parents. A sheaf of brittle, yellowed papers, buried deep in a safe box revealed most of what I know:

- Dad was tall, 6'1" if I remember rightly. He had curly hair, black, was French Canadian, loved sports and reading. He was Protestant. He had dark eyes.

- Mom was shorter, about 5'8" or so. She had straight brown hair, loved art, was Catholic, and very much enjoyed the outdoors. Her eyes were blue, I think.

I have a biological (half) brother ten years my elder.

And that's really all I knew until a few years ago. One summer, Jillian and I were i CT visiting my folks when somehow my other brought up my adoption. In that conversation she revealed for the first time (though she would never admit that - she swore she always told me), that my  mother was having an affair with my father, and thus I was a love child. They gave me up to Catholic charities to prevent difficulty. While I was at Catholic charities, my name was Henry. Thus my biological brother became a half-brother, and I became a love-child. So it goes :).

The creepy thing is: for the longest time I have wanted to name one of my male children Henry.