When Ali Trampe was a child in North St. Paul, she fell asleep at night looking at her baby book, which her adoptive mother meticulously compiled to tell the story of a girl born in the middle of a Guatemalan earthquake.
She acknowledges her upbringing this way:
"I'm very at peace with how my life began. My parents made sure I never felt that I was anybody but their own child. I know how lucky I am to have the parents and the family I do."
Now, as 41-year-old Ali Adsit of White Bear Lake, she is board vice chairwoman of EVOLVE Adoption and Family Services, successor to the Stillwater agency her adoptive father helped start a year after her adoption. She will tell her story at EVOLVE's fundraiser and 40th anniversary celebration in Minneapolis on Oct. 27.
"I think my adoption is a good story," she said, acknowledging that many don't turn out as well.
Adsit was rescued on Feb. 4, 1976, from a mountain of rubble after a 7.5-magnitude earthquake in Guatemala that killed 23,000 people. Rescue workers heard her crying and found her with the umbilical cord and placenta still attached.
She was taken to the home of a Minnesota nurse living in Guatemala, Ramona Nystrom, who knew about a new east metro adoption agency — HOPE International Family Services — co-founded by Ted Trampe, and called it to say an infant girl might be available.
Ted and Carmen Trampe traveled to Guatemala, where they spent five weeks as baby Ali gained weight before bringing her home.
