Adoptive parents don’t always realize that raising an adoptee comes with this extra layer of emotional work that you’re going to have to do.

— Katie Biron, STAR Adoptive Parent group facilitator —

↑ Listen right here! ↑

Adoptive parent support professionals Katie Biron and Kara Andersen are my guests on this new episode of Adoption: The Long View. Both are absolutely amazing in their abilities to coach adoptive parents with wisdom and compassion.

What Adoptees Really Need From Their Parents

I worked closely with Katie and Kara, along with Angela Tucker (Ep 105) to create a new tool — a short animated video — that helps adoptive parents understand what adoptees really need from their parents.

The four of us recently unveiled our video courtesy Amara, a Seattle-based nonprofit that focuses on the needs of children within families formed through adoption.

Listen in as we:

Continue reading How to Be the Adoptive Parent Your Child Needs You to Be →

The agency branded these premium babies
that would go to premium parents.

But behind the scenes…none of those things
[the agency said] were true.

In fact, the agency routinely kept babies for at least six months in order to conduct a series of really horrific experiments on them, in order to produce the same matching I described earlier.

— Gabrielle Glaser,
journalist and bestselling author
of American Baby —

↑ Listen right here! ↑

Think of the Closed Adoption Era as the “Good Old Days”? Think Again.

“Closed” means a lot of things when applied to adoption. At its heart, it means that things were done in secret, realities were not faced, records were closed to forever separate original and forever families, and hearts and minds had to cauterize (close) around an unacknowledged wound.

My guest in this month’s podcast, Gabrielle Glaser, has written brilliantly about all of this in her new bestselling book American Baby.

With this Season 2 opener of Adoption: The Long View, Gabrielle and I talk about the various effects of closedness. During the Closed Adoption Era, adoption professionals were able to operate behind closed doors, in secrecy, wielding unchecked power in the dark.

Bad things can happen to vulnerable people when powerful people have that much cover.

Who Is Vulnerable in Adoption?

Certainly the “unwed mother,” cast out from her family and social circles.

Also the adopting parents, who so desperately want to build a family, often after being thwarted by infertility.

In both cases, desperation makes a person easy prey for a predator.

But perhaps the person most vulnerable in adoption is the newborn baby at the center.

Continue reading Gabrielle Glaser on the Impact of Harmful Adoption Practices Then & Now →

Roundup: Best Advice from 12 Adoption Thought Leaders

“It’s very easy to center yourself in everything.
We adoptive parents think about ourselves
and our needs, and that’s natural.

But I try really hard to remember that I’m the person
with the most power in this dynamic.
Always, I get to make the choices.
I’m the one with the legal standing.
I have more power than my daughter.
I have more power than her mom.

So it’s my responsibility to step back sometimes
and give power where I can.“

— Leah Campbell, single adoptive mom & author of
The Story of My Open Adoption
in Ep1 —

Episode 12 of Adoption: The Long View

With Episode 12 we close out our first season. What a success it’s been! I’m so grateful for all of you for listening. Thank you for tuning in, for sharing with others, and for continuing to support us.

Prefer to read Episode 12? Here’s a transcript (but listening is so much better).

I’m also grateful for the 12 amazing guests who talked with me during Season 1, a remarkable group made up of 4 adoptees, 4 birth parents, 4 adoptive parents, 1 researcher, 4 activists, 1 therapist, and 1 in a double-position (don’t even try with the math!).

Each has delved into the complexities of adoption in a way that helps us become more comfortable and effective at the difficult parts of adoptive parenting. I’ve found that these parts get easier just by acknowledging them, being willing to look at them.

Continue reading The Best Advice for Adoptive Parents Taking the Long View of Their Children’s Lives →