Thriving Adoptees - Let's Thrive

Get the picture of the Family Wellness House Kristin talks about here

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hc5YKcrj0XJuIr1IvVW-z6W7QqaYO9OB/view?usp=sharing

Connect with Kristin here

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristin-orphan-5b2a8113a/

Finally Home is a non-profit whose mission since 2008 is to equip foster, adoptive and kinship families to build healthy homes where kids can heal. Over the years all kinds of families have benefited from Finally Home's programs and products which are designed to give parents the tools they need to help their kids and families thrive. Whether through an encouraging children’s story book, a therapeutic toolkit, or an educational training, Finally Home’s resources reinforce time tested skills and characteristics found in healthy families.

https://www.finallyhome.net/

https://www.facebook.com/FinallyHome.net

https://www.instagram.com/teamfinallyhome/

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.

Here's a bit about Kaycee and her family from their website

"With a love for Jesus, kids, and stories, Kaycee and her husband Pete had always planned to adopt. In 2016, while Kaycee was working as a youth pastor, they began dreaming about how to change the narrative around foster care adoption, especially within faith communities. Five months later, The Reel Hope Project was born and they began telling the stories of Minnesota’s waiting kids. In 2019, they adopted their son, whom Kaycee met through a Reel Hope video shoot. As Executive Director and Founder, Kaycee leads the organization and her team in the pursuit of The Reel Hope Project’s mission: A forever family for every child.Our vision is to mobilize the faith community in Minnesota to bring foster kids into forever families. We strive to be a bridge between church and state, partnering on both sides to see an end to kids waiting for families. We work to equip social workers with an invaluable tool to share their kids’ stories, and we empower families to meet Minnesota kids."

Find out more at

https://www.thereelhopeproject.org/

https://www.facebook.com/thereelhopeproject/

https://www.instagram.com/reel_hope/

https://twitter.com/ReelHopeProject

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.

Here's a bit about Eric from his team's website:

"Trisha and I have been married since June 26, 1999. We have six kids Madison, Isaac, Robert, Kale, Kelsey, and Halle Jo. We had the joy of serving full time in student ministry from 2000 to 2012. We served for two years in the Dallas/Fort Worth area as youth pastors. Then we moved to Ozark, Missouri, and served as the junior high directors at James River Church for almost 10 years. In September of 2011, God called us out of local church ministry to become orphan care missionaries to equip churches to care for orphans. We moved back to the DFW area in August of 2012 to help create an orphan care strategy to take throughout Texas, the nation, and the world. From August 2012 until August 2017 we served as the assistant directors of The Keep. We are now the founders and presidents of Backyard Orphans. Backyard Orphans is a 501c3 interdenominational ministry focused on engaging and equipping the church to care for hurting children in their own backyard. "

Find out more at

http://porterteam.org/

https://m.facebook.com/ericporter76

https://twitter.com/ericporter10

https://www.instagram.com/ericporter10/

Backyard Orphans guides church leaders to develop a foster care, adoption, and support ministry to find families for children.

Find out more at:

https://backyardorphans.org/

https://www.facebook.com/backyardorphans

https://twitter.com/backyardorphans

https://www.instagram.com/backyardorphans/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Il5GlpafqcQxa9lHnzCHw

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.

Pam and her husband Dan are the adoptive parents of two children, a daughter who was born in Korea in 1986 and a son who was born in India in 1989. Her children catapulted Pam into life and career interests she never imagined. Pam’s position as Executive Director has evolved over the past 20 years as she was a volunteer Executive Director for the first 7 years, then the only part-​time paid staff person, then a full-​time paid position, and finally to overseeing with the Board of Directors the addition of two more part-​time paid staff. Pam and Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families have been the recipient of the Minoru Yasui Volunteer Service Award, Asian Education Advisory Council Community Service Award, Channel 7 Everyday Hero, Asian Pacific Bar Association Minoru Yasui Community Award, and the Korean American Coalition of the U.S., Bridge Builder Award Pam has been appointed to the Denver Asian Pacific American Commission, and is on the capital campaign committee of the Asian Pacific Development Center. This “labor of love” at Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families has truly become a life’s work for Pam, one that never would have happened without her own wonderful children.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pam-sweetser-419b8011/

Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families, Inc. (HCAF) serves as a post-​adoption resource and advocate for children, adults, and families with diverse heritages here's what they say about themselves:

We accomplish our mission by facilitating events which provide culturally relevant and family-​centered experiences for every member of the family.

