Having spent all his life traveling around the world, Dave Teed discovered when he was 38 years old that he did not have to go very far from his childhood home to meet his birth mother.

Dave was born in 1957 and adopted through Children’s Home Society of Washington by Leo and Lois Teed. “I grew up with amazing parents and they were always open to me meeting my biological mom,” Dave said. “I always knew that if she reached out to me, I wanted to meet her.”

After graduating from Rainier Beach High School in Seattle in 1975, he joined the Navy working in the naval intelligence community until 1997 and retiring from active duty to accept a civilian government position in the cyber security field.

While based in Spain in the early ’90s, he received a phone call from a confidential intermediary who was representing his birth mother Betty.

Betty had been living in Puyallup for 30 years, less than 30 miles from where he grew up in Seattle. As he got to know Betty, he continued to be surprised by all of their connections and similarities. “During the first time I ever visited her house, we were both wearing bright red coats,” Dave said. “It was incredible.”

Betty was a flight attendant and loved to travel and when she was pregnant with Dave she continued to work for a few months. “It turns out that I had already travelled all over the world even before I was born,” Dave said.

Dave and Betty remained close until she passed away in 2001. In thanks for his remarkable adoption and life experiences, Dave wants to see the work of Children’s Home Society of Washington continue for future generations.

He has designated a gift to Children’s Home Society of Washington in his estate plan. “I want all children to know that there is always hope,” Dave said. “Who knows where I would be now if it were not for Children’s Home Society of Washington?”

Janica Lockhart is the senior director for the President's Office at Children's Home Society of Washington.