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
Jill: DNA Pushed This Adoptee Out of the Fog
Jill was conceived in Washington and born in Texas, adopted at birth during the Baby Scoop era, in a closed-file adoption through Home of the Holy Infancy to a same-race couple who was infertile. They had adopted a baby boy but he wasn’t as promised. Before they could return to the well to get the baby girl they always wanted, the nuns miraculously placed her with her new parents on Christmas Eve! The nuns who decided her fate believed in genetic mirroring matching her to people with similar demographics. They did that for all their babies, playing chess with their lives. When Jill was two, her adoptive father died.
When she was four, her mother remarried the only daddy she ever knew, a widower with six kids. She lived in a big blended family, rich in love, heritage, and tradition.
Jill always knew she was adopted but completely disassociated from it. Talk about FOG, she was in DEEP. Her mother tried to turn her story into a fairytale that her birth mother loved her very much but she still couldn’t keep her.
Jill knew nothing of her origin until she was 57 years old! Now, pushing 60, she has learned many things about her paternal and maternal sides. Her maternal grandpa even had a 2nd secret family. She figured this out all thanks to DNA, which provided her mother’s name which was the key to everything. That was then used to obtain her original birth certificate, and court records, and get the adoption agency files unsealed for cause!
In reunion since that fateful phone call in June of 2022, she has continued to forge a path forward with all who are interested.
Jill isn’t needy. That’s the worst! She is grateful not because she should be but because she is. Never putting all kidding aside, she’s constantly joking. She hopes you read between the lines above to see her beautiful pain. She isn’t bitter! Not anymore. This is what is. Adoption, what a wild ride!
You Should Be Grateful: Stories of Race, Identity, and Transracial Adoption by Angela Tucker
JOIN US on March 8th in Atascadero, California - Live Podcast, Un-M-Othered, Jeff Forney & The Innocent People Project + More!
Thank you to our Patreons! Join at the $10 level and be part of our monthly ADOPTEE CAFE community. The next meeting is this Saturday, March 1st @ 1 PM ET.
RESOURCES for Adoptees
S12F Helping Adoptees
Adoptee Mentoring Society
Jeff Forney - Innocent People Project
Fireside Adoptees Facebook Group
Dr. Liz Debetta: Migrating Toward Wholeness Movement
Moses Farrow - Trauma therapist
Adoptees Connect with Pamela Karanova
To support the show - Patreon.
