Norma McCormick

My life today is a far cry from my early beginnings and I would like to challenge any woman reading this that you can be more than you ever thought possible. I was born from a love union between an American soldier and an Aussie girl at the end of the second world war. Much as my parents cared for each other, the war separated them and consequently I was adopted to another family very early in my life.

I grew up in a family who, though they loved me dearly, were very different from my original family. My childhood was a troubled one, my first memories were of kids at school calling me names and telling me I was adopted. I can remember hiding to get away from them and at times fighting with them. At age 10 I was told I was adopted, after which I became more withdrawn and troubled and very aware that I was different from those around me, both physically and emotionally and would look at myself in the mirror and wonder who I really was. There is something about not knowing your true identity that gives you a huge sense of inadequacy and of not being quite the same as other folks.

I went into my teenage years with very low self-esteem, no confidence and the only person who I felt I could identify with was my adoptive grandmother, who was the light of my growing up years. I was not encouraged to obtain further education, but I do not blame my parents; they raised me the best they knew how. Though I wanted to do an Arts course, I was told it was only for boys. I had some disastrous relationships, entered into a very violent marriage at age 18 and was divorced by age 21; very much alone in the world, with much trauma and hurt carried inside. As a result, I moved to Sydney, where I worked at Dymock’s bookshop in Pitt Street and then did various other office work.

Somewhere in my twenties, I began to realise that I could change my life and was shown that we are a product of our thoughts, so I began to analyse my thinking and found my mind was like a boat, drifting down a river with no one to steer it; my mind was taking me wherever it wanted. Once I began to take note of my train of thinking, I began to see the negative pattern that was emerging and where it was leading me. This did not happen overnight, but as I worked at it, I began to replace positive thoughts with the negative ones and so began a big change in my life. To this day, I check myself to see where my thoughts are leading me.

Once again I look back and see how, if you want something enough, you can bring it to pass. All my life I had wanted to find my natural family and once again, still in my mid-twenties, in quite a miraculous way, I found my natural mother and discovered I had sisters and a brother. I cannot tell you how this changed my life and even now I am part of a very loving family and have had a wonderful relationship with my natural mother over many, many years.

Both my adoptive parents have passed on and I hold them in love and respect, but still, my life has been so enriched by knowing who I am and where I have come from and I need not look in the mirror every day wondering if there is someone, somewhere on this earth who I resemble. After some years, again through a set of amazing circumstances, I also contacted my natural father and I have another family in the United States. So, from a sad little girl feeling very alone, I have more family than I know how to count. I am very thankful to God.

I was also involved in a Church situation and began to be challenged to take a leadership role there. I remember the first time I organised a wedding reception for 120 guests and it went very well; this gave me a sense of achievement and the confidence that I could do things. I went on from there to speak at ladies retreats, organising them and then being the president of a national ladies organisation and even spoke overseas at functions.

But still there was something missing and even though I was married again, there were no children, so I put the thought out into the universe that if I was not to have my own children, then I wanted to raise some who were in need. I know that if you have faith, have a vision of what you desire, then all things are possible and you will bring it to pass; that is how faith works. Anyway, not long after, there were two beautiful girls who needed a home. Their mother, due to illness and other problems, was not able to care for them, so I began taking them for weekends. Then it became a permanent arrangement and the courts gave me custody of them. I was overjoyed.

It was a challenge, the biggest I had ever taken on, but the joy those two little girls brought me was so fulfilling. I’m sure I made a lot of mistakes, but there was certainly a lot of love and they have grown to be beautiful women with children of their own and we still have a very close and loving relationship. There was also Christine, a lovely little Italian girl, who came to live with me when she was 12 years old due to problems in her home. Her parents came and asked if she could live with us. Today, she is a school teacher, with a husband and a first baby.

I am so proud of these girls and what they have achieved and I’m glad I had the courage to accept the challenge of taking them into my home and heart and could give them an opportunity for a better life. Once the girls grew up, I had a lot of time on my hands. I had always been interested in real estate and by this time I was living back in Queensland and decided to give it a go.

That was many years ago and I have had a very successful career in this industry. It has not always been easy, as there were hard years, but once again, I used the lessons I had learned – that all things are possible, and won many awards and even an overseas trip. Since then I have moved to Glenwood and am the licensee of a local Real Estate Office.

I have learnt that there is no challenge that life can bring you that cannot be overcome if you have faith and put into practice the laws of the universe, one being that you will attract to yourself what your thoughts are. To women reading this, I would encourage you to change your mind, think differently, have a vision, have faith and you can do it. From very lowly beginnings, from di cult situations, from a place of low self esteem and a difficult start in life and abusive relationships, I sit here and look back on the years and thank the Great Spirit for the courage to have made changes in my life and for the person I have become, because, if you really want to change your situation, it will take great courage.

If someone like me can learn these things, then surely it is possible for any woman who desires it. But you must look within yourself and nd the power that lies within. I now know that I can overcome anything and that, whatever life brings, it is a learning curve for me to grow as a person and prepares me to be able to be a source of help and encouragement to others to realise their dreams.