[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 55 (Wednesday, April 21, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E721-E722]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         GIFTS FROM TWO FATHERS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 21, 1999

  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, some of the finest and most patriotic people 
that we have in this Nation today are naturalized citizens who came 
from other countries.
  This is true in Knoxville, TN where we have many leading citizens who 
have come from other nations.
  We have a exceptional strong Greek Community and one of the finest of 
that group is a man named George Consin.
  He and other members of the Knoxville Greek Community have 
contributed in too many ways to list at this time, however, the 
Knoxville News Sentinel recently published an article telling the story 
of how Mr. Consin and his wife, Mary, adopted a small boy from Greece 
many years ago.
  This is a touching human interest story that I would like to call to 
the attention of my fellow Members and other readers of the 
Congressional Record.

           [From the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Apr. 11, 1999]

                         Gifts From Two Fathers

                         (By Kristi L. Nelson)

       In 1958, in the small town of Volos, Greece, the young wife 
     of 27-year-old Soterios Kalliakoudas gave birth to a boy, 
     their first child. The mother died of complications a few 
     weeks after the birth, and Kalliakoudas, a shepherd and 
     himself the oldest of six children, didn't feel he could 
     raise the boy himself or burden his parents with another 
     child. After the baby was christened--the mother's dying 
     wish--he was placed with a foster family in Greece and put up 
     for adoption.
       About a year later, Kalliakoudas married his second wife, 
     Meropi.
       After learning her husband had a son, she told him, ``You 
     go and find that baby. I will raise him as my own.'' The 
     family gathered at the Kalliakoudas' home to welcome George, 
     who was named, in the Greek tradition, after his paternal 
     grandfather.
       But Kalliakoudas returned home empty-handed to face the 
     disappointed family. Upon arriving at the foster home, he was 
     told George had already been adopted and taken

[[Page E722]]

