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Yesterday’s Oprah show was about “good news.” She had several different guests on the show, each talking about their good news and how it was received.
One of the “good news” stories was Olympic skier Toby Dawson. Jan and I have both blogged about Toby’s story before. Toby, who was adopted as a small child from South Korea, grew up with his adoptive parents in Vail, Colorado, where very few people looked like them.
Toby says feeling like an outsider was especially painful.
The ski slopes were the one place Toby could escape his insecurities. “When I would put on my ski gear, it was like putting on a mask,” he says. “I would transform into this different person and have all the confidence in the world. It’s just like a superhero. When you shed off all of my ski clothes, I became that quiet, shy kid again.”
Toby’s love of skiing came full circle when he won a Bronze medal in the Olympic Games in Italy. Toby’s story generated interest through out the United States and in his native country of South Korea. People began to come forward saying they were Toby’s biological parent(s) or other blood relatives.
Before a scheduled trip to South Korea as an honorary ambassador, Toby submitted DNA samples to confirm whether anyone who came forward was really related to him. “I didn’t want to show up at the airport and have 50 people show up at the airport and say, ‘Hey, I’m related to you,’” he says.
Just two days before his trip, Toby got surprising good news. “Someone told me that, ‘We have found your biological father,’” he says. “I believe my heart stopped.”
As Toby was finishing up telling Oprah his story, Oprah announced a surprise. Toby’s father walked out on stage. Toby’s adoptive parents (who were supportive of the reunion) were in the audience and had never met the father and now were able too.
In closing, I’ll leave you with Toby’s mother’s thoughts:
Deborah says finding Toby’s biological father was a dream come true. “[Toby's] dream was always to go to the Olympics,” she says. “My secret dream inside was that through the Olympics, [with] how they always portrayed the athletes and told about their background … he would find his birth family.”
Picture and source: Oprah’s Website
Thanks for this story, Coley. Two good things it illustrates: 1) you can be successful/happy and still want to know about birth family and feel different growing up; and 2) the adoptive mom sounds happy for her son’s reunion and not threatened.
I watched that episode and I cried because it does illustrate how adoptive parents can be awesome people who do support their child finding their birth parents. It shows that adoption isnt all horrible, it can lead to other positive things in people’s lives. Great choice to write about!