Governor’s second inauguraton features several events

The festivities surrounding Governor Tom Vilsack’s Second Inauguration kick off tonight with a barn dance on the State Fairgrounds. The formal ceremony when Vilsack takes the oath of office will be held Friday morning, and the Inaugural Ball is Friday night. The Inaugural Committee has prepared coursework teachers can use in the classroom, too.. Governor Vilsack’s thoughts on his own adoption are part of that lesson plan. Vilsack’s wife, Christie, interviewed the Governor recently about being adopted, and the tape of that interview’s been transcribed. She asked the Governor what it felt like to be adopted.Mrs. Vilsack hopes teachers will share the Governor’s thoughts with kids who are adopted. Vilsack doesn’t remember how old he was when he was adopted, but remembers his parents always celebrated his “adoption day” with cake and presents, as if it were a birthday. Vilsack was adopted from an orphanage shortly after his mother had a miscarriage, and he says his parents picked him because he looked healthy — “like picking a Butterball turkey at the Hy-Vee.” Vilsack says it wasn’t until he became a father himself that he thought about who his biological parents might be, but he has never tried or felt it was important to find his birth parents.