Michaele J. Wagner was born in St. Joseph County, Michigan and brought up in a small town on the Sunrise Side, called Greenbush. Adopted at nine months, she was the first of three children adopted by Norman L. and Rita K. (Terlinden) Bush. She has travelled throughout the United States with her parents, through the military, gaining an adopted brother and sister while the family was stationed at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. The completed family then continued to Germany for a few years, returning to Greenbush in 1978. Michaele graduated from Oscoda Area High School in 1983.