ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk

Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, a birth mom, Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent, and Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adoptee as they continue to revisit some special guests over the last year. In each episode, your hosts are committed to looking at the adoption system from the perspective of the triad: from the adoptee, who is the center of the triad, from the birth parent,...

Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, a birth mom, Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent, and Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adoptee as they continue to revisit some special guests over the last year. In each episode, your hosts are committed to looking at the adoption system from the perspective of the triad: from the adoptee, who is the center of the triad, from the birth parent,...

Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, a birth mom, Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent, and Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adoptee as they continue to revisit some special guests over the last year. In each episode, your hosts are committed to looking at the adoption system from the perspective of the triad: from the adoptee, who is the center of the triad, from the birth parent,...

Celebrating Author and Adopted Person, Jean Kelly Widner! Join your co-hosts and other members of the Growing Intentional Families Together coaching team as we honor Jean Kelly Widner as the recipient of the Growing Intentional Families Together 2026 Shaping the Future Award. We are thrilled to acknowledge Ms. Widner's work to expand communication, nurture understanding, and advance Adoption Attun...

Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, a birth mom, Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent, and Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adoptee as they revisit informative interviews with a few very special guests over the last year. Asw always, your hosts are committed to looking at the adoption system from the perspective of the triad: from the adoptee, who is the center of the triad, from...

Welcome 2026! Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, a birth mom,  Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent, and Sharon Butler Obazee, an adopted person, along with the other members of the Growing Intentional Families team as they welcome the New Year.  ADOPTION MATTERS continues to be a podcast with real people sharing real life stories and getting real about adoption from all...

Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, Sally Ankerfelt and Sharon Butler Obazee, as they welcome this month's special guest, adoptive mom and author, Linda R. Sexton. Linda's greatest joy in life remains the parenting and adoption of her two children in 1994 and 1998, both in open arrangements. Back in those days, Linda was a pioneer in handling an open adoption since guidan...

Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, Sally Ankerfelt and Sharon Butler Obazee, as they welcome this month's special guest, adult adoptee and adoption coach, Simon Benn. Mr. Benn is also the driving force behind the "Thriving Adoptees Podcast." A warm, delightful United Kingdom native, he's an informative guest with helpful positive insight into living life beyond adoption...

Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, Sally Ankerfelt and Sharon Butler Obazee, as they welcome this month's special guest, adopted person and author, Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao. A warm, delightful guest with great insight into adoption from her own personal experience as well as many years of professional practice. Dr. Pavao shares with her hosts her personal story, one that...

Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, Sally Ankerfelt and Sharon Butler Obazee, for another poignant and informative discussion with this month's special guest, adopted person and author, Jean Kelly Widner. Jean shares her own personal story with your hosts as a well loved, mostly happy adoptee growing up in the small town of Yakima, Washington. "They did everything right a...

Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, Sally Ankerfelt and Sharon Butler Obazee, for a poignant and informative discussion with this month's special guest, adoptee and developmental psychologist, Sharon McNamara. Sharon shares her own personal story as well as her work with members of the adoption constellation.   Adopted people and adoptive parents need to understand that t...

Join co-hosts and adoption coaches, Sally Ankerfelt and Gayle Swift, both adoptive parents, for another enlightening discussion with this month's special guest, Elizabeth Barbour. Elizabeth brings a lot of experience to the table both as an adoptee reunited with her birth family and as an adoptive mom. Tune in to hear Elizabeth's wisdom and lived experience navigating reuniting with her birth fami...

Join co-hosts and adoption coaches, Sharon Butler-Obazee (an adopted person) and Sally Ankerfelt (an adoptive parent) for another lively discussion about Father's Day. First aired in June of 2024, we thought we should bring these three amzing men back in honor of Father's Day 2025. Being a dad in adoption can be complicated! Tune in to hear an adoptee, birth dad, and adoptive father (also an adopt...

This is a rebroadcast of last year's Mother's Day episode honoring and celebrating this special day for mothers. Listen to birth mothers, adoptees, and an adoptive dad share heartfelt feelings and maybe even some complicated thoughts about mothers. Join hosts, adoptive parent, Sally Ankerfelt and Adopted Person, Sharon Butler-Obazee, as they acknowledge not only Mother's Day on May 11 but also hon...

Welcome to ADOPTION MATTERS, a podcast with real people sharing real stories and getting real about adoption from all three perspectives of the adoption triad. Join coaches, Kim Noeth, one of your co-hosts, and a birth mother, along with Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adopted person, and Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent as they explore difficult topics and share frank conversations guided by our comm...

Welcome to ADOPTION MATTERS, a podcast with real people sharing real stories and getting real about adoption from all three perspectives of the adoption triad. Join coaches, Kim Noeth, one of your co-hosts, and a birth mother, along with Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adopted person, and Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent as they explore difficult topics and share frank conversations guided by our comm...

Valentine's Day is upon us once again. Love is supposed to be "in the air." But what if it isn't. Today, our hosts, birth mom Kim Noeth, adoptee Sharon Obazee, and adoptive parent, Sally Ankerfelt are joined by adoptive parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift, discuss the idea that love is sometimes an obligation.  As always, their discussion is infused with a Tri-spective view that gives voice to al...

Real life brings challenges that include grief and loss. Of course, this is true for those in the adoption constellation. As adoption coaches, we talk a lot about grief and loss in the context of a child adoptee losing their birth mother even as the adoption brings them an adoptive mom. But what about the adult adoptee? And how might the adoptive parent feel (and deal) with their adopted child's l...

It's that time of year again and the holidays are upon us! How do adoptive families handle gift giving when there may be more than one family in the holiday photo? Join hosts Kim Noeth (a birth mother), Sharon Butler-Obazee (an adoptee), and Sally Ankerfelt (an adoptive parent), along with their colleagues, adoptive parents and coaches, Gayle Swift and Susan David as they discuss a few of the nuan...

November has arrived and time once more to recognize National Adoption Awareness Month. This year's theme, "Honoring Youth; Strengthening Pathways for Lasting Bonds", highlights the importance of helping youth identify and nurture support systems and social connections that help young people as they transition to adulthood and through life. Join hosts Kim Noeth (a birth mother), Sharon Butler-Obaz...

Special guest, adoptee, adoptee activist, and author, Anne Heffron, joins co-hosts and adoption coaches, Kim Noeth (a birth mother), Sharon Butler-Obazee (an adoptee) and Sally Ankerfelt (an adoptive parent) for an engaging discussion of the "masks" we might be wearing as members of the adoption triad and within our adoptive families. How do the masks we don protect our feelings and the feelings o...

Join co-hosts and adoption coaches, Kim Noeth (a birth mother), Sharon Butler-Obazee (an adoptee) and Sally Ankerfelt (an adoptive parent) for an important back-to-school discussion of adoption in the classroom. Once again, they bring to the conversatin their unique experience and world view as an adoption triad member to inform the conversation. Today, they explore with 6th grade teacher, Michell...

Join co-hosts and adoption coaches, Kim Noeth (a birth mother), Sharon Butler-Obazee (an adoptee) and Sally Ankerfelt (an adoptive parent) for another lively and upbeat discussion with Brian, an adoptive father of two, now-adult children. Learn how he navigated an open adoption with not one but two different bio families!       Using their Tri-spective point of view,   Kim, Sharon, and Sally explo...

Join co-hosts and adoption coaches, Kim Noeth (a birth mother), Sharon Butler-Obazee (an adoptee) and Sally Ankerfelt (an adoptive parent) for another lively discussion: the adoptive family on vacation. Using their tri-spective point of view, they explore how to create an experience that works for adoptive families, adoptees, and birth families.

Join co-hosts and adoption coaches, Kim Noeth (a birth mother), Sharon Butler-Obazee (an adoptee,) and Sally Ankerfelt (an adoptive parent) for another lively discussion about Father's Day. Being a dad in adoption can be complicated. Tune in to hear three dads -- an adoptee, birth dad, and adoptive father -- get real about the challenges and the joys of being a father in adoption.