The Adoption Roadmap Podcast

In this episode of The Adoption Roadmap Podcast, Rebecca Gruenspan sits down with Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao—a pioneer in the world of adoption, an adoptee herself, and the author of The Family of Adoption. With over five decades of clinical experience, Dr. Pavao challenges the idea that adoption is something to be “fixed,” and instead invites us to see it as a lifelong experience that demands truth,...

You can be willing to adopt a Black child. But are you prepared to raise one? Rhonda Chandler knows firsthand that transracial adoption requires more than love. After seeing the lack of representation and community available to Black and biracial youth, she founded Loving the Skin I’m In and later Melanated Adoption Journey to help families navigate the cultural, identity, and parenting challenges...

Your baby won’t remember the adoption. But your teenager might have a lot to say about it. At 15, Melissa packed a bag and left her grandparents’ home, believing she was running toward her mom and finally getting the family she needed. Instead, she found herself on her own, working full-time at Wendy’s, having dropped out of high school, and pregnant at 16. Today, Melissa is a licensed therapist,...

Rob LaMarche has seen adoption from nearly every angle—and he’s sharing what families should know before taking the next step. When Rob LaMarche met Casey at age 11, he was simply his client. Three years later, after a legal battle against a Florida law that prohibited gay people from adopting, Casey became his son. That fight changed the course of Rob’s life, leading him to law school and a caree...

In this episode of The Adoption Roadmap Podcast, Rebecca Gruenspan—adoptive parent, consultant, and founder of RG Adoption Consulting—takes you inside her signature presentation: a masterclass on the basics of domestic adoption. From her own story of 26 failed IUIs to becoming a single mom through adoption, Rebecca walks you step by step through what it really takes to build your family this way....

Thirteen years ago, Rebecca called her own adoption consultant and asked if she wanted a business partner. "Call me back in about a year," she said. "I'm not quite ready." Ten minutes later, Rebecca called back: "Then I'm going to be your competitor. Will you help me?" She had no clients, no marketing plan, and a notebook full of business ideas she'd never...

There’s a difference between choosing adoption… and choosing to embrace everything that comes with it. When Susan Strong’s first round of IVF failed, she didn’t know it would become the beginning of a completely different life. Thirty-four years later, she’s the adoptive mom of two daughters, has lifelong relationships with four birth parents, and has built an open adoption story she never could h...

At three years old, mid-meltdown, Theresa Harmon's son looked up at her and said: "I wanna calm down, Mommy, but I don't know how." She's a social worker. She spent years in child welfare before she became a mom. She was still lost. Doctors told her what they tell every family: "He'll go through withdrawal, and then he'll be fine." Teresa has spent the last...

Adoptive parent shame, why adopted kids lie, and what co-regulation actually looks like mid-meltdown — trauma therapist and adoptive mom Keli Tondre gets specific. Last weekend, Keli's19- and 18-year-old spent Friday and Saturday night with her at a music festival — by choice. She doesn't have all the answers. But as a trauma therapist, an adoptive sibling, and an adoptive mom of three, sh...

Most hopeful adoptive parents think creating an adoption profile is about showcasing their accomplishments, beautiful photos, or writing the perfect story. In reality, the most successful adoption profiles aren't about impressing anyone. They're about helping an expectant mother picture her child growing up in your family. In this episode, Rebecca walks through the second step of the Adopt...

Some of the most important lessons about adoption don't come from adoptive parents. They come from the people who made adoption possible in the first place. When Janelle Basham placed her daughter for adoption 32 years ago, she wasn't in the hospital. She wasn't holding her baby as she said goodbye. She was sitting on a blue couch in another state, watching TV, while another family welcomed her da...

There’s a difference between preparing for adoption… and preparing yourself to become a parent. When systems strategist, podcaster, and adoptive mom Julie Fried began her adoption journey, she thought she could research her way through it. Spreadsheets, Facebook groups, Google searches—she approached adoption like any other complex project. But what she discovered was that the biggest work wasn’t...

