'We adopted . . . in spite of the foster agencies'

On his way out of the news conference Friday night at the Hyatt Regency at Penn's Landing, Gov. Rendell was swarmed by people wanting to pose with him for pictures, give him T-shirts, shake his hand, and slip him business cards.

Among them was one exasperated father - Lloyd Bowman.

"Excuse me, Governor. Sorry. Governor? Excuse me," repeated Bowman, short, 40, and clearly uncomfortable but determined to get Rendell's attention. When Rendell finally focused on him, Bowman spoke urgently. "I just wanted you to know that we had to fight the foster-care system every step of the way for our son. We adopted him, in spite of the foster agencies."

Rendell gave him a contact number and a name before he was whisked away.

After nine years in foster homes, group homes and shelters, Sheldon Bowman-Brunk, 17, was adopted last year by Bowman, an administrative assistant at Germantown Mennonite Church, and Doug Brunk, 42, the chief technical officer at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Brunk and Bowman, who have been together 15 years, had been trying for the last four to adopt a child.

"We were thinking we'd get one between 5 and 10 years old," Bowman said, "but nothing was coming along."

Then Bowman was searching an adoption Web site and saw two paragraphs describing a teenage boy who was very interested in having a family.

"Most kids his age have given up," Brunk said. "We thought, let's find out more about him."

Two years ago they became his foster parents. Last year, they adopted him.

Sheldon, who is gay, says that in this home, with this family, he finally feels free to be himself. Now a senior at Germantown Friends School, he volunteers with the Delaware Valley Legacy Fund, a philanthropy that serves the gay community. Through that connection, he was asked to read a poem he wrote at the Friday night event.

It begins with earnest similes and ends with metaphorical dash:

"If my life were a musical, my life would be Annie. With not just one Daddy Warbucks, but two."