These events provide individuals and families with both a deeper sense of community and an individual identity. It is our goal that all adoptees will develop a knowledge of themselves and their culture of origin and that families will have a better awareness of, and sense of pride in, their adopted family member’s birth heritage. HCAF assists children, adults, and families in becoming a part of a larger community “just like themselves,” with shared experiences, challenges, and opportunities.

We focus on supporting international and domestic adoptive families, including adopted children, parents, non-adopted siblings, and extended family. Additionally, our camps are a resource for foster parents and waiting parents.

Adult adoptees are an essential part of the HCAF community. We believe in the importance of being guided by the experiences and perspectives of adoptees, and work to ensure that our programming amplifies their voices.

HCAF began in 1991 when 40 families with children adopted from Korea came together for a short weekend of Korean cultural immersion. From there, Korean Heritage Camp expanded to four days and many more families.  Just four years later, we incorporated as a nonprofit organization, and have grown to serve over 1,000 adoptive families annually from across the nation at our nine camps, serving children born in over 40 countries.

Since our incorporation in 1995, HCAF’s Executive Director, Pam Sweetser, has provided vital leadership and management to the organization, initially on a volunteer basis. With eight other adoptive parents, Pam served on the first Board of Directors, and was the sole HCAF staff member from her appointment as Executive Director in 1995 until 2005, when the first part-​time support employee was hired.

HCAF’s staff is comprised of four staff members, but the bulk of the organization’s extensive operations has always been handled by volunteers. HCAF’s team of volunteers includes camp parents, community members, and camp alumni — totaling 2,500+ individuals contributing over 650,000 volunteer hours each year.

With a strong history of smart growth, financial stability, and volunteer investment – plus the passionate involvement of our camp families – HCAF has made a difference in the lives of thousands of children and their families for 27 years.

https://www.heritagecamps.org/

https://www.facebook.com/HCAFpage/

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.

Here's a bit about Suzy from her website

Hello, I’m Suzy creator of We Made a Wish. I’m an adoptive mum to two beautiful girls who crept into our hearts four years apart. We Made a Wish grew from my desire to create beautiful things to celebrate adoption and families. It brings together my love for adoption, shopping and writing.

Magazine

We Made a Wish is a free digital adoption magazine, which raises awareness about adoption and shares experiences from all sides of the triangle. I created a blog not long after our eldest daughter came home because I struggled to find anything online written by adopters about the realities of adoption.

The blog has evolved into a magazine where I publish interviews and articles from adopters, adoptees and birth parents about their experience of different aspects of the process. There’s also book reviews, articles from agencies and experts about some of the issues that adopted children may face.

Please note that book reviews and articles recommending products may contain affiliate links. This means that I receive a fee if you buy a product when you click on a link to it from one of the articles. All reviews and recommendations are either of products I’ve used myself, or have been used and recommended by other adopters.

Please get in touch if you’d like to contribute to the magazine. 

Shop

When we adopted our eldest daughter, I struggled to find cards and gifts for her foster family and our social worker, that let them know how grateful we were for keeping her safe until we met her. I decided to make cards for them myself and We Made a Wish shop was born.

I sell prints, record books and clothing keepsakes to families and to help you capture some of your special memories.

I wanted to create clothing keepsakes to help preserve the special memories items of clothing hold. We have blankets made from the clothes our daughters wore during introductions. Seeing them takes me right back to the wonderful memories I have of when we met our precious girls for the first time.

The record books are printed sheets to help you create a record of your journey to meeting your little one. They come in four designs in either physical or digital formats.  

Writing

I’ve written a guide to adoption from an adopter’s point of view. When we started the process, I couldn’t find any books or blogs written by adopters about the process. The agency websites told me the basics about what the process involved, but I wanted to know the nitty gritty.

An Adopter’s Guide to Adoption is a step-by-step guide starting with hoe to prepare to start the process, things to consider when choosing your agency, the assessment, Panel, matching and beyond. It’s the book I wish had been available when we were first thinking about adoption.

