Thriving Adoptees - Let's Thrive

Can we have too much love in our lives? Surely not. Listen in as adoptee and therapist Anastasiya adopted from Russia at 16 just 3 months after her mother's death shares profound insights on grief, love and identity. Fantastic!

Find out more about Anastasiya and the organisation she works for:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastasiya-jenkins/

https://christian-works.org/

https://www.facebook.com/ChristianWorks/

https://www.instagram.com/christianworks_for_children/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Settling down is amongst the greatest gifts we can give ourselves. Coming from calm helps us relate better. Listen as adoptive mother, child psychologist and non profit leader Derenda shares learnings on calm and connection.

Derenda M. Schubert, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and nationally recognized advocate for intergenerational community building. As the CEO of Bridge Meadows, she has advanced a visionary model that brings together youth, families, and elders to create vibrant, supportive neighborhoods rooted in belonging, healing, and joy.

Dr. Schubert’s background in clinical psychology, combined with her leadership in nonprofit innovation, community development, and systems change, gives her a rare ability to translate human needs into community-based solutions. Her work is grounded in empathy, driven by data, and guided by the belief that healing happens best in relationships. With decades of experience across child welfare, aging, mental health, and housing, she builds bridges between sectors and people, turning bold ideas into places where all generations can thrive.

These efforts have been recognized by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Stanford Social Innovation Review, which cite Bridge Meadows as a model for addressing the social determinants of health through connection and community. She has been a reviewer for the World Health Organization’s “Connecting Generations – Planning and Implementing Interventions for Intergenerational Contact” report and a contributor to the Healthier Lives Across Generations: A Blueprint for Intergenerational Living sponsored by Generations United in collaboration with the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Dr. Schubert is the author of The Power of a Joyful Village: How Intergenerational Solutions and Age-Friendly Communities Can Heal Us All.

An international keynote speaker and TEDx presenter, Dr. Schubert is a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum, an Encore Public Voices Fellow, and an Eisner Prize recipient. Her leadership has been recognized by the Portland Business Journal as a Woman of Influence, and by Portland Monthly Magazine’s Light A Fire Award. Additionally, she serves as the Chair of the American Heart Association, Oregon and Southwest Washington, and the Vice Chair of Goodwill Industries of the Columbia-Willamette. Every day she is inspired by the love of her grandmothers and her children.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/derenda-schubert-phd-a4001413/

https://www.instagram.com/derendaschubert/

https://bridgemeadows.org/

https://www.instagram.com/bridgemeadows/?hl=en

https://www.facebook.com/bridgemeadows/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/bridge-meadows/home/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

What if life's trials and tribulations happen FOR us, not to us? What if the tough stuff happens for us to learn? Life feels easier from that perspective. What can I learn from this? That's a question that take us back to a more empowered place. Listen in as adoptive mother Sara shares insights on perspective, support and much more.

Find out more about Sara and the organisation she works for here:

https://www.mycasaep.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-gordon-7514374a/

https://www.instagram.com/mycasaep/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

How can talk therapy heal preverbal trauma that we have no words for? It can't. So what do we do instead. Listen in as we dive deep into healing with adoptee Patricia.

Patricia Knight Meyer is an author, speaker, and adoption reform advocate. Her story begins along a Texas hospital curb, where by her parent’s account she was handed over as an infant in a 1970 attorney-brokered black-market adoption. The attorney, they alleged, extorted them with the threat of taking back the baby. They doled out $30K, they said, before walking away with their paperless child.

Patricia’s road to true identity began at 39, when she set out to unravel her mystery. Starting with no original records, no known birth name, and no confirmed date or place of birth, Patricia used public record databases to track down the alleged black-market attorney and uncover a biological adopted cousin also placed by the same man, also handed over without papers.

Patricia reunited with both of her birth parents in 2010 and 2011, and her reunion video with her birth father has been viewed more than 290,000 times on YouTube. She received her true and accurate birth certificate at 47 years old. Patricia tells this story in her debut memoir, WONDERLAND: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption (Unsolicited Press, November 3, 2026).

The book arrives as an IndieReader Award Winner in True Crime, a CIPA EVVY Gold winner in Memoir, an Eric Hoffer Finalist, a Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist, a Storytrade Prodigy Award Finalist, an Indies Today Memoir Finalist, and a NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite in Memoir 2026. Patricia also narrates the audiobook, released through her imprint YAYDNA Press.

She serves on the board of the National Association of Adoptees and Parents (NAAP), where she hosts the monthly NAAP Happy Hour. She is connected to Concerned United Birthparents, Adoption Knowledge Affiliates, Support Texas Adoptee Rights, Saving Our Sisters, and other advocacy organizations.

Her blog, My Adopted Life, reaches a booming community of adoptees, birth parents, and advocates. She keynotes adoption conferences and leads memoir writing workshops. Patricia has appeared on Al Jazeera’s The Stream and HuffPost Live. Her essays have been published in Ms. Magazine, Severance Magazine, Magpie Zine, Narrative Arc, and Kinsmen Quarterly.

Patricia left high school before graduating, earned her GED, and worked her way through community college. She was admitted to the journalism program at the University of Texas at Austin, where she graduated as a single mother. She went on to a twenty-year career in author publicity and digital marketing. 

