Conversations About Adoption

Conversations About Adoption

By Jenn AdopteeSociety & CulturePersonal Journals
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Conversations About Adoption episodes

  • S3 #36 Adoptee Liliana

    Liliana is a very valuable voice in indigenous and adoption communities as she has experienced multiple facets of the child-welfare system in the United States.


    She was adopted from Ecuador to the America into a white adoptive family as a toddler. Her adoptive father was abusive, and she ended up in foster care... You will have to listen to see how the rest of her story pans out.

    In keeping with the theme this month, Lilian is of indigenous roots. She comes from the Quechua people. You can learn more about them here.

    You can find her on Tiktok here.

    If you are interested in being a guest on the Conversations About Adoption podcast, email me with a very brief overview of your story ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠

    1 hr 12 min
  • S3 #35 Adoptee Jenny

    It's NAAM, which means I ranted a little in the intro to this episode... I did it in one take, so please be gentle. :)

    This episode features Jenny a domestic infant adoptee born in the USA who immigrated to Germany to live with her husband, and raise their family. She is the eldest of 4 adopted kids. (All from different families.) She recently went viral when she shared a beautiful video of meeting her (first) mom for the second time when they took a trip together. (warning I got emotional about that topic.)

    Jenny is a beautiful blend of Korean, Polish, and Puerto Rican which includes the indigenous Taino people. You can learn more about them here and here. For the month of November my plan is to have guests who have indigenous roots in order to uplift their voices and stories.

    Jenny has also been extremely passionate and vocal about ICWA on social media and I have learned quite a bit from her.

    You can find her content here:

    TikTok

    Twitter or X

    Instagram

    YouTube


    If you are interested in being a guest on the Conversations About Adoption podcast, email me with a very brief overview of your story ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠

    1 hr 32 min
  • Season 3-#34 Adoptee Rich Part 2

    In the last episode I spoke with Rich about his story, and his advocacy work, in this episode we will talk about his creative endeavor, his musical "For the Record(s)"

    Rich introduced everyone at the summit to this project, and when he played testify, it blew us away.

    In this episode we listen to and talk about the songs, and he fills in some context about the songs.

    And when I say my episodes are unedited, I am serious... partway during our conversation the national test happened and our devices went off, so that's in here too. :/

    From the website https://www.ftrmusical.com/
    Rich Uhrlaub, M.Ed.Rich is a longtime member of Denver's Lighthouse Writers Workshop and a member of the Musical Writers Academy and New Musicals Inc. The NMI  Core Curriculum honed and showcased his skills as a book writer for the 15 Minute Musical "For the Good of Humanity," performed at the Broadwater Main Stage in Hollywood. Rich studied piano under the (then) Denver Symphony Orchestra's Kathleen Joiner and had his first piano lesson at age five when, after washing the dinner dishes, his adoptive mother asked, "Who wants to learn to play the piano?" Relinquished and adopted shortly after birth, Rich has been a volunteer leader in the adoption search, support and advocacy community for over twenty years. This project is born of that passion. 



    ​Vocals

    Michelle Bort, Angela Parrish, Marcello Vieira​

    Arrangement and Vocals

    Dan Sander Wells​

    Orchestration and Sound Engineering

    Keaton Viavattine

    To support this project you can join the Patreon here.

    https://www.patreon.com/FTRMusical

    55 min
  • S3-#34 Adoptee Rich Part 1
    In this conversation I spoke with Rich. He is a fellow baby-scoop adoptee and very involved in advocating for better laws around access to adoption records for adoptees among other things. In this episode we will talk a little about his history, and a lot about adoption in general, as well as talk about his work in advocacy.
    Rich serves as president of the Coalition for Truth and Transparency in Adoption (CTTA) and Adoption Search Resource
    Connection (ASRC). ⁠https://www.adoptiontruthandtransparency.org/
    He is part of an advocacy team that has seen over 15 Colorado bills signed into law since 2014 to the benefit of adult adoptees,
    foster youth, birth/first parents, and donor conceived persons. A frequent presenter at digital and in-person conferences, Rich’s interviews and writings
    have appeared in various news outlets.
    Rich is a contributing author of Finding Our Place: 100 Memorable Adoptees, Fostered Persons and Orphanage Alumni; and Adoption and Mothering.  Most recently, Rich is the creator of the new musical For the Record(s) www.ftrmusical.com which we will talk about in the next episode.
    My group "I found a grave"
    https://m.facebook.com/groups/ifoundagrave
    1 hr 31 min
  • S1-#08 Adoptee ~ Ruth

    Originally published 12/3/2021

    **reposted because I realized I had accidentally uploaded the raw podcast with no intro.**

    This is a great conversation I had with a fellow baby scoop era adoptee Ruth who I met through TikTok and we had a lot to talk about. This was recorded through zoom and is not edited at all. 

