Category: The Birthparent Experience
If you are looking for an unvarnished, deeply nuanced look at the real experiences of birthmothers, start by learning about adoption from birthparents. Marcia Lane-McGee, Muthoni Gaciku Kittredge, and Sarah Schmidth’s birthmother panel on relinquishment, grief & healing is the perfect place to start. For a more in-depth discussion of birthmother grief, Candace Cahill’s talk on the types of grief in relinquishment and birthmother paths to healing is a must-watch.
Curious about how birthparents feel, watching their child grow up in another family? Birthmother Cathy Crossno discusses how she learned to navigate a strong, healthy open adoption.
Need to see how these roadmaps get built by hearing from both sides of the same adoption triad? Birthmother Maryellen Kandu is joined by Pauline Pearce, her son’s adoptive mother, for a vulnerable, honest conversation about how they built their relationship over the years. They started out strangers and now are the best of friends, but they didn’t get to where they are today without putting a lot of effort into learning how to trust each other and communicate well, and their example can teach you how to do the same. You know who is often left out of conversations about adoption? Adoptive fathers. Shanyce Henley, a birthmother, and Ron Lundeen, the adoptive father in Shanyce’s adoption triad, talk candidly about the importance of relationship between birthmothers and adoptive fathers and how they managed to forge a strong friendship.
-
Marcia Lane-McGee, Sarah Schmidth, Muthoni Gaciku Kittredge
Marcia Lane-McGee, author and co-host of the podcast Plaid Skirts and Basic Black, Sarah Schmidth, adoption education advocate, and Muthoni Gaciku Kittredge, co-host of the podcast Birth Mothers Amplified join us for a discussion on birthparent experiences with relinquishment, navigating adoption...
-
Sara Easterly, Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard & Lori Holden
Adopted person Sara Easterly, birthmother Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard, and adoptive mother Lori Holden researched adoption from all sides for their ground-breaking book Adoption Unfiltered: Revelations from Adoptees, Birthparents, Adoptive Parents, and Allies. They interviewed dozens of adopted, ...
-
Clemencia Deleon
Clemencia Deleon, a birthmother who placed her child in a kinship adoption, unpacks the complexity of kinship adoption, and the importance of honesty and emotional intelligence in navigating this form of adoption. There are a lot of obvious benefits built in to kinship adoption: the adopted child...
-
Hope O. Helder & Liz Pryor
Speaker, birthmother, and author of the memoir Finding Hope: A Birthmother’s Journey into the Light, Hope O. Helder talks about building resilience and learning to thrive despite the circumstances life throws you. In conversation with moderator, advice columnist, and birthmother Liz Pryor, author...
-
Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard & Vicki Twomey
Join us for a powerful conversation with Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard and Vicki Twomey, two birthparents whose families embody the multi-generational experience of adoption. We'll explore the rarely discussed phenomenon of generational birthparents — families where the experience of placing a chil...
-
Vicki Twomey & Jessica Figlio
Nearly all adoption education focuses on adopting a baby, but does not address what happens as their baby grows into a teen, and then an adult. The tools and information you may need to bring an adopted child into your home aren’t the same tools you may need as they grow into adulthood. We hear ...
