Grace & Steel by J. Randy Taraborrelli

Author:J. Randy Taraborrelli
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

PART FOURTEEN

Family Geography

Laura’s Emotional Roller Coaster

Throughout her childhood, Laura Bush had watched as her mother struggled not only with infertility but also with the devastating sorrow of giving birth to babies who didn’t survive. She had long wondered if she’d have to endure similar heartache. “Maybe it’s just karma,” she told one close friend. Even without elaborating, her friend knew exactly what Laura meant. Perhaps she didn’t deserve to be a mother because she had, so many years earlier, robbed another woman of the opportunity to see her son grow into adulthood.

George Bush had never met someone who deserved to be a mother more than Laura. He, too, desperately wanted to be a father. He had four siblings, had thoroughly enjoyed his own childhood, learned a lot about parenting from his folks, and knew he’d be a great dad.

After losing the congressional race in 1978, George had devoted himself to his Arbusto oil company and was still depending on the investments of friends and family members. He set up shop in a three-room office and paid himself $75,000 a year. (That’s around $300,000 in today’s money.) For the next few years he would try in vain to find an oil well that would set him up for life. By the spring of 1982, he would decide to capitalize on his family name, especially now that his father was in the White House, and rename the company Bush Exploration. It wouldn’t help; he’d keep drilling dry holes. Eventually, all his investors would lose their money.

By 1980, George and Laura were real celebrities in Midland. Everywhere they went, people pointed at them and singled them out because not only had George run for Congress, but his father was now Vice President. Also, the couple had a great many friends and family members in Midland, and their life there was a happy one, no surprise considering how much they had always loved the West Texas town. The only thing missing was the one thing they wanted more than anything else: a baby.

George had told Laura not to worry about it; he felt she’d get pregnant right away, maybe even on their honeymoon. After about three years of trying, though, Laura was still unable to conceive. This was heart-wrenching for both of them. Finally, they decided to adopt. While it wasn’t an easy decision to abandon the idea of having a child of their own, giving a baby in need a real home still felt right to them, and they knew they’d love an adopted baby just as much as they would if he or she was their biological child.

In the fall of 1980, George and Laura applied at the Gladney Center for Adoption in Fort Worth. Jenna took a picture of them to send along with the application, and looking at that photograph today one can’t help but note, first of all, how lovely a couple they were, but also, from the expression of longing on their faces, just how much they yearned to be parents.

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