Vancouver Island University launches first-of-its-kind tuition waiver for former youth in care

Youth who grew up in foster care are welcome and wanted at university. So says Vancouver Island University (VIU) in Nanaimo which recently announced that they would waive tuition fees for former youth...

Foster Care and Adoption

Robert Russell and Tommie Robert Henderson

Nathaniel Christopher / 16 June 2013 / 6 Comments

(Re)united with my biological brother

These were my father’s glasses: They are the only possession of his that I own. When he died in 2003 the prison hospital shipped me his remaining possessions which amounted to a box of papers, a few b...

Nathaniel Christopher / 25 May 2012 / 6 Comments

Celebrating BC Child and Youth in Care Week

Here’s a photo of the Honourable Mary McNeil, British Columbia’s Minister of Children and Family Development sitting on a stage at the Roundhouse Community Centre on Mary 23 holding a framed 14 ...

Foster Care and Adoption

Nathaniel Christopher / 26 April 2012 / 3 Comments

Housemate enjoys crappy cereal

This afternoon Housemate decided to buy some puffed wheat. “It’s cheap and I like it,” he said. “Also, it costs less than Sugar Crisp.” I used to eat this crap as a kid and I really didn’t like it. I ...

Nathaniel Christopher / 19 July 2011 / 1 Comment

I got rid of my foster care file!

I guess this counts as a little addendum to my 2008 documentary about my foster care file. I conclude the program by saying “I’m probably just going to put it in one of my closets, I’...

Nathaniel Christopher / 25 January 2011 / 11 Comments

Oprah’s reunion exposes the folly of closed adoption records

She was a secret. She was a foster kid bounced from home to home. She was an adoptee. She was one of millions of Americans who callously rejected by their birth parent. But thanks to a robust adoption...

Nathaniel Christopher / 17 August 2010 / 19 Comments

Anatomy of a sealed adoption file

I recently received the complete contents of my father’s sealed adoption file following a court order of Judge Eugene Reese of the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Alabama. This is what I received....

Foster Care and Adoption

Nathaniel Christopher / 9 July 2010 / 1 Comment

Alabama court unseals my father’s birth records!

At long last! The final legal barrier between me and the truth of my heritage was obliterated yesterday. Judge Eugene Reese of the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Alabama signed an Order for the A...

Nathaniel Christopher / 12 July 2009

My grandmother’s last known address

When I learned my grandmother’s name yesterday they also gave me her last known address. Unfortunately, that’s all the information they have on her. They don’t have an age, medical h...

Nathaniel Christopher / 9 July 2009 / 4 Comments

Glendora Brooks

“I never answer the phone before noon,” I grumble to my housemate. “It’s nothing but bad news.” “Or, it could be mail!” He retorts. Just before work this morn...