You can buy the paperback version from Amazon here and the digital version from Etsy here.

Work with me

I love to write and find it therapeutic to let words take me away from the realities of everyday life. My book “Running Scared” was started on our honeymoon and I self-published it through Amazon the week before we met our eldest daughter.

https://wemadeawish.co.uk

https://www.instagram.com/wemadeawishadoptionmagazine/

https://www.facebook.com/wemadeawish

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.

Joanna Ivey is an adoptee and adoptive parent and has been working in the field of adoption for 16 years. In her work with adoptive families, she meets couples/singles early in their adoption journey and is privileged to get to know them and learn about what brought them to adoption.

She writes, “I often read hopeful adoptive parents write “We feel called to adopt,” and while I’m not here to judge anyone’s faith or how they came to choose adoption, I will share with you why this, as an adoptee, is problematic. If you’ve said the words “I feel called to adopt,” “adoption is about saving a child” or “the child that is meant for you will come to you” I’m going to challenge you to reconsider your perspective, and to do that I’ll speak bluntly about my perspective. I believe you’ve come to this place with all the good intentions in the world. I understand you’re grappling with whatever loss brought you to adoption, and I honor how deeply you want to be a parent. The emotions you’re having are completely normal, but I encourage you to let those be a starting place from which you grow, not your destination. It’s OK to begin here, but don’t end here. Don’t parent from this place because it will impact the child you will be adopting.”  

In addition to her work with clients as the owner of Our Chosen Child, Adoption Profile Design she presents and speaks at national conferences, author of The Essential Guide to Adoption Outreach and sits on several national adoption/ethics committees.

https://www.ourchosenchild.com/

https://www.instagram.com/ourchosenchild/

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.

Hillary Merryfield, M.S.W., L.S.C.S.W., L.C.S.W., Founder, and Director, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Kansas and Missouri. She is a Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work and approved Mediator in the core and parent/adolescent areas as well as a Clinical Hypnotherapist. In addition to her adoption services and counselling, she has a general psychotherapy practice offering services to individuals, couples, and families.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hillary-merryfield-13821750/

Here's how she describes her agency:

Adoption Option, Inc. was founded in 1986 and is a licensed child placing agency in Missouri and Kansas. It has assisted in placing over 900 children with adoptive families in numerous states and many foreign countries.

Adoption Option believes birth parents are among the most selfless people in the world. We have worked with hundreds of birth parents through the years and have never met one who did not want to parent their baby. They make adoption plans for their child out of unconditional love putting their child s needs before their own. At Adoption Option we believe there are three ways to build a family birth, marriage, and adoption. Adoption is a natural way to build a family. We believe the child is special because of who he or she is, not because they are adopted.

https://www.adoptionoptionkc.com/

https://www.facebook.com/adoptionoptionkc

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.

Candy McVicar is an author, inspirational speaker, and devoted advocate for families who are grieving a baby or child.  Candy and her husband Stephen have been married and serving in ministry together for twenty-one years. After the stillbirth of their daughter Grace in 2001, they founded Missing GRACE Foundation which provides support, resources and a place of healing for families grieving a pregnancy or infant loss, infertility or adoption challenges. Candy serves as the Executive Director. 

Candy has extensive experience working with bereaved families and within healthcare systems. Candy facilitates grief support groups for parents and grandparents and provides facilitator training courses. Candy volunteered in hospital birthing rooms and NICUs, supporting hundreds of perinatal loss families for ten years. She provided them with birth support, professional photography and videography and assisted with their funeral services.

In 2003, Candy spearheaded legislation to help parents of a stillborn in Minnesota to receive their baby’s birth certificate. The bill was signed into law and enacted August 1, 2005, bringing rightful recognition and dignity to stillborn babies.

Candy organized and hosted annual GRACE conferences where she brought in speakers from around the nation to provide care professionals with CME and CEU classes along with a wide array of resources, support and education for families who have experienced a pregnancy or infant loss, infertility or adoption challenges. 

Candy has lectured at hospitals, clinics, universities, churches and conferences, capturing the hearts of many with her engaging and personable style. She is a grief and trauma specialist on a mission to help couples and families grow closer together, heal and find hope.

