MarxLennon's Gratuitous Image Page

Well, I recently made a trip down to New Orleans, to meet the Petersons. This whole thing with their son needs to be resolved. I wanted to find out their feelings about this situation (as well as check some facts.)

Briana and Joshua Peterson are a nice couple. Both were born and raised in South Africa. Both of their families came from Britain three generations ago. They decided to emigrate to the U.S. in 1985 because of the political "uncertainty".

Joshua is a geologist. He has worked for a number of the large oil companies over the last 30 years and is currently a freelance consultant. The pay is good but it requires a lot of travel.

Briana has a Ph.D. in English Literature and is an associate professor at the University of New Orleans. She is also very active in the local community theater and has performed in numerous musicals. Although she turned down the opportunity, Joshua speaks with pride of the offer Briana received to join the touring company of "Cats".

It is his adoptive mother's love of musical theater that inspired Isaiah to follow a career in acting. During my visit, I saw his performance as the Mad Hatter in a musical version of "Alice in Wonderland".

Isaiah does have a uniquely timed sense of comedy.

As this picture shows, Briana is quite proud of him.

The Petersons are such a nice, happy, couple, that I felt very awkward about asking them about the adoption, how they knew Helena, any of the story really. However, that was the real point in my trip.

As it turns out, the Petersons had never met Helena. Everything had been arranged through her uncle's lawyer and the hospital administration. All they knew as that there was a baby boy up for adoption and that they wanted a baby.

Although the Petersons had no other children, Isaiah grew up with his two cousins, William and Charles Vandermire. The three boys were inseparable until the move to the U.S.

It was that move and the legal mumbo-jumbo surrounding it that lead to Isaiah's discovery of his adoption.

It was the fall of 1997 when Isaiah was finally able to trace his mother. It was a letter from Helena that led him to me.