Welcome to strangers. I'm Leah Tao, and we have big news.

Radiotopia from PRX.

Did you hear that? Isn't that cool? We are a founding partner of a collective called Radiotopia,

and it's like the greatest thing on the planet. We're still part of KCW's independent producer project, which is the other greatest thing on the planet.

But we have expanded our family to be part of Radiotopia and what a family it is.

It's some of the best producers in the world.

And I am humbled and honored and a little bit intimidated to be their partner.

Today's story is very much a Valentine story, but not quite in the way you might expect.

Let's just say it takes a couple of surprising turns. Here's Liz Fletcher, formerly known as Edie.

All I knew was that my mom was white and my dad was black,

and I was born in a home for unwed mothers in 1966 in Kansas City, Missouri.

My mom gave me up. She went away, and I stayed in the home for unwed

mothers until I was five months old, and no one wanted to adopt me. I wasn't white enough for the

white families. I wasn't black enough for the black families. Man, if I were adopted now,

I'd be going like a hotcake, But back in the day, not so much.

And so I was placed in a wonderful foster home where I, or the people around me, hoped that I would be adopted.

There was another little boy who was crippled.

He would kind of pull himself around by his hands.

And he was my friend friend and we played together.

And I remember thinking, why doesn't anybody adopt him and why doesn't anybody adopt me?

You know, we're good people too. Then when I was four, my social worker and my foster parents

decided to help the cause of getting me adopted by putting me on a news segment called Thursday's Child to get the word out there that I was a little bit of an older, cute little girl who needed a home, like your own commercial.

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