Adoption: The Long View Podcast

It's estimated that there are between 40 and 100 families waiting for every available infant placement. The odds are not in everyone’s favor, and at least some of the people hoping to adopt a newborn will just not be able to. That’s a hard truth. What happ...

How we see ourselves as adoptive parents is intricately tied with how we see our children via adoption, and ultimately how they see themselves. Seemingly heroic narratives like “saving a child” and seemingly innocuous ones like “we were meant to be togethe...

Like the ancient tale of the Six Blind Men and the Elephant, adoption is fertile ground for people "knowing" about it while experiencing only a fraction of it. From our limited experience we start to think we have a handle on it and we know the truth about...

It’s normal -- celebrated even -- to wonder about and ask ourselves "Who am I?" After all, genealogy is cited as one of the top hobbies people have. There are TV shows with names like Finding Your Roots, Long Lost Family, and Who Do You Think You Are? help...

We talk often on this show about attunement in adoptive parenting, which is the process of intuiting in the moment what your child needs from you. The first step is to understand as best you can the perspective of an adoptee. You won’t get this from listen...

To kick off Season 3, we address how you can prepare for 9 of the most common awkward, delicate, tricky situations that come up for adoptive parents. Sometimes you find yourself in a situation with your child (you're not my real mom!), and sometimes it's w...

In Season 2, we’ve heard from 10 amazing and fascinating people who have explored the complexities of adoption with us -- adoptees, an investigative journalist, birth moms, a therapist, a foster mom, adoptive moms and dads, the CEO of a large child welfare...

Have you ever eaten a meal at Wendy’s? Have you ever perused the list of top Adoption Friendly Workplaces? Have you ever felt an ache in your heart about children who are in foster care, growing up without a permanent family taking care of them, loving the...

Not every adoptive family will need an adoption-competent therapist on hand, but many will at some point. This is not to pathologize adoption; lots of non-adoptive families also end up also seeking therapy for various struggles. But adoptive families are s...

No baby should be born with a job, to quote Dr Phil. It’s just too much to expect a baby to fix anything -- a relationship, a heart, a life. But many people come to infant adoption after experiencing infertility and enduring some sort of loss. They might t...

If your main sources of information about adoption are from the loudest voices, you may be missing out on key facets that would help you better navigate your own adoption situation and better serve your child. You can’t see your own blind spots (by definit...

Candace Cahill placed her son as an infant in 1990. Their semi-open adoption closed when he was 8, but contact was reestablished at 18. After navigating the complexities of reunion for five years and only a single face-to-face meeting, Michael died in his...

The journey of adopting a baby can be so uncertain and feel so all-consuming that sometimes, it’s hard to see past it. My guest today, Tim Elder, helps people become parents through adoption with his Infant Adoption Guide blog and podcast. We're talking wi...

If you’ve ever wondered how you could have an open adoption when you can’t have contact with birth parents, you’ll want to make sure to catch this episode with adoptive parent counselors Katie Biron and Kara Andersen. We cover the differences between openn...

How different is adoption now compared with the closed adoption era? And what does that mean for adoptive parents? Gabrielle Glaser is the author, most recently, of American Baby: A Mother, A Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption, which tells the shock...

This episode, like the podcast as a whole, is not for short-sighted people. This episode, like the podcast in its entirety, will appeal to people who want to be able to see more than one step ahead. Maybe 3 or 4 or 10 steps ahead. If this is you, you’re in...

Today’s guest -- who consulted about adoption themes for the Hulu series Little Fires Everywhere -- wrote an article many years ago that goes viral just about every year. The article is called 10 Things Adoptees Want You to Know, and within it, Lesli Johns...

Can you imagine fumbling around in the dark for one of the most important missions of your life, without having any training at all? Once the deep flaws in the closed adoption era started to become apparent, some adoption agencies decided to experiment wit...

Some people like stories. Others like numbers. In her book, Open Adoption & Diverse Families, Dr Abbie Goldberg has satisfied both camps, as well as those who equally love stories and data. Today’s guest has brought me a huge gift in the form of her resea...

Rebecca Vahle has witnessed the very beginning moments of hundreds of adoptions, starting with her three children, now young adults. Those three vastly differing experiences prompted her to create a program that standardizes care for potential adoption pla...

To get ready for this episode -- which turned out to be on Emotional Intelligence in adoption relationships -- imagine that you are 18 years old and parenting a 4 month old boy, a path you don’t feel prepared for at all. You have an older half-brother; he...

If you’ve ever feared not being considered the “real” parent, if you are unsure how you can co-exist in your child’s heart along with their birth mother or father, if you are curious about how an adoptee tries to “earn” their love from their adoptive paren...

Angela Tucker is on a mission to center adoptee voices -- which have been historically marginalized -- because she considers adoptees the experts in the adoption experience. That’s a great point, and adoptive parents are wise to listen for understanding. I...

In this episode, adoptee and activist Rich Uhrlaub addresses the ways that adoptees in many states don't have the same legal rights as the non-adopted. He tells us why original birth certificates were sealed in the closed adoption era, and what the ripple...

In this episode, Lori talks with Carolyn Savage, who has, perhaps, the twistiest-turniest journey to family you've ever heard of. Starting with an inconceivable snafu with a fertility clinic, within one year Carolyn (1) gave birth to a son she placed in th...