Color Shift: Transracial Adoptees

In this special episode of Color Shift, we have invited a panel of guest to talk about their experiences at Camp Rice.  A Korean Culture camp hosted by Asia Families.  Hyn and Monica attended Camp Rice last year as "campers" for the first time.  They report that their experience and time there was nothing short of life changing, rejuvenating and much needed.  Hollee had the incredible task of leading Camp Rice for the Korean Adult Adoptees, she expresses her joy, slight fatigue but overall amazement of how incredible the "campers" were during this extended weekend.  Join your host, Nathan Choi, as he deep dives into the experiences of Monica, Hyun and Hollee.

Below is an excerpt from ASIA Families' website, describing a little about Camp Rice. 

"Healing with our Ancestors"

Adult Adoptee Program at Camp Rice with Hollee McGinnis aka Lee Hwa Young and Kim-Sue Stevens

a body, heart, and soul journey of re•clamation and re•indigenizing ourselves  to our ancestral wisdom

“Theme: A Journey of Friendship”

 "Healing with Our Ancestors" is an adult adoptee program developed by Korean adoptee Hollee McGinnis, PhD, and co-facilitated with Kim-Sue Stevens that will be offered at Asia Families' annual Camp Rice. This program for adult adoptees is intended to be a space for us to re•claim those parts of us that were taken, abandoned, or forgotten and re•indigenize ourselves to our inner truths and ancestral wisdom. This year’s theme invites us to walk a path of friendship, coming to befriend ourselves, each other, and the world.

Set within the context of Asia Familie's Camp Rice for Korean adoptive families, this program is unique for adoptees who may want to bring their children to a Korean culture camp, or who are looking to experience a retreat space for their growth and meaning of being adopted. During our time we will engage in various contemporary mind, body, and energetic practices rooted in ancestral wisdom from Asia and South Korea to harmonize and integrate various parts of ourselves: East and West, suffering and joy, mind and heart, body and spirit, logic and intuition, giving and receiving, doing and being.

We will engage in activities that will explore who we are, the parts we are ready to set down, reconnect with those parts we had lost so we can feel more whole, and show up the way we want to be in the world.

Website: Adult Adoptee Registration

Facebook:  Asia Families

Instagram: Asia Families

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

In this episode of Color Shift, we’re joined by Steven, a Vietnamese adoptee who grew up in Wyoming and has returned to Vietnam several times as an adult. Steven reflects on transracial adoption, identity, and what it means to reconnect with a place that holds both history and possibility.

We also talk about Adoptive Threads, a project Steven created to support adoptee-led organizations and provide supplies to orphanages, including the one where his life began.

This conversation explores belonging, memory, and how adoptees navigate the spaces between past and present—holding complexity, curiosity, and care along the way.

Steven's t-shirt company: www.adoptivethreads.com

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

Most of the time, I would have a nice info here for the show notes about the guest.  Well, this time, I am keeping short and sweet.  The guest this week is none other than myself, Nate Choi.  I am also happy to introduce my long time friend Jeremy.  Jeremy did an amazing job interviewing and being such a respectful host for this episode. 

This episode was scary, hard, wonderful and amazing.  I teared up a little bit and we definitely laughed a lot as well.  

Thank you to Jeremy for being a great host.  

I hope you enjoy. 

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

Karasalla was born in Hawaiʻi, mixed Samoan and Black, and entered the foster care system before her first birthday. She was later adopted by a white, conservative family in Oregon, where she grew up navigating questions of race, identity, and belonging—often without the language or mirrors to fully understand her experience.

In this episode of Color Shift, Karasalla reflects on what it meant to grow up racially different within her adoptive family and community, and the ways love, effort, and limitation can coexist. She shares about her adoptive mother’s willingness to learn—especially the significance of seeking out how to care for her hair—and how those acts of intention mattered deeply.

Karasalla also speaks candidly about being in reunion with her biological mother and siblings, offering an honest perspective on reunion as not a finish line, but the beginning of another journey—one filled with connection, grief, curiosity, and growth.

This episode explores the ongoing nature of identity, the complexity of family, and what it means to continue becoming, long after adoption papers are signed.

Tiktok: @karasallafale

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

In this episode, Alejandra shares her journey as a Guatemalan adoptee raised in the predominately white suburbs of Baltimore. Adopted at 15 months old, Alejandra always knew she was adopted — but knowing didn’t mean understanding. From growing up without Spanish to navigating a childhood where no one looked like her, she reflects on the quiet but constant reminders of difference that shaped her identity.

Alejandra talks about the pivotal year her mother took a sabbatical to live with her in Mexico so she could learn Spanish, and later, her decision to spend a year in Guatemala reconnecting with the country she came from. She also shares the emotional experience of searching for and meeting her biological family in 2019, and how becoming a mother herself has deepened her appreciation, compassion, and grief for the woman who gave birth to her.