     to America. Afterward he always spoke with regret of losing 
     his first son and told people he had four children, including 
     the son who had gone to America.
       Soterios and Meropi had two sons--the first again named 
     George in Greek tradition and the second named Dimitri--and a 
     daughter, Viriana. As they grew, they would see men in town 
     who resembled them and wonder if the mystery brother might 
     not be in America after all. As adults, they made an 
     unsuccessful attempt to locate George in America.
       ``They knew I was in the United States, but the United 
     States is a very big place,'' Consin Jr. said. ``They didn't 
     know where to look.''
       George and Mary Consin Sr. were born in Greece but met in 
     America. George Sr. came to America with his family in 1933. 
     Mary came to America in 1946, after World War II. After 
     marrying, the couple tried for a decade--without success--to 
     bear a child.
       A relative who was a congressman in Athens, Greece, 
     arranged for the Consins to adopt 20-month-old George. 
     Although American adoption agencies considered George Sr. and 
     Mary old to be adoptive parents, Greek adoption agencies 
     preferred older couples, whom they considered more stable.
       The Consins were thrilled, but a trip to Greece would be 
     expensive. They asked for help from longtime family friends 
     Jim and Jenny Peroulas, who were planning a family vacation 
     to Greece with their children, Maria and Johnny.
       ``They were very close friends,'' said Jim Peroulas, former 
     owner of a Market Square restaurant and now a bailiff for 
     Sessions Judge Brenda Waggoner. ``They were depending on us 
     to bring the baby up here.''
       The Peroulases picked up the boy and kept him with them in 
     Greece for a few weeks before boarding a 12 hour flight to 
     the United States. The Peroulases then stayed with the 
     Consins for a few days, until George Jr. was used to his new 
     home.
       ``He was a very nice boy,'' Jim Peroulas said. ``They took 
     care of the boy and brought him up right. They told him that 
     and was involved in (the adoption), and George asked me 
     several times to tell him those tales.''
       George Jr. grew up in Knoxville, fully aware that the was 
     adopted. ``It was never an issue or a secret,'' he said, 
     Being an only child, he was ``spoiled rotten,'' he said.
       His parents, like many other Greeks, emphasized the 
     importance of family, hospitality and church. George Jr. grew 
     up close to aunts, uncles and cousins as well as the extended 
     ``family'' of St. George Greek Orthodox Church, where he was 
     an altar boy and attended church school. In public school, he 
     learned English.
       As a child, George Jr. Was regaled with his father's 
     stories of a childhood in Greece and his mother's stories of 
     Greece during the war. Though he was interested in the Greek 
     culture, growing up in America suited George Jr. fine.
       ``I'm sure that I was afforded opportunities I wouldn't 
     have had there,'' he said.
       When he was 20, George Jr. met 17-year-old Angela Barkas on 
     a vacation in Myrtle Beach, where her father owned a 
     restaurant. Twelve years ago--after his graduation from the 
     University of Tennessee and her graduation from the 
     University of North Carolina at Greensboro--they were 
     married. Now George Jr. is vice president of retail sales at 
     First American National Bank and Angela's an interior 
     designer. They have two sons--Alex, 8, and Nicholas, 6.
       George Jr.'s parents told Angela of his background, and 
     from time to time the couple would discuss the possibility of 
     finding his birth father.
       ``Because he was adopted in Greece, it wasn't like we ever 
     thought a reunion would be possible.'' Angela said ``It's so 
     far away, and there's the language barrier. * * * We never 
     thought it would happen.''
       In April 1997, a Greek delegation from Larissa, Greece--
     about 45 minutes from George Jr's birthplace in Volos--
     visited Knoxville. After reading about the delegation's 
     journey in the News-Sentinel, George Sr. approached someone 
     in the group about trying to locate George Jr's birth father, 
     whose last name and first initial he had on a document. 
     George Sr. wasn't sure the other man still lived in Volos, or 
     whether he was even still living, but an attorney in Greece 
     helped him locate the Kalliakoudas family.
       In October 1997, George Sr. made a phone call to Volov and 
     spoke with Meropi, who told him Soterios had his vocal cords 
     removed as a result of throat cancer and could not speak on 
     the phone. Meropi and Soterios immediately sent letters to 
     George Sr., while George, Dimitri and Viriana each sent 
     family photograph with information written on the back.
       They were overjoyed to have finally found the ``other 
     brother.''
       George Jr. was at work one day when he got a phone call 
     from George Sr., now, 78 and working is the 78 and working in 
     the Knox County property assessors office. ``I've got 
     something for you'' he told him. ``Can you come down to my 
     office?''
       The elder Consin presented his son the envelope of letters 
     and photographs. ``He wanted to give me this opportunity 
     while he was still alive,'' George Jr. said. ``He was 
     awaiting for the right time.''
       He took the envelope home to Angela. Together they pored 
     over the first letter which took George Jr. two hours to read 
     because his knowledge of the Greek language was rusty. That 
     weekend, apprehensive of the language barrier, they placed a 
     long-distance call to Viriana.
       ``We didn't want to shock his father, and we knew he 
     couldn't speak,'' Angela said.
       The phone call cost $80--and countless tears of joy.
       ``We started getting calls from Greece almost immediately--
     aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings,'' said George Jr., who 
     said Soterios at first was afraid his son would be angry at 
     him for giving him up. George Jr. quickly made it clear that 
     wasn't the case and now talks to his Greek relatives at least 
     twice a month.
       The Consins had been saving money for living room furniture 
     and a family trip to Disney World. ``George came in and said, 
     `Forget the furniture! Forget Disney! We're going to 
     Greece!''' Angela said.
       In May 1998, the couple went, taking along their sons to 
     meet a ``new'' grandfather. About 30 relatives met them at 
     the airport. ``We were all crying,'' Angela said. ``It was 
     very exciting.''
       The Consins stayed in Greece for three weeks. ``It was very 
     comfortable,'' George said. ``It was like we had known them 
     all our lives.''
       Because both George Jr. and Angela had grown up only 
     children, their sons met their only first cousins. Four of 
     Soterios' five brothers as well as all their children and 
     their families lived within three blocks of Soterios and 
     Meropi. ``My children didn't speak Greek, and the cousins 
     didn't speak English, but they played together all the 
     time.'' Angela said.
       Nor did his inability to speak English keep Soterios from 
     bonding with his new grandsons. ``He spent a lot of time with 
     (Alex and Nicholas), taking them for walks and out for ice 
     cream,'' George Jr. said. ``If they were doing something 
     wrong, he'd whistle to let them know.''
       George Jr. got to meet his own paternal grandparents, now 
     in their 90s, as well as his godfather--who was present at 
     his christening--and countless other relatives. ``We probably 
     met 100 people while we were there,'' Angela said.
       Moreover, Meropi tracked down the family of George's 
     biological mother--of whom she was a friend--and invited them 
     over for a meal, an unselfish gesture that stunned the 
     Consins.
       ``Here she was, the second wife, having to deal with the 
     first wife's child,'' Angela said, ``and she invited the 
     first wife's sister over for lunch, having her there in the 
     house crying over the dead wife's picture. She was so 
     gracious.''
       This meeting with the mother's sister led to a trip to her 
     house in Trikala, an hour-and-a-half drive from Volos. Three 
     of George Jr.'s mother's four sisters and their families--
     about 30 people in all--attended a luncheon to welcome the 
     newfound relatives. Again, the Consins were overwhelmed by 
     hospitality.
       ``They slaughtered a pig for us,'' Angela said. ``They even 
     made their own feta cheese--they even made their own wine! 
     Even the salad we ate was from their own garden.''
       The Consins were ``treated like kings and queens'' 
     throughout their stay, they said. They would admire an object 
     in town, only to find it on their bed the next day. They had 
     to buy two extra suitcases in Greece to bring home all their 
     gifts.
       The Consins also brought American gifts for their new Greek 
     family--perfume for the women, jewelry for the girls, Beanie 
     Babies and Legos for the children. But it was a gift sent the 
     previous Christmas that was most precious to Soterios and 
     Meropi.
       Angela had made the Kalliakoudases a photo album of George 
     growing up, using two photographs from each year of his life, 
     and had a friend fluent in Greek write captions underneath. 
     She ended the photo album with photos of Alex and Nicholas 
     and left blank pages for future pictures of the family's 
     times together.
       ``When we went to visit, that album was on their coffee 
     table with the photo albums of the other children,'' Angela 
     said. ``Meropi said (Soterios) showed it to everyone who came 
     over.''
       They hope to fill the album to overflowing. George Jr. will 
     leave for another trip to Greece later this month--Angela and 
     the children will join him for another trip next year--and 
     the Consins hope their Greek relatives will be able to visit 
     them in America.
       George Jr. said his adoptive parents and newfound 
     biological parents get along well. Meropi calls George and 
     Mary Consin, he said, and the Kalliakoudases always ask about 
     the Consins and refer to them to George Jr. as ``your 
     parents.''
       And they all realize their debt to George Consin Sr., who 
     gave his son a second father--and Soterios back his son.

     

                          ____________________