KCSL Adoption Booklet

Caraleta Huslig
Take a chance on me
y name is Caraleta Pearl Lonnon-
Huslig. At birth, my name was Georgia
Carol Unger. I was adopted at the age of nine
months. My adoptive family consisted of my
mother, dad and a brother who was five years
older and also adopted, but not related to me
by birth. My parents were each 43 years old
when they adopted me. My parents lived on a
farm in Barton County, raised grain crops and
had cattle, hogs, chickens and lots of cats and
a couple of dogs. It was 1942 and I can recall
rationing of some goods, such as sugar and
gasoline. My parents were thrifty, but not to the
extreme. They had gone through the depression
and were keenly aware of what can happen
economically. That being said, they were as
generous as they could be to my brother and
me.
Mother told me when they got to the Children’s
Home in Wichita, they noticed that I was older
than the other babies. I was nine months old
and they decided to “take a chance on me.”
My mother had a great sense of humor. In all
seriousness, she told me that on the way back
to Barton County, she and my dad noticed
that I had already formed several habits. I had
learned how to soothe myself. This self-soothing
was most likely because of my living conditions
at that time. I would bang my head against the
bed, rock back and forth at night and suck my
thumb. Mother had her work cut out. She finally
got me to stop all but rocking myself to sleep.
That took many years for me to conquer.
Mother made sure that I knew I was adopted
and was a chosen child for our family. She did
this from a very early age. I never felt as though
I didn’t belong. In fact, I thought I was a pretty
“I never felt as though I didn’t belong. In
fact, I thought I was a pretty big deal thanks
to her.”
- Caraleta Huslig
big deal thanks to her. She instilled in me the
fact that I could achieve anything this world has
to offer as long as I worked hard at school. To
be honest, I have never considered any
obstacles too big to overcome because of her
love and faith in me.
She also told me that if I ever wanted to search
for my birth mother and father, that she would
help me. I thought about it in my younger years,
just to see who I looked like or if I had any
siblings. That feeling has abated over the years,
but I’m so grateful that my birth mother didn’t
abort me. I pray that my birth mother is aware
of how grateful I am for the life she allowed me
to live. I was given a chance to live, and had a
good life. I married a wonderful man 50 years
ago. We were blessed with three children and
doubly blessed with 11 grandchildren.
I am so blessed to have been adopted by such
good people, and not very many days go by
that I don’t think about them. They have been
gone since 1985.
The1940s
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