Within 72 hours, fitness expert and TV star Jillian Michaels became a mom twice over. While her then-partner was delivering their son Phoenix, she received the call that it was finally time to pick up her daughter Lukensia from an orphanage in Haiti. In this episode, Michaels tells host Zoë Ruderman about her years-long wait to adopt and how the gift of U.S. citizenship factored into her decision to adopt internationally. She also describes the pain of visiting then having to say goodbye to her daughter in Haiti multiple times before getting to take her home, why her daughter smacked her in the face when she finally came to pick her up, and why she didn’t come out publicly until after her adoption process was complete. Then, we speak to Rhonda Roorda, an expert on trans-racial adoption and ‘This Is Us’ consultant.

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