Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee Stories

Sarah D. Shearer is a writer, wife, and mother. She was adopted from Russia as a baby but has spent her life in Thomasville, Georgia. She is passionate about encouraging people to overcome and maintain a positive perspective. Sarah is married with two beautiful children. She and her family live on a sprawling rural farm, which gives her, as L.M. Montgomery says in Sarah’s favorite childhood novel...

Born in Edinburgh in 1963, Roy grew up an only child and always knew he was adopted, or as his adoptive mother, Mollie, would tell him, “chosen”. Whilst loved unconditionally by Mollie and her husband Peter, the stigma of being an adopted teenager in 1970s Scotland resulted in Roy being bullied and spat on in school.  At sixteen, he left Mollie a note asking if she had any information about his bl...

Pam Uzzell is a documentary filmmaker and podcaster currently living in Oakland, CA. She is the director and producer of four independent documentaries and the host and producer of the podcast, Art Heals All Wounds .   Her adoptive parents were loving but saw her as the “oddball” of her family, resulting in a profound sense of loneliness. She turned to reading as a way to find a sense of belonging...

Sally King is an adult adoptee from the foster system. Growing up she knew she did not seem to fit anywhere and just accepted that that was who she was. After marrying and having two biological children a little girl came to her and her husband through the foster care system. This had her embark on a journey of self-discovery and acknowledgment and through the later adoption of her daughter and de...

Jane is a baby scoop-era adoptee born in 1963 in Delaware to a 14 yr. old mother. After being in foster care for the first 10 months she was adopted and raised by two wonderful parents in Pennsylvania. Shortly after her 2nd birthday, her parents gave birth to a biological son.  Jane always knew she was adopted and wondered where she came from but never wanted or needed to search. But, at the age o...

Born in 1970, Sean Broderick was adopted at birth and always knew he was adopted as long as he can remember.  The fact that he was adopted never seemed to bother him or cause any type of turmoil in his life.  Sean seemingly had a happy and healthy childhood although alcoholism existed within one of his adoptive parents, his parents ultimately divorced and he had a lack of discipline and guidance d...

Katherine Sanford is yet another adoptee caught up in the Baby Scoop Era of U.