She is also the founder of YAYDNA Genetic Greeting Cards, cards made for the complicated joy and emotions of DNA discovery and reunion, available on Amazon.

WONDERLAND memoir page: https://myadoptedlife.com/wonderland-the-memoir/
Book website: https://www.wonderlandthememoir.com
Audiobook on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7EZEbVZQAAFVyeaDvcnG2i
Free livestream, Nov 6, Down the Rabbit Hole: The Fight for Texas Adoptee Rights Then and Now. A scene from WONDERLAND unfolds live on stage, then a panel on the fight to open Texas adoptees' birth certificates: https://bit.ly/TXADOPTEERIGHTS
My Adopted Life: https://www.myadoptedlife.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patriciaknightmeyer
Instagram (book): https://www.instagram.com/wonderlandthememoir
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Wonderlandthememoir
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@myadoptedlife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@myadoptedlife
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-ann-meyer
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/myadoptedlife.bsky.social

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Being all good with the past has a strange way of empowering us to change more in the future. Listen as Corrie shares learning about acceptance, without fear and more.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/corrie-kielty-bb533357/

https://www.nebraskacasa.org/

https://www.facebook.com/NebraskaCASA/

https://www.instagram.com/nebraska.casa/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/nebraska-casa-association/home/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

When we know better, we do better. This podcast is about sharing what we've learned so we can do better. Listen in as Kelly, mother of four including 2 by adoption from foster care and non-profit leader shares what she's learning about thriving.

Kelly Hughes (she/her) is the Founder and Executive Director of Foster Love Project, supporting children and families affected by foster and kinship care in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania.

Kelly and her husband, Andrew, have four children, two adopted through foster care, and have fostered eight children at different times. Those experiences inspired her to create Foster Love Project, initially providing bags of new essentials for children entering care. In 2017, it expanded into a full-time, free shopping centre for children in foster or kinship care.

She advocates for maintaining connections with children’s first families, drawing on her family’s experience of open adoption. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Northland International University

www.fosterloveproject.org

https://www.facebook.com/fosterloveproject

https://www.instagram.com/fosterloveproject/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-hughes-8bbbb877/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Looking for more meaning? Stepping outside of ourselves is where we find meaning. It's where we feel connected, passionate and at one. Listen in as Vicki shares insights from a life spent making a difference. Profound and empowering.

Vicki Spriggs is a dedicated advocate for children who has worked for more than 50 years in the child services arena. Known for her leadership on youth-related issues, Spriggs is a national speaker, a decisive leader and a fierce believer in the rights of all children, especially the right to a safe, loving and permanent home.

Spriggs currently serves as CEO of Texas CASA. Prior to joining Texas CASA in January 2012, Spriggs served in a variety of positions dedicated to child welfare, including as a foster parent, director of the Travis County Juvenile Court Informal Adjustment unit and executive director at Texas Juvenile Probation Commission. She received a bachelor’s degree in education and Master of Education in juvenile justice and secondary counseling from the University of Massachusetts.

Spriggs was the recipient of the National CASA/GAL Award of Excellence -State Director of the Year in 2022.

https://texascasa.org/

https://www.facebook.com/texascasainc

https://www.instagram.com/texascasa/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/texas-casa/home/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

What if we are whole under our trauma? Whole despite our trauma? Listen in as we go deep to see, feel and know our whole soul with adoptee Michelle. Profound. Enlightening.

Michelle Irene Stupski is a certified spiritual life coach, author, podcast host, and adoptee who has spent most of her life learning the difference between the life that looks good on the outside and the life that feels true on the inside.

Through her brand Divine Angelic Guidance, Michelle weaves together spiritual psychology, angelic wisdom, and ancestral healing to help women move beyond the roles they've adopted, the rules they've been handed, and the silence they've inherited — and back to the truth of who they've always been.

You Weren't Born to Fit In is her newest book and the deepest expression of everything she teaches.

https://www.facebook.com/michelle.stupski

https://michelleirene.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-stupski-b0256117/

https://www.instagram.com/divineangelicguidance/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

What does being true to you mean to you? Listen in as adoption professional Shannon shares her insights on stopping pleasing others, authenticity and more.

Find out more about Shannon and the organisation she works for here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-enoch-ma-lcmhc-a6bb93123/

https://chsnc.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/chs-nc

https://www.facebook.com/CHSNorthCarolina

https://www.instagram.com/chs_nc

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Raising kids is tough. Some clichés become clichés they are true. Listen in as adoptive mother and advocate Michelle shares her learnings on commitment, curiosity and much more.

Here's a bit about Michelle from her website:

"Every child deserves a chance to succeed

My mission to serve and advocate for children began in 1996 when my husband and I adopted our twin girls from Romania.  I experienced great difficulty getting the girls the early intervention services they needed.  And, after successfully acquiring those services, we still faced the challenge of getting them the free and appropriate public education to which they were entitled.

I understand the challenges that children face in school and the challenges their parents face ensuring that their children receive the education they deserve.  The special education learning curve is steep and the time it takes to acquire the knowledge to advocate for them may mean days, weeks or months delay in getting a child the educational services they need."

Find out more here:

www.michellebeckerlaw.com 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-becker-0b720131/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.