Faith Hill is recognized across the world for her music, but she is just as highly thought of in the adoption community for her advocacy of domestic adoption. She even played a major role in helping her biological brother turn his life around, even though she didn’t know him for the first 20 years of her life.
On September 21, 1967, Hill was placed for adoption by her birth mother and adopted by Ted and Edna Perry, who named her Audrey Faith Perry.
As Hill’s career blossomed in her late teens and early twenties, so did her desire to reconnect with her birth family.
“I was adopted into this incredible home, a loving, positive environment, yet I had this yearning, this kind of darkness that was also inside me,” she told Good Housekeeping.
Hill decided to shed some light on the darkness that she couldn’t escape. After moving to Nashville in 1993, when she wasn’t working on her next album or concert, she was searching for her birth family – and she found them.
“The first time I met my birth mother, I just stared at her,” Hill said. “I’d never seen anyone that looked anything like me.”
And she learned that she had a biological brother as well. As excited as Hill was to meet her brother Zachary White, he was perhaps even more excited to meet her.
White had many run-ins with the law, including stealing purses and cars to fuel his drug addiction. Fortunately, White found the help that he needed and began to turn his life around. Then, Faith Hill entered his life, and remained there.
“I made my share of mistakes in the past, but Faith showed me that I could be a better person,” White told National Enquirer. “Faith is a beautiful, amazing person, and she’s forgiven me for the mistakes I made when I was younger.”
Hill continues to serve as an inspiration to anyone who has been touched by adoption. Anyone can see how Hill isn’t ashamed of her adoption, she’s embraced it. And because of her adoption, she has not just her adoptive parents that love her, but her birth family as well.
And if Hill wasn’t placed for adoption, would she be the mega-country star that she is today? Thanks to her birth mother, we will never know.
“I have a lot of respect for my birth mother and no feeling of anger or any of that,” Hill said. “I know she must have had a lot of love for me to want to give me what she felt was a better chance.”
This article is taken from Considering Adoption and is used for demonstration purposes.
