Recipes for Living Caitlin Body

I will be celebrating my 21st birthday running 26 miles in the Chicago Marathon for the charity Team to End AIDS. Every 9 1/2 minutes someone in the United States is infected with HIV, and nearly 1.2 million Americans are now living with HIV.

It will be another high point in my life which began in Peru. My birth mother couldn't take care of me, and she thought it best if I were adopted. Although it must have been very hard for her, I am more grateful than I can say that she made the decision and to Sue Body, my adopted mother.

Sometimes I try to imagine what my life would have been like if I hadn't been adopted. My mom, Sue, came to Lima, Peru to get me. Someone who was taking care of me told her I was to have only water after 12:00 at night. I was about seven weeks old, but I weighed what would be acceptable for a newborn baby. My mom, Sue, immediately changed that rule. I have some pictures of her, my biological mom, and me. It shows that my birth mom was very short. I am five feet four inches, and she looked as though she would come about to my shoulder.

I probably would be living in the jungle of Peru. I have seen a picture of a typical house and found a similar one in a library book by Marion Morrison, Peru, Enchantment of the World.. As I remember, it had two stories and a thatched roof I would possibly have lived without electricity or running water. In that book the author said children aged six to fifteen were supposed to attend school, but many drop out because they are needed at home to help with farming or to care for animals. Generally the academic standards are not high, and there are shortages of textbooks, pens and pencils, sports equipment, and even desks and chairs. My birth mom told me a road had recently been built to our village, so it all sounds very primitive.

Caitlin updated her story in June 2004, following her seventh grade: My mom has encouraged me, supported me, and attended events in which I participated — in sports: basketball, volleyball, and track; and in music in band and chorus. I sing soprano and did pretty well in contests.

I've gone to several camps: basketball and band; and I attended a teen musical theater workshop at the Des Moines Playhouse. My mom and I went on a vacation to Washington, D.C. I have now been confirmed.

I've also been in Kathy Kooiker's Children's Theater each year from kindergarten through sixth grade, and in community plays I've helped backstage. In "Oklahoma."I was assistant stage manager helping with the props. Mom is usually in the musical ones, playing trumpet, or having something to do with lights and sound.

Mom and I both play trumpets with Rev. Hugh Stone for the praise music at the United Methodist Church, of which we are both members. I was baptized by Rev. Stone in April, 2004. He honored my preference of immersion and he arranged for us to use the baptistry at the Christian Church. I became part of another family, the church.

I am interested in my original family, but I don't have any contact with them. I was too little when I left, and I only have pictures I think I have two sisters there and there might be other siblings. I think about them when we study about the Incas and I wonder if they could be my ancestors. We study about the Andes mountains. My birth mom lived in the rain forest and we discuss preserving them as our main oxygen resource. I might go there sometime but I am so very fortunate to have all I do here. This has become my true home and family.

Caitlin graduated from Clarke Community High School in My 2009, and began the next phase of her career.