About Maraleah

Thank you for joining me for tea. Although my web name is Maraleah, my real name is Mary Hayden. I am the wife of Philip Hayden and mother of Brian and Scott Nix. Please spend some time on their pages. My men are my pride and joy.

I was planning on naming one of my daughters Maraleah, but they both turned out to be sons! So, until I can convince one of my children to use the name for one of their daughters, I will keep it alive on the web. The way I came up with the name was from the last name of a favored aunt, Mara, and the first name of my best friend's daughter, Leah. It also isn't a far stretch from my real name...Mary Lee.

One lump or two?

Okay...back to the story of me. I was born in Miami, Florida. When I was nine months old, I was placed in the care of the Catholic Church. At that time, I had nearly died of malnutrition (but I have really made up for it since *s*). I was adopted when I was 3 years old.

Recently I received some non-identifying information from Catholic Charities and here is what I found out:

My parents were married when I was born, but my father had left before I was born. They subsequently divorced. My mother was 17 and had custody of me. She fed me nothing but milk for the first 9 months of my life and I was at the development of a 3 month old at 9 months old. A doctor reported me to Catholic authorities (as it was done back then) and they took me from my mother and put me in Catholic foster homes.

They sent a letter to someone in my father's area as he was living with his family at that time. They were asking him to sign away his rights to me, if he didn't want me. Well...he didn't and signed me away. Evidently, my mother didn't want me back either and signed away her rights. It was very strange reading that.

It was also strange to read all my medical problems. I was, evidently, a very "insecure child" according to the psychiatrist that saw me several times. I was also learning at high-average rate, although how you can tell that in a child so young, I'm not sure. I had many doctor visits for different ailments, including the measles (no vaccination for them back then). There is no medical history for me prior to 9 months old. Guess I didn't see a doc for those months until the 9 month visit. I didn't even start getting my vaccinations until after I was a year old.

It is strange to realize that neither of my parents wanted anything to do with me. I would have thought at least THEIR parents, my grandparents, would have been interested. Very strange.

The years I spent growing up were not the idyllic life so many adoptees speak of. I spent some of it being victimized. You can read about that in my story Innocence Lost.

So, now I am 52 years old and married to my high school sweetheart. We married 20 years after high school and you can read about our story on my page dedicated to My Hubby.

At the current time, I am a stay at home wife (SAHW) due to an illness called Chronic Pancreatitis. You can read my story of my struggle with this disease here. So now I keep busy by working on my website and learning to draw graphics. I really enjoy it. To find out more about me, see my 101 Things About Me page.

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