Travis sergeant grows from orphan to Airman

Published April 13, 2012
By Tyler Grimes
60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Like most Airmen, Master Sgt. Nicole Culverhouse has fond memories of her childhood home but unlike most Airmen her childhood home was a public park in Bogota, Columbia.

Her father sold soda out of a vending booth in the park where the family slept. She played games with her brother and other children from around the corner. Sometimes they would walk down a dirt road to go visit their grandmother.

"Life was happy in my little world," she said with a smile.

On one particular day, however, her world changed forever. Culverhouse was playing with her brother in the park when he decided to go down a side street alone as she sat on a two-foot wall across the street and she began to cry.

"Along came a lady in a black dress, who wiped away my tears and asked me what I was doing," she recalls. "I said 'my brother left me' and the next thing you know, I was put into the orphanage."

While in the orphanage, she enjoyed playing outside in the backyard and having sleepovers with the other orphans. At the age of four, Culverhouse found out she was going to be adopted by a family from the United States. When her soon-to-be parents came to Columbia with the intent of adopting an infant boy, once at the orphanage they also got Culverhouse "for the asking." In return, Culverhouse received a teddy bear from her new parents which she has kept with her ever since.

"Sometimes I wonder if he could talk, what stories he would tell," she pondered.

One story Culverhouse remembers vividly was arriving in the U.S. and meeting her adopted family for the first time.

"I was just learning English and they introduced me to my great grandma," she said. "They said 'this is going to be your nana' then I said 'nanita,' which means little grandma and everyone started laughing."

With help of her new family, she was able to speak English after only one month living stateside. She said her parents felt it was important for her to learn quickly, so that she would be ready for the upcoming school year.

"In fact, they chose my birth date to be Dec. 1, 1971 because it was the day after the cutoff for school that would give me an extra year," she explained.

In school, Culverhouse was at first a shy little girl. To encourage her daughter when she got home from school, her mother would give Culverhouse a cherry if she spoke in class.

At home, she had a joyful childhood growing up with four adopted siblings. The fact that they were adopted was something her parents openly discussed and were casual about.

"Somebody asked my father 'don't you have adopted kids?'" she said. "It was pretty obvious because we had dark hair, dark skin and they had blonde hair, fair skin. My dad looked at us and goes 'Yeah, I know that some are but I don't remember which ones,"' she joked.

After high school, she joined the Air Force to gain a sense of independence. Her first duty station was in Greece. It was there where she had a personal realization about her past.

"When I was in Greece, I saw an entire culture bond with this oneness," she said. "And that was the first time I yearned for it myself."

Culverhouse became resolute to go back to Columbia and reconnect with her culture. Last year during an assignment in South Korea, she used a social media site to connect with fellow adoptees from the same orphanage. Once she found some of the other adoptees, the connection was instantaneous.

"We call each other cousins because we are so close, we have the same blood, the same stories and the same desires," she gleamed. "There is this family bond that's hard to explain but it's finally there."

Since meeting her "cousins" online, she has been able to get together with some of them in real life as well. These encounters have been a few of the best experiences she has ever had, she said.

In August, Culverhouse plans on attending the 70th anniversary of the orphanage where she lived. She hopes this experience will help her remember her youth and maybe finally reunite with her biological family.

"I have such a fabulous life but for 36 years they have been mourning my loss," she explained with tears in her eyes. "That breaks my heart beyond words."

Even though this experience has been very emotional at times, she understands there is nothing like going home.