Friends,

Can we please introduce to you– or re-introduce many of you– to Noralba Lucia Kendrick, or Nori for short. Many of you met her as Lidia, but this name better reflects the person Noralba is becoming and the person she has always been.

After being visited by ICE last year and with recent threats of denaturalization from the government, Nori decided to dig further into the adoption story she’d already spent her life questioning. Like many international adoptees during the 1980s, Nori grew up with a biography that involved an agency, a fee, and some paperwork.

She has recently learned that she was the victim of trafficking, likely stolen from her birth mother and birth home in Colombia, South America. Many mothers at that time were told lies about their babies, who were sometimes taken to see doctors and later reported dead rather than returned to their parents. Nori believes she has located the tribe and the place that was briefly her home. That this family, this culture and heritage, were withheld from Noralba is devastating. As you can imagine, uncovering so many heartbreaking facts about her past has already taken a physical and emotional toll.

Norabla is kind, hardworking, and generous. She’s a Navy veteran who provided medical support to combatant POWs and wounded civilians. She is the rock of her family and the mother of two children she speaks of with immense pride. She is a good friend, and we would really love to help ease the burden of the journey she has started on.

Nori would like to take a leave of absence from work to focus on her health as she integrates this new knowledge into her story. Eventually, she would also like to change her name legally and claim her real birth date. And if possible, one day, she would like to visit the place of her birth and her people of origin in Colombia.

Anything you can contribute will help Nori work toward her goals of finding peace in her body, reclaiming her identity, and uncovering a personal history she has been denied her whole life. Please consider helping us help our friend. <3

If you would like to learn more about illicit practices in Colombian transnational adoptions, please click here.