It's time to say goodbye to this 5 year endeavor. Plus we hear from all 12 guests this season with their best advice for adoptive parents. Lastly, we close with a mini-interview from the creator of a new adoption-themed musical, For The Record(s), including the song "Real Mother" from it.

Kathy Mackechney, and adoptee, LCSW, and Internal Family Systems therapist, explains what's behind the idea that "not all parts get adopted."

Dr JaeRan Kim is one of the creators of the Adoptee Consciousness Model and Patrick Armstrong shares how it played out for him. Hear these two adoptees talk about ways adoptive parents can support adoptees through this process.

A story looks different depending on who is telling it. This is why, as the very first tellers of our child's adoption story, adoptive parents need to be mindful of the role we cast ourselves in and what is left for the adoptee. Lanise Antoine Shelley, actress and adoptee activist, shares how (and why) to center the adoptee as the hero of their own story.

We used to think that if you get your baby early enough, they won’t have experienced any trauma. And therefore you won’t be raising a child with a trauma history and you won’t be dealing with big, baffling behaviors.

Neuroscience tells us otherwise. So many adoptive parents find themselves facing confounding behaviors they never expected and aren't prepared to be in the midst of.

But never fear! Robyn Gobbel, bestselling author and teacher of therapists, reframes big baffling behaviors and helps us understand the neuroscience of behavior in an accessible way. Learn the ONE thing you need to remember in a moment of parental chaos...and so much more.

Sometimes the math just doesn't add up for adoptees. Invariably, they must straddle two families, and sometime also two (or more) cultures, racial identities, languages or dialects, and even emotions. Here with us is Torie DiMartile, a doctoral candidate in the field of anthropology, as well as a biracial Black transracial adoptee who also educates foster and adoptive parents. Don't miss Part 2 of many insights about the worlds adoptees straddle, and how adoptive parents can better understand and support them.

Sometimes the math just doesn't add up for adoptees. Invariably, they must straddle two families, and sometime also two (or more) cultures, racial identities, and languages or dialects. Here with us is Torie DiMartile, a doctoral candidate in the field of anthropology, as well as a biracial Black transracial adoptee who also educates foster and adoptive parents. Don't miss Part 1 of all her insights about the worlds adoptees straddle, and how adoptive parents can better understand and support them.

How do birth parents and adoptive parents stay steadfast for the adoptee they both love, through thick and thin, across decades? Here with us today are two women who entered into what became a long-enduring open adoption nearly 22 years ago when Katie Cowles placed her daughter into the arms of Amber Wooten. Neither of them knew all that was to come. But step by step, day by day, they worked at it. They endured hard things, never quitting on themselves, each other, or their daughter.

Amber Jimerson, who placed her son in a semi-open adoption 17 years ago, is also a preacher's wife. Here she takes us on a deep dive into who, when, and where "adoption" is mentioned in the Bible and bringing that context into present day issues.

My guests Lauren Fishbein (adoptee and play therapist) and Glenna Boggs (adoptee and music educator) share their lived experience about giving space for the full range of adoptee emotions.