    You can find the video version of this conversation on YouTube.

    There maybe adult language so may not be appropriate for all listeners. 

    If you would like to be a guest on a future episode, please click here.

    2 hr 5 min
  • S3-#32 ~ Group discussion why adoptees cut contact with adoptive parents Part 1

    This conversation was inspired by some conversations happening on TikTok involving a younger adoptive mom who was saying a lot of harmful things to adult adoptees including, that she owns her child. **cringe**

    Adult adoptees were saying they imagine she has the type of attitude that causes adoptees to cut ties with the parent.

    I made posts on Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok asking for adoptees who want to talk about this topic and got a pretty large response. I plan things pretty spontaneously sometimes, and not everyone who wanted to participate was able to. I am going to try to figure out a way to collect the voices of more adoptees in regard to this topic.

    We talked for quite a while, so I broke the episode up into 2 parts. The second part will be uploaded next week.

    I hope you enjoy this conversation, and make sure you are subscribed so you get notified about the other part.


    https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/convosaboutadoption

    1 hr
  • S3-#31 Adoptee ~ Linda a.k.a. Emma

    Emma Stevens is a U.S. domestic adoptee from birth and has survived layers of trauma that have put her on multiple journeys. She developed the inner strength and courage to surmount

    the many struggles she faced. Her traumas were born from first being relinquished and then becoming an adoptee who struggled with being forced to wear an impossible mask of playing the part of the “good adopted child.” Her childhood upbringing of an authoritative, cult-like family, predisposed Emma to several more struggles. One of them was falling prey to an exploitative therapist where she unknowingly entered a cultic, one-on-one relationship with her psychologist. Someone who was to help, support, and provide healing – instead, held Emma
    captive in a psychological nightmare. 

    Because of these past traumas, it’s Emma’s desire to be part of the movement that is dedicated to help bring forth change to the way our world views the needs and support of adopted individuals, as well as bring awareness of the exploitation that can occur by the hands of counselors, therapists, and other healthcare professionals. By sharing her experience of being exploited by her abusive psychologist/social worker, Emma feels strongly to expose and bring light to what an unethical, boundaryless, professional therapy situation may look

    like.  This memoir is Emma Stevens’ second book. Her first was The Gathering Place: An Adoptee’s Story. She has an undergraduate degree in journalism and has completed Master’s level course work in psychology, specializing in Marriage, Family, and Child
    counseling. She has two adult children and two cat children who she adores.

    Links to her books: 

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59417316-the-gathering-place

     

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86031724-a-fire-is-coming 


    socials are: FB, IG, & TikTok -- @EmmaStevensWriter 

    Twitter: @EmmaStevensWrtr

    Leave me a voice message https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/convosaboutadoptionhttps://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/convosaboutadoption



    1 hr 14 min
  • S3-#30 Adoptee ~ Natalie

    Natalie is an adoptee who was born in Colombia and adopted out to Norway when she was 9 months old.

    She just went through reunion, and will disclose some interesting details in our conversation. (I don't want to spill the beans.)

    Here is the link to her GoFundMe we talked about in the episode in case anyone wants to help her get to meet her family.

    https://gofund.me/84c55282. 
    She found her family in a way, that I thought was kind of unlikely!

    A Facebook group!

    Apparently there are a lot of Colombian people looking for each other. You can find it here.

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/356415144461053/?ref=share

    Natalie also suggested this site as a good resource for Colombian adoptees.

    https://www.healingpuentes.com


    The following is information she sent me after our conversation, from when she was having trouble thinking of the term.

    🔸️https://www.besean.co.uk/spotlight/trauma-and-language

     🔸️"The interconnection of the experience of trauma and the role

    of language within this is not causal and mono-directional but complex and
    multilayered. Not only can language be part or cause of traumatic events but
    trauma can also, as a consequence, severely impact on a person’s linguistic
    repertoire: on his or her inclination to learn languages, to use, retain, or
    abandon a particular language, or to take refuge in silence (Betten 2010; Thüne 2013; Busch
    2016a). On the other hand, particular, sometimes
    peripheral components of a person’s communicative repertoire, such as a ‘third’
    unburdened language or poetic means of expression, can become unexpected, vital
    sources for coping and resilience (Busch and Reddemann 2013)." (https://academic.oup.com/applij/article/41/3/323/5821459) 

    🔸️https://www.myenglishlanguage.com/2017/01/29/forgotten-first-languages-leave-imprint-on-brain/?fbclid=IwAR1OWw4RLNNqcpkScwT4rUjBdQRbw3-tPBKP3FG5Q49YGe-X9ogsuRqpuT8


    1 hr 58 min

About Conversations About Adoption

From the publisher's feed

Hi! My name is Jen and I am an adoptee! I searched and found my first family in 2001. My mother had been deceased since 1982. :(