After 20 Years, Iowa State's James Smith to Reunite With His Mom

James Smith, a defensive back on the Iowa State football team, is going to see his mom this weekend.

No big deal, right? Lots of college students see their moms on the weekend, even if it is just over a laundry basket overflowing with socks and underwear.

James Smith's experience will be a little different. The last time he saw his mom, according to the Des Moines Register, he was 3 years old.

Smith was born in Haiti but came to this country in 1989 along with his father's family. After a couple years in Florida, Smith found himself living in Omaha with his aunt. Omaha is about as unlike Haiti as a place can get. The economy is stable; the climate is not. Even if Omaha's streets are rougher than people think, he was a lot better off there than he was in Haiti.

This is where the story starts getting weird.

One day in second grade, Smith came home and his aunt was gone. She never came back.

Smith then passed through four foster families before finally finding a place where he fit. He spent the rest of his youth in Carter Lake, Iowa, a tiny town completely surrounded by Omaha.

This was not the fate his relatives assumed he met. When another aunt wanted to find him, she started calling around to jails, hoping he was there instead of in the ground.

The truth was as far removed from that as Omaha is from Haiti: He was at Iowa State, on track to graduate with a liberal studies degree, he was leading the Cyclones in tackles, and he was an honorable mention all-Big XII safety.

Following college football can make you cynical. It doesn't take long before you start thinking only about trophies, conference titles, mock drafts, and BCS bowls. You get to that point and you start to wonder why some players -- and some programs -- even bother going out onto the field. Why put yourself through the stress and strain of two-a-days, road trips to places you'd never visit otherwise, and multiple losing seasons? If you aren't good enough to run with the big dogs, then why run at all?

Then you hear a story like Smith's, and it all makes sense.

James Smith may make it to the next level, but if he doesn't, look at all he's been through already. There are people who, by chance or by choice, don't see their moms for 20 years. Very few of them are 22 years old. Fewer still have been abandoned by their families more than once. That's a lot for one person to have to overcome, but Smith overcame it all.

There's just one obstacle left, though. Smith's mother doesn't speak any English, and he only speaks a little Haitian Creole. Somehow, though, I think they'll find a way to communicate.