In this episode of Calendar Conversations – A Guide for Adoptive Parents, host April Dinwoodie explores how adoptive families can rethink holiday traditions with intention and openness. Rather than following rituals simply because "we've always done it that way," April invites listeners to consider which traditions truly foster connection, honor a child's full identity, and create a sense of belonging.

From embracing meaningful new rituals to letting go of those that no longer fit, this episode encourages families to celebrate difference and build traditions that reflect their unique stories. April also offers reflection questions to help guide conversations at home as the year comes to a close.

A thoughtful, grounding way to close out the year—and to step into the next one with clarity and heart.

In this November episode of Calendar Conversations: A Guide for Adoptive Parents, host April Dinwoodie invites listeners to reflect on what it means to set the holiday table with intention in complex times.

Thanksgiving is often framed as a celebration of gratitude and togetherness—but for many, including adoptive and transracial families, it also stirs deeper emotions and difficult truths. April explores how this tension mirrors the complexity of adoption itself: the beauty of connection intertwined with loss, absence, and identity.

With honesty and heart, April offers practical ways to approach the holidays with greater reflection and care—creating space for grief, gratitude, and the full story of family.

This episode reminds us that the most meaningful traditions aren't about perfection; they're about truth, inclusion, and belonging.

Key themes: • Honoring the complexity of Thanksgiving and adoption stories • Setting the table with intention and awareness • Inviting family of origin and multiple truths into your celebrations • Practicing narrative equity and making space for the whole story

This October, host April Dinwoodie explores the masks we wear — the ones we put on to belong, to stay safe, or to make others comfortable — and what happens when we start to take them off.

Through the lens of adoption and identity, April reflects on how masking often begins as a form of protection and survival, especially for adopted persons navigating complex narratives about family and belonging. She also invites adoptive parents to look at their own patterns of masking and how curiosity, honesty, and empathy can help everyone in the family feel seen and safe enough to be real.

With a special focus on transracial adoption, this episode examines the cultural tensions of the Halloween season — from costumes to cultural appropriation — and offers reflective questions to help families unmask with courage and compassion.

Belonging begins with truth — and every time we unmask, we make it a little easier for someone else to do the same.

In this September episode of Calendar Conversations: A Guide for Adoptive Parents, April Dinwoodie reflects on what's surfacing for children a few weeks into the school year—feelings of belonging, othering, and the silent weight many carry. April shares why parents must do their own work around belonging, avoid the pitfall of assuming silence means "everything's fine," and lean into the messy middle of conversations about adoption, identity, and friendship. This episode sets the stage for October's theme: The Masks We Wear.

In this August episode of Calendar Conversations: A Guide for Adoptive Parents, April Dinwoodie reflects on the realities of back-to-school season today versus her own childhood. While her school days were filled with questions of identity and belonging as a transracially adopted person, she never had to face active shooter drills or the fears that weigh on students now.

Against the backdrop of political rollbacks in DEI, curriculum bans, and underfunded support systems, April shares how these shifts impact children—especially those navigating adoption and complex identities. She also lifts up a story of a Black father's conversation with his son about their family name and connects it to the layers of meaning names hold in adoption.

This episode offers practical ways parents can stay plugged in, advocate for their children, and create cultural safety nets at home. Above all, it is a reminder that back-to-school is not just for kids—we are all always learning, always growing.

In this July episode, host April Dinwoodie explores what freedom really means in adoption - personally, politically, and emotionally. Through four powerful lessons, she unpacks the complexitites of identity access, parental responsibility, grief, and the impact of systemic injustice. As July's national celebrations unfold, this episode challenges listeners to think beyond fireworks and flags - and instead, reflect on how freedom is experienced, denied, and protected in the lives of adopted people and the families who love them.

In this heartfelt June episode of Calendar Conversations, host April Dinwoodie continues her two-part series exploring expansive definitions of family. With Father's Day as our guidepost, we honor the many forms of fathering that show up in the lives of adopted persons — from fathers of origin and adoptive dads to mentors, uncles, grandfathers, and beyond. April shares personal reflections on the joy and ache of Father's Day, shines a light on the systemic erasure of fathers (especially Black fathers), and offers tangible ways adoptive parents and caregivers can foster healing, identity, and connection during this emotionally complex season. Whether through naming, ritual, or brave conversation, this episode is an invitation to hold space for all the hands and hearts that shape a child's life — and to offer them the gift of wholeness.

This May, we are beginning a special two-part series: Celebrating the Many Hands and Hearts That Hold Us - an exploration of what it means to honor family expansively, through the lens of adoption. In this first part of the series, we focus on Mothers' Day - the emotions it carries, the opportunities it presents, and how adoptive parents can hold space for the many hands and hearts that are part of a child's life. This Mother's Day, I invite you to celebrate expansively. Hold space for complexity. Honor the many hands and hearts that shape your child's life - including your own.

In this episode, host April Dinwoodie unpacks the power of names—those given at birth, changed by adoption, or chosen later in life—and the deep emotional weight they carry. For adopted people, names are often tied to complex layers of identity, loss, and belonging. April shares a personal story that illuminates these truths and invites adoptive parents to reflect on what their child's name might hold, and how to honor the full journey behind it.

March is often associated with luck. For many adopted persons, we hear this word a lot, You are so lucky to be adopted." But is adoption really about luck? Or is it about something much deeper - an experience shaped by love loss gain, and grief all at once? Join host, April Dinwoodie to uncover how luck plays a role in adoption.