1st Single US Woman To Adopt Internationally

Marjorie Margolies appreciates a matter or two about parenting, and in her new memoir, “And How Are The Kids?” the mom of 11 children shares how she grew to become the initially one woman in the U.S. considered to have adopted internationally.

In 1970, Margolies was a Tv reporter when an assignment took her to Korea for a series on adoption. She returned house with the beginning of her have story — a 7-12 months-aged daughter named Lee Heh.

“(She) stuck out her hand (and) said, ‘How do you do,’ and that was the only thing she understood how to say,” Margolies told TODAY’s Hoda Kotb on Tuesday. “So sweet.”

Margolies became the initial solitary woman to undertake internationally in the United States of The united states.

“I understood I required to dad or mum,” Margolies explained. “I didn’t know if and when I would marry. I also realized that I had done all these stories on difficult-to-place kids, and I believed, ‘Hmm, which is one thing that I could do.’ I recognized the troubles.”

3 many years afterwards, though covering a tale in Vietnam, Margolies adopted Holly.

“Holly was unachievable,” Margolies shared. “She smoked. She was 6many years previous. She was a pickpocket.”

What appeared as a full plate for the intrepid reporter and solitary mother of two younger girls was just the starting of Margolies’ story.

In 1975, she married Congressman Ed Mezvinsky, who experienced 4 daughters of his possess. The few would go on to have two biological youngsters.

But even as a spouse and children of ten, Margolies experienced only just one remedy when requested to consider in a relatives of refugees: “Let us do it.”

So, a loved ones of five refugees from Vietnam moved in with the spouse and children.

“They lived with us for 25 many years,” Margolies shared.

A household of 15 stored things intriguing.

“I could tell you if we ever experienced attendees, Holly would stroll in and she’d say, ‘Are we gonna undertake any of these people today?'” Margolies informed Right now. “And it was enjoyment. It was exciting.”

As a result of it all, Margolies under no circumstances gave up her expert pursuits. In 1992, she ran for Congress, and gained, serving for two a long time as a congresswoman from Pennsylvania.

With fourteen other individuals at house, Margolies’ house was explained as a “magic circus.”

“The circus section is appropriate,” she stated. “The magical is a minor little bit of an exaggeration.”

But in 2016, heartbreak arrived. Holly passed absent from most cancers at age 48.

“There is just nothing like shedding a youngster,” Margolies explained. “Men and women will say, ‘Time will recover.’ Often it does but often it truly does not.”

Margolies mentioned her late daughter “was wonderful” and remaining an incredible legacy, which includes two young children.

These days, Margolies spends as considerably time as she can with her 21 grandchildren.

She shares her position as a happy grandparent with former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of Point out Hillary Clinton. Her son, Mark, is married to their daughter, Chelsea.

Reflecting again on parenting, Margolies said she loved the curiosity and problems.

“I got myself to the issue that I was not likely to really feel guilty, becoming at get the job done and not getting with the little ones, or getting with the youngsters and not staying at get the job done,” she reported. “I was likely to reconcile that and comprehend that that is what created me a better mom.”