EXCLUSIVE Interview with Lt. Governor Tim Murray & His Family

“People always call adoption a ‘leap of faith’ and that’s certainly true,” says Massachusetts Lt. Governor Tim Murray in an exclusive interview, inside the November issue of Bay State Parent magazine. “There are more unknowns than knowns. But anyone who’s gone through a process of having a child - whether it’s by giving birth or by adoption - knows it’s something you can’t fully appreciate until the child is in your arms. At that moment, everything else falls away and you understand it was all worthwhile.”
The Lt. Governor and his wife Tammy, in a rare interview, talk about the adoption of their two daughters from Guatemala and the bicultural experience the family is creating inside and outside their Worcester home.
The exclusive interview, inside the November issue, is part of the magazine’s 5th Annual Adoption Guide. The magazine can be found at more than 850 locations in Eastern & Central Massachusetts beginning today.
The Murrays brought home Helen Roowina, now 2 ½, in December 2005 when she was just nine months old. In May 2007, they welcomed Katerine Mariela, called “Kati,” at age 15 months.
The two sisters, with olive skin and dark features, share their permanent home and heritage – and sometimes even their toys. Like most American toddlers, they live in a world of Disney Princesses, Dora the Explorer, and Elmo. They love animals, trips to the zoo, reading books, and rocking out to the Wiggles.
Award-winning freelance writer Kate M. Jackson spent a morning with the family at their home. During the rare interview, Tim & Tammy, who is an occupational therapist for the Worcester Public Schools, talked intimately about their family, blending two cultures, and their personal decision to create that family through adoption.
“Kate did a wonderful job weaving vivid descriptions and candid conversations into a terrific profile of the Murray family for the adoption guide,” said Bay State Parent magazine editor Susan Scully Petroni.
The Murrays are not alone in creating a family through adoption.
Over the last three decades more than a quarter million children have been adopted by America families. International adoptions in the United States have more than doubles in the last decade. And in Massachusetts, international adoptions, as well as foster parenting and domestic adoptions, are on the rise.
November is National Adoption Awareness Month and Bay State Parent magazine's previous adoption guides have been feted with New England and national journalism awards. For its monthly coverage of adoption issues, the magazine was honored with the prestigious Friend of Adoption Award from The Adoption Community of New England (ACONE).