He had always been curious. Never sure. Always different. At age 10, the summer before Cooper Certain’s fourth grade year, his parents, Tammy and Brian Certain, called Cooper over to the side of the pool on a sunny day. Making his way to his mom and dad, Cooper pushed the waves in the pool to collide against one another. He jumped up onto the ledge of the pool and they told Cooper the news.

“Cooper, you’re adopted,” his parents explained.

It was that simple. He didn’t lash back. He didn’t cry. He simply carried on swimming. He always looked different than his parents, and now he finally knew why.

“I felt like I finally had an answer to something that I had in the back of my head,” Cooper said.

Numerous friends who were once in the same situation advised Tammy and Brian to let him know early rather than let him find out later. After Cooper finally reached the age where he could understand the concept, Brian and Tammy followed their friends’ advice and told Cooper as soon as he started asking questions.

Becoming Cooper’s Parents

Adoption. That was it. Tammy and Brian Certain could finally have children. They made a phone call to start the process.

During the six month process of applying for custody, both Brian and Tammy were required to write a ten page autobiography on their childhood memories as far back as they could remember. Tammy Certain said writing the biography was one of the hardest parts of the adoption.

“You never know if you say the wrong thing,” Tammy said. “They’ll say ‘Oh, you don’t get your kid.’”

Thirty days later, they met Elizabeth, Cooper’s biological mother. No other information. Nothing. This woman who they knew hardly anything about gave birth to their future child.

“Anybody can choose to keep a child, but to give a child is hard,” Tammy said. “She wanted him to have a life she knew she couldn’t provide for him.”

Elizabeth stood five feet tall with dark hair at shoulder length and Mayan-like facial features. She only spoke Spanish. Tammy and Brian only spoke English. The two families could not have been more different.

Tammy emphasizes what Elizabeth did took courage. She sacrificed her ability to become an American citizen for Cooper. If she would have kept Cooper, Elizabeth could have opened numerous doors to various opportunities. But she didn’t make that choice. She gave him up. She loved Cooper enough to give him a better life.

While finishing legal documents, time passed. Elizabeth wasn’t anywhere in sight. No word of where she was. Nothing. The end of the adoption paperwork needed to be signed, and she was nowhere to be found. Tammy began to think the worst.

“She changed her mind, they can’t find her,” Tammy thought.

After freaking out, the Certains found out Elizabeth never even left work. She was too afraid to leave the primice. In no way could she lose her job. There was too much at risk. Frightened and worried, Tammy thought she lost Cooper before she even held him. “We thought we were gonna lose him for sure,” she thought.

Without her green card, Elizabeth became part of the illegal migrants from Mexico that make up 75 percent of the total amount of unauthorized immigrants. A total of six states, Texas included, account for 60 percent of unauthorized immigrants which make up 5.1 percent of the United States labor force.

Aug. 1, 2000 Elizabeth, gave birth six weeks early. With no father figure for the baby, Elizabeth didn’t have enough money for prenatal checkups, so no one knew the pregnancy was nine months along.

She worked four jobs, and she couldn’t pay for anything. No money for prenatal checkups. No money for a baby. No money for anything.

Keeping Cooper would have resulted in being a single parent for Elizabeth. If that were the case, Elizabeth and Cooper quite possibly could have become part of the 37 percent growing proportion of poor Hispanic children.

A last-minute phone call from the agency begged the question, “What do you want to name your son?” The Certains weren’t prepared. Panic set in. A rushed adoption. They didn’t even know the mother’s last name.

“No, no, no, we’re having-no, we’re having a girl not a boy,” adoptive mother Tammy tells the woman from the adoption agency.

An Answered Prayer And Unanswered Questions

Adoption Access answered Tammy and Brian’s prayer that summer in 2000. The overall process went smoothly for the couple. When Brian feels as if God isn’t near, he just looks at Cooper in awe. In those moments, Brian knows God listens to his prayers and that God is right there beside him.

“It’s our faith story.”

In the months after Cooper’s birth, Elizabeth would leave gifts and pictures for Cooper at the agency so they could pick them up. Unfortunately as time went on, the gifts stopped. The pictures stopped. The connection with her son stopped. It no longer exists. Cooper doesn’t know the location of his mother. Most likely, Elizabeth made her way to back to her homeland, Mexico.

Cooper has a letter from Elizabeth that states why she gave him up and how she felt about giving him up. Because she only knew Spanish, the family couldn’t read the letter years ago when they received it. A family friend was asked to translate the letter.

Knowing the Difference

As he grew older, Cooper dealt with his own issues. Tammy noticed stares from strangers surfaced everywhere because he looked different from his parents. He was brown. They were white. His daily life was affected by the problem. Tammy couldn’t even stroll through the mall with her son without receiving scowls from other Hispanic women.

“I finally got used to it,” Tammy said. “ I thought, ‘You’re not gonna hurt me.’” 

After finding out about the adoption, he looked at his parents the same way as he did before- with love. Now a freshman, Cooper doesn’t care if his adoptive parents gave birth to him or not. Unlike most cases, he hardly thinks of his birth mother or father. Brian and Tammy have built a life for Cooper that, as he says, exceeds living on the streets.

“I’m very spoiled,” Cooper said. “They don’t treat me any different.”

Cooper may know who gave birth to him, but he still has pending questions. Despite hardly thinking of Elizabeth, Cooper wants to visit his biological mother in the future. And some day he will. For now, Cooper sets his focus on his school life and getting into Texas A&M University to study veterinary medicine.

Cooper wants to adopt. He wants to give a child their best chance at a better life, similar to what Brian and Tammy did for him. The Donaldson Adoption Institute released information from a poll that concluded 30 percent of adoptees choose to adopt at least one child of their own. In a span of 30 years, 265,677 US citizens adopted children from other countries.

“I think my story growing up was different. I always felt growing up that I never had to work for anything that I wanted like my friends always had to,” Cooper said. “Having two sets of parents makes me remember that just being born to a set of parents isn’t the only thing that makes you a family. What makes a family, specifically for parents, is to never leave the child you will love and raise and making them feel that they are home when you are with them.”