In Search of the Human Spirit

In October, there was a special soccer championship. The game was between United States and France. It was the first ever Power Soccer World Cup held in Tokyo, Japan.

What is Power Soccer? It’s soccer played in power wheelchairs. These are easy athletes, but all are disabled. All are wheelchair-bound.

The sport first started in France. It has yet to gain recognition as wheelchair sport. Who knows how many people with spinal cord injuries and other disabilities will find inspiration just from this tournament?

For months, Steve Flaig often greeted Christine Tallady at work. What a shock it was to find out Tallady was his birth mother.

The 22 your old always knew he was adopted. Early in his life, he wanted to find his first mother. When he turned 18, he gained access to his adoption records. Four years of searching brought them to the realization that he was spelling his birth mother sore name wrong. He began his search over.

When he corrected the error, he found a possibility living near where he worked. He couldn’t believe it when he found out that they both work for Lowe’s. He knew who she was, but took two months to get the nerve to approach her. He went to the adoption agency with his find. Employee made the call for him.

He has since sat down with his birth mother — a conversation went on for 2 1/2 hours. The reunion continues each time they see each other at work.

Alex Haley wrote a wonderful book Roots. It was probably the reason why many people began their family tree research. Although Haley has passed away, his research lives on in his nephew, Chris Haley.

Haley is 40 years old. He’s the research director of the Legacy of Slavery Project worked works out of the Maryland State Archives. Haley decided to take a DNA test to see what else he can learn about his heritage be gone what his uncle had found out. The test confirmed that he had white heritage.

This is opened a whole new research avenue for the Haley family tree. He the plans to find out as much as possible about his new ancestry. With Uncle Alex only working on one branch of the family tree, Chris has a lot to discover.