Candy is a lover of homemade fresh squeezed juice, hiking along the coast, photographing the light dancing on the water, snuggles with her favorite man and two amazing daughters and time with all the littles in her life: her two happy dogs (Tico and Sozo), and talkative cat (LuLu).

https://candymcvicar.com

https://twitter.com/CandyMcvicar

https://www.instagram.com/candymcvicar/

https://www.facebook.com/CandyMcVicarOfficial/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/candy-mcvicar-00602314/

Grace McVicar was stillborn on December 20, 2001. She was the first-born child of Candy and Stephen McVicar. It was through their grieving and feelings of missing their daughter and missing the chance to hold, love and raise their baby Grace, that the inspiration for the name “Missing GRACE” was realized.
Additionally, the name is an acronym with a meaning which is central to the heart of the mission of Missing GRACE Foundation. It stands for:

Grieve, Restore, Arise, Commemorate and Educate.

Missing GRACE Foundation provides help to:
 

1. Grieve in healthy ways by giving comfort, support and resources while validating the significance of the baby’s life and the right to grieve for the child
2. Restore holistically in a person’s emotional, relational, physical and spiritual health, which can each be affected through the trauma of the grief experience
3. Arise from the ashes – the dark place of deep sorrow and discover there is hope for a brighter day
4. Commemorate their loved ones
5. Educate others through sharing their own stories of loss and by providing education for families and professionals that will help bring babies into the world safely

http://www.missinggrace.org/

https://www.facebook.com/MGFCenterforGRACE/

https://twitter.com/missinggraceorg

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.

Holly Marlow is a British author and parent to biological and adopted children. Holly strives for a gentle/therapeutic parenting style and this has led her to create stories to help children to understand some of the emotional and practical complexities of adoption.

https://hollymarlow.com/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Holly-Marlow/e/B099V6HQ1K

https://www.amazon.com/Delly-Duck-adoption-children-therapeutic/dp/1739916808/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=delly+duck&qid=1632817752&sr=8-1

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58693662-delly-duck

https://twitter.com/hmarlowauthor

https://www.facebook.com/HollyMarlowAuthor

https://www.instagram.com/hollymarlowauthor/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollymarlow/

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.

In 2008 Zara finished directing and producing an adoption documentary entitled “ROOTS: UNKNOWN” This educational and informative film focuses on the emotional influence adoption has on the adoptee and their families. Interviews and sound bites with adult adoptees, their families and children are mixed with artistic images of their art and creative expression. The film won Best Homegrown Documentary at The Garden State Film festival in New Jersey.

In addition, Zara is also an author. Her book, ‘Mother Me’ is about Zara’s personal journey to motherhood from an adoptee’s point of view. ‘Mother Me’ was published by BAAF (British Association for Adoption and Fostering) in the UK and was released on March 3rd 2008. This is an intensely personal and compelling memoir in which Zara describes her feelings  as an adopted person and explores her relationships with her adoptive and birthmothers, and invites the reader to join her in her own journey to becoming a Mother. “It seems that birthing my children was also a birth for my whole self.”

“Mother Me’ was picked up by Gemma media and an updated version was released on February 14th 2011 in the U.S.A.

Zara and Ted Perlman got back together to record a new album “You, Me and Us” that feature’s  ‘I’m Legit’ a song  Zara wrote with another adopted person Darryl Macdaniels of DMC. The record, digitally released in 2011, has been a big hit within the adoption community. Songs from this album can be heard on Passions and Hollywood Heights.

This album is a collection of thought provoking songs with an acoustic and raw feel. The album ‘You, Me and Us” is available now.

“Beneath My Fathers’s Sky“, a one woman show that Zara wrote and performs in, is the winner of Best Direction at NYC United Solo festival in 2014 was also performed in LA, San Francisco, Connecticut, and in London in 2016 “upstairs at The Gate.”

In the past, Zara has facilitated adoption /addiction workshops with adopted families and the mental health professionals.  She engages the teens to create songs about their experience.

Zara’s book “Somebody’s Daughter”, published by John Blake/Bonnier Publishers, was released February 2018 in the UK and August 2018 in the USA.

https://www.facebook.com/zaraphillips

http://www.zaraphillips.net/writing/books-authored-by-zara-phillips-somebodys-daughter/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zara-phillips-a01a926/

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.