Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee Stories
Two adult adoptees, Sarah Reinhardt and Louise Browne, delve into all things adoption - from their perspectives as adult adoptees.
Each season Sarah and Louise recap a chapter from a book centered on adoption and then interview a guest. Sarah and Louise come out of the 'fog' in real-time through Seasons One and Two and are advocating for change in the adoption industry. They want to give voice to all adoptees. Adoptee stories are needed to reframe the narrative around adoption.
Sarah and Louise, two former business partners who had a successful ice cream truck in Los Angeles, team up again - this time in frank and honest conversations about all things adoption from the adoptee perspective. Both were adopted shortly after birth, but they had very different experiences.
These will be intimate conversations, but also fun - because Sarah and Louise know how to lighten things up and have a good time. They also have an uncanny ability to get to the heart of a subject with anyone who crosses their path - so conversations will take many turns.
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee Stories
Chris: Unraveling the Mystery of Family History
Chris Valdheims is a domestic adoptee born in the late 1970s and adopted in the early 1980s after spending years of his early childhood in foster care. Growing up, he knew very little about his birth family other than his mother and father had met while she worked as a librarian at MIT. He also knew his father was Black, and his mother had immigrated to the United States from Latvia. He spent years searching for answers about his family of origin, and in 2009, he stumbled upon a complex story that involved his grandfather, a then-unknown geometric artist named Zanis Waldheims.
Following the trail from there, he began to unravel the mystery of his family history and, in the process, learn more about himself and where he had come from. His journey took him to Canada, Germany, Latvia, and Lithuania for answers, and he shares the story in a recently completed memoir for which he is currently seeking the right publishing partner. Along the way, he discovered that his father may have been one of the astronauts killed in the 1986 Challenger Space Shuttle disaster.
He resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two sons and is the founder of a well-known law firm, Counsel for Creators.
Chris Valdheims on Instagram.
To skip ahead to the interview go to timestamp: 18:29
Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood, by Gretchen Sisson
S12F Helping Adoptees
Gregory Luce and Adoptees Rights Law
Joe Soll & other adoptee resources
Fireside Adoptees Facebook Group
Reckoning with the Primal Wound Documentary
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Liesl de Wet and Kelly Jennings.
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