Building an open adoption relationship isn't about having the perfect plan. It's about choosing honesty, trust, and putting the child at the center...again and again. In this deeply moving conversation, Rebecca sits down with adoptive mom Lindsay McKenzie and birth mom Hali to share what open adoption has actually looked like for them over the past six years. Together, they pull back the c...

Every child deserves to see themselves reflected in the story of how life begins. But for adopted children, donor-conceived children, and children born through surrogacy or IVF, traditional conversations about reproduction often leave them feeling like an exception instead of part of the story. In this episode, Rebecca sits down with family physician and educator Dr. Robin Dickinson to explore how...

What does it really mean to belong? For Isaac Melber, the answer wasn't found the day he was adopted. It was built through countless small moments of love, consistency, and the freedom to embrace every part of his story. In this episode, Rebecca sits down with author, adoptee, and aspiring pastor Isaac Melber to explore life through the eyes of someone who remembers being adopted. From growing...

This week's episode flips the mic. Instead of Rebecca Gruenspan interviewing a guest, you're hearing Rebecca be the guest — pulled from her appearance on Podcast Cafe hosted by podcast producer Hayleigh Hayhurst, where she opened up about how The Adoption Roadmap Podcast came to life, why she started podcasting after years of putting it off, and what 100+ episodes have taught her about ado...

The moment every hopeful adoptive parent dreams about is hearing the words, "They picked you." But what happens next? In step 1B of the Adoption Roadmap, Rebecca walks through the realities of adoption after a match occurs. From evaluating adoption situations and understanding potential risks to navigating the hospital experience, ICPC, openness, legal finalization, and the financial rea...

This episode tackles one of the most anxiety-inducing parts of the adoption process: the home study. For many hopeful adoptive parents, the home study can feel like an investigation. They're worried about old mistakes, mental health diagnoses, fertility struggles, finances, medical conditions, past trauma, or whether one wrong answer could jeopardize their dream of becoming parents. In this ep...

No two adoption journeys look the same — and that’s exactly what makes this conversation so powerful. In this special panel episode, Rebecca sits down with three adoptive parents whose paths to parenthood couldn’t be more different: Lisa, a single mom by choice; Kirk, an adoptee turned adoptive father raising a son with his husband; and Jennifer, who navigated infertility, open adoption, and the u...

Most people begin the adoption process thinking the hardest parts will be the paperwork, the waiting, or the uncertainty. In reality, the biggest challenge is often unlearning what you've been told about adoption in the first place. In this episode, Rebecca shares the first step of her Adoption Roadmap and explains why education, emotional preparation, and a deeper understanding of adoption matter...

This episode is unlike any adoption conversation we’ve had before. Angela’s story begins with impossible odds: born two months premature, weighing barely three pounds, surviving life-threatening medical complications, and spending the first months of her life fighting to stay alive. But what unfolds after that is a story about far more than survival. It’s about identity, belonging, race, reunion,...

This episode will probably make some adoptive parents uncomfortable, and that’s exactly why you should listen. Jade Amez grew up in a white family in the Midwest constantly being asked questions like: “Where are you really from?” “Do you know your real parents?” “Aren’t you grateful you were adopted?” And while most people thought they were “just being curious,” Jade explains what those questions...

Why does your child’s behavior feel so hard… even when you’re trying to do everything right? In adoption, behavior isn’t just behavior. It’s layered with loss, attachment, and experiences that often go unseen. And in the moments that feel the most overwhelming—when your child is melting down, shutting down, or pushing you away—it’s easy to wonder: Am I handling this wrong? In this episode, we’re b...

Adoption is often told as a beautiful, full-circle story. But what happens when the story keeps unfolding decades later? In this episode, Rebecca sits down with Niemah Scherlacher, whose adoption story spans cultures, religions, and nearly 60 years of unanswered questions. Born in Jerusalem to a Palestinian mother, placed in a Jewish orphanage, and adopted by a Christian American family—her story...

You don’t expect the waiting to feel like this… until you’re in it. Season four of The Adoption Roadmap opens with something that might feel a little surprising: joy. Not the kind that ignores what’s hard. The kind that shows up right in the middle of it. In this episode, Rebecca resets the roadmap—so if you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, unsure where you are, or questioning if you’re doing this “ri...