This episode explores identity, language loss, reunion, and the weight of what it means to know — and not know — where you come from. Alejandra’s story offers tenderness, honesty, and a window into the layered reality of transnational adoption.

https://www.safepassage.org

https://www.thetiesprogram.com/guatemala-ties-heritage-tours

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

Episode Description – Jacob: When Adoption Breaks Down

In this episode of Color Shift, host Nathan Choi talks with Jacob, who shares a powerful and often overlooked side of adoption — what happens when an adoptive placement doesn’t last.

Adopted from Ethiopia at age two and raised in Brisbane, Jacob spent his early childhood in an Australian family until, at age eleven, he was handed over to the Department of Human Services. From there, he entered the foster care system, moving through multiple placements, navigating instability, and enduring experiences no child should have to face. By eighteen, he aged out of care and stepped into adulthood completely on his own.

Despite losing connection with his adoptive parents, Jacob maintains a strong, meaningful relationship with his adopted sister—a bond that helped him stay grounded through years of upheaval.

In our conversation, Jacob opens up about the realities of bouncing from home to home, the emotional weight of feeling unwanted, and the resilience required to build a life without familial stability. His story shines a light on the gaps in both adoption and foster care systems, and on the strength it takes to survive when every anchor is pulled away.

This episode is a raw and necessary look into the experiences rarely talked about in adoption: breakdown, displacement, and the long road toward creating your own sense of safety and belonging.

ICAV -Intercountry Adoptee Voices

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

Episode Description:
In this episode of Color Shift, Nathan sits down with Claire, a Korean adoptee, empowerment coach, and somatic practitioner. Claire shares her journey of reconnection—how exploring the body’s wisdom helped her navigate questions of identity, belonging, and healing as a transracial adoptee.

Together, they talk about what it means to move beyond survival, reclaim voice, and find grounding in one’s own truth. This conversation invites listeners to slow down, reflect, and consider how healing can begin with simply learning to listen—to ourselves and to each other.

[email protected]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/17YkL44RD7/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/claire_magenheimer?igsh=bjNuczA0d2ZmbWpy&utm_source=qr

https://www.theempoweredadopteecoaching.com/group-coaching

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-empowered-adoptee-podcast/id1731324487

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

In this episode of Color Shift: Transracial Adoptees, Nathan sits down with Kae (she/they), an adoptee with Indonesian roots who was adopted at birth in the U.S.

Kae opens up about what it means to unpack adoption later in life — even when you have a “good” relationship with your adoptive parents. From the emotional process of changing her name to the silence that came after reaching out to biological relatives, Kae reflects on how identity, belonging, and family can evolve over time.

She also shares what it’s been like to find a sense of kinship for the first time — through community with other Indonesian adoptees.

This conversation is tender, honest, and a reminder that the adoptee story doesn’t end with adoption — it keeps unfolding.

An organization I would promote would be Rihlat Ar Rahma, an organization that provides aid to Palestinian orphan families. 

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

In this episode of Color Shift, host Nathan Choi sits down with Fai, a Vietnamese and White adoptee who grew up in small-town Pennsylvania as the only Asian kid around. Adopted at just one month old, Fai’s race and adoption were rarely acknowledged at home — leaving them to navigate questions of identity and belonging mostly on their own.

It wasn’t until college that Fai began to “come out of the fog,” confronting the realities of transracial adoption and beginning the process of reconnecting with their roots. Along the way, they’ve built a relationship with their birth father, faced rejection from their birth mother, and learned to hold both the pain and clarity that come with truth.

Now based in Pittsburgh, Fai co-leads a local chapter of Adoptees Connect, creating the kind of community they once needed — a space for adoptees to share stories, find belonging, and heal together.

This conversation explores what it means to grow up unseen, the complicated layers of reunion, and how connection and community can help us rebuild what was once lost.

🎧 Listen as Fai shares their story of identity, rejection, resilience, and the ongoing journey of self-discovery.

Adoptee therapist directory:
https://growbeyondwords.com/adoptee-therapist-directory/

Adoption competency-trained therapists: 
https://adoptionsupport.org/national-directory/
Adoptees Connect Pittsburgh:
https://www.instagram.com/adopteesconnectpgh

Instagram @goodfaiththerapy

My website: goodfaiththerapy.com

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected] 

In this episode of Color Shift, we sit down with Ezra, a Korean adoptee who was adopted at six months old and grew up in Indianapolis inside a strict, isolating bubble. With no access to peers, friends, or other adoptees, Ezra was raised under the belief that “if you don’t make it a big deal, it won’t be a big deal.” That silence around his adoption created distance with his adoptive parents and left Ezra struggling to make sense of his identity.

Ezra opens up about the dark periods of his life, including times when he considered suicide, and how the deep wounds of abandonment extend far beyond the physical. He also shares how therapy, reflection, and the support of other adoptees have helped him begin to heal and rebuild a sense of connection.

This episode is a raw and vulnerable conversation about isolation, survival, and the lifelong process of reclaiming identity.

Ezra's Instagram: @betterthanezrah

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Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at:  [email protected]