An adoption story 80 years in the making

This paid piece is sponsored by LSS.

On Valentine’s Day in 1943, a young woman met and fell in love with an Army serviceman. She soon became pregnant, but before the couple could marry, he was shipped overseas to serve in World War II. She insisted on parenting her baby, but her parents did not support her. According to the records, she decided that “she would be doing him an injustice trying to raise him alone.”

Unsure of her future, the young woman walked through the doors of the LSS House of Mercy, a home for women experiencing unintended pregnancies and the first of many LSS services.

“I always knew I was adopted,” said Craig Kittelson, now 80 years old. “I remember my mother saying, ‘You’re special; you were a chosen child.’ I even had a book she’d read to me at bedtime, ‘The Chosen Baby.'”

Craig had a typical childhood, attended college and married after graduating college in 1965. He and his wife tried for several years to start a family, but after testing for infertility, they discovered that they would not be able to conceive. While devastated by the news, the couple’s decision to adopt came quickly after.

“For me, it was simple,” Craig said. “Part of me was almost reassured having the option. Together we decided, ‘Let’s do this.'”

Craig said it was a natural choice for the couple to adopt their child through LSS, and he remembers feeling assured that LSS was committed to finding the perfect placement. The Kittelsons were told to expect a six- to 12-month wait for a child. To their surprise, they received a call about a baby boy only two months later.

“What are we getting ourselves into?” Craig remembers thinking amidst the sudden joy and excitement. “How do I hold him so I don’t break him?”

As they drove from northeast South Dakota to Sioux Falls to meet their baby, the couple brainstormed ideas for a name. Upon seeing their child for the first time, they instantly agreed on a name: Brian.

Growing up, growing closer

Like his father, Brian would grow up always knowing he was adopted. Craig even read “The Chosen Baby” to Brian to help him understand adoption from an early age.

“I grew up in a home with parents that loved me — there was no question that they loved me from the very beginning. They gave me all the opportunities I could have asked for. They supported me in everything I did,” Brian said.

Brian and Craig’s bond continued to strengthen. Ever since Brian was in college, he and Craig have spent one week each year together hiking, backpacking, canoeing or engaging in other adventures. “Brian likes all the outdoor stuff, which has made me work hard,” Craig said, smiling.

“We’ve always been able to communicate really well on these trips. They’re some of the most memorable times we’ve had together,” Brian said. Craig agreed, “When I look back on pictures, I don’t always remember the places, but I remember how I felt: happy.”

Craig said he has learned as much from his kids as they have from him.

“My kids taught me to hug. You know, the spontaneous hugs and saying ‘I love you’ were not part of how I was raised,” Craig explained. “If adoption had not been available, my life would have been simpler, but in more important ways, emptier.”

Joyful reunion

Brian always had an innate desire to know more about his birth family and where he came from. In 1994, during his third year of graduate school, Brian went back to where his adoption story started. He learned that LSS would be able to do a search for his birth mother and communicate with her on his behalf. The LSS social worker encouraged Brian to write his birth mother a letter telling her about his life and explaining why he wanted to find her.

Within days of receiving Brian’s letter, she replied with a letter of her own, indicating to Brian that she and her family would love to meet him as soon as possible.

“Throughout my life, I held my son in my heart as a piece of me was missing. I prayed that someday we would reconnect with one another. Not a day went by that I didn’t think about him,” she said.

After receiving her letter, Brian made the trip to reunite with his birth mother. “It was one of the best days of my life,” he said.

Brian spent that Thanksgiving and part of Christmas break with his birth family. Their reunion story was shared in both Brian and his birth mother’s annual Christmas letter, and Brian’s smiling face was in his birth mother’s family Christmas picture that year. Both families have maintained a close relationship ever since.

 Earlier this year, Brian connected with a social worker at LSS who guided him through the process of obtaining his original birth and adoption records, none of which he had seen before.

“Finding my birth family and my records has helped me find myself. All these pieces have helped me learn about who I am,” Brian said.

As Brian discovered, adoption services at LSS go far beyond the birth and placement of a child. LSS services extend across a lifetime, from a pregnant woman discovering her options, to a child finding a loving home and, ultimately, to an adult like Brian reconnecting with his birth family.

“LSS has been woven through the fabric of my life, even before I was born — from my dad’s adoption, my adoption, my reunion with my birth family and obtaining my original birth and adoption records. I’m incredibly thankful that all these services have been available to me over my lifetime.”

To learn more about LSS adoption services and pregnancy counseling, contact LSS today.

LSS supports families at all stages with professionalism, service, and care. Maybe you are looking to adopt a child. Maybe you just have questions. Regardless of where you are at in your process, we offer services for:

• Families looking to adopt a child through domestic or international adoption.
• Birth parents facing difficult decisions regarding an unintended pregnancy.
• Adopted individuals searching for information about their birth families.