Open Adoption Project

In this panel episode we hear from Keri, Dawn, and Regan, who are all either birth moms or adoptive moms. They share their thoughts and experiences regarding cultivating meaningful open adoption relationships. We hear thoughts from each of them regarding building and maintaining relationships over long-distances. The panel discusses lessons learned over the years and advice for building relationships with adoptive and birth family. They also share tips for others on creating these relationships.

We're kicking off Season 3 of the Open Adoption Project with a conversation with Rachel Kramer. Rachel is an adoptee and a birth mom, who shares how her experience growing up in a semi-open adoption influenced her decision to place her twins in an open adoption last year. Rachel is from the southern United States and talks openly about the struggles and hardships of adoption.

This bonus episode is a special Juneteenth episode. Our friend DaKota with the Destiny Adoption Foundation hosted a Juneteenth Conference on June 17, 2022, with guest speakers Samantha Williams, a birth mom, and Jeena and Drue Wilder, adoptive parents. In celebration of Juneteenth we are so honored to share the audio from the conference with our listeners. A special thank you to DaKota and the Destiny Adoption Foundation for sharing and hosting this discussion. DaKota, an adult adoptee who grew up in an open adoption, is featured in episode 18 of our podcast.

This week we look back on some key takeaways from season 2. We’ll be back with season 3 beginning on July 11.

In this episode we revisit some of our conversations with adoptees during seasons one and two. Adoptee voices are key to understating adoption more deeply, so we really should listen to them.

E11 - Sharolyn | "So Wanted & So Loved"

E15 - Melaina | “A Journey to Discover Who I Was”

E18 - DaKota | Growing Up with an Open Adoption

E25 - Jori | My Experience as an Adoptee and Birth Mom

E27 - Emily | My Experience as an Adoptee and an Adoptive Mom

E30 - Katie | Healing & Open Adoption

E37 - Mary | Tragically Beautiful

E46 - Molly | Listen to Adoptees with Curiosity and Compassion

E49 - Ana Katia | Fourteen Days

In this episode Michelle, a birth mom, shares her story of placing her son for adoption and reunifying with him, finally seeing each other in person during the pandemic. She shares her thoughts as an adoption professional about the importance of listening to adoptees, reiterating that we should hear adoptee experiences with open hearts. She said, “We should all be shutting up and listening to a lot more adoptees.” We love her focus on adoptees, and agree that our community needs to work harder to hear adoptee voices and experiences. She also talks about her experiences as an author, working to connect with and share her heart with members of the adoption community. Connect with Michelle on Instagram @michellethornebooks and through email at [email protected]

Joanna and Matt are adoptive parents who have two sons, one who was adopted from a relative, and the other through an agency. Both of their adoptions are very open. In this episode, they share what they wish they’d known before adopting. Joanna and Matt talk also about different levels of openness in adoption, open communication agreements, and the responsibility adoptive parents have to ensure that adoption practices are ethical. They talk about the immense blessings of open adoption, and how grateful they are that they have very open adoptions. They talk about how their entire families have embraced their kids’ birth families as family. They also talk about the importance of therapy.

https://www.instagram.com/pacefam2010/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgM7EYFFz_dba0OIZs5L9kg

We're honored to share another adoptee voice today. Adoptee Ana Katia shares some of her story of searching for her birth mom in Costa Rica. You can hear more of her story in her memoir, "Fourteen Days." Ana Katia loves to speak about creating change from within. Connect with Ana Katia on Instagram @adopted4change, or on Facebook.

In episode 47, we heard from Jared, a birth father. In this episode, we hear another side of the story from his wife, Shayla. Shayla and Jared are the parents of three boys, the first whom they placed for adoption. Shayla talks about the challenges of parenting her younger sons after placing her first, and about PTSD and trauma birth parents experience. She also talks about building a strong relationship with her son's adoptive family.

This is a really tender episode. We've heard from many birth moms on the podcast, but this is our first episode hearing from a birth dad. Jared talks about how placing his first son for adoption affected him, and what his experience was in that process and after, in building a relationship with his son and his adoptive family. Make sure to listen to this birth father’s story, and next week, tune in to hear Shayla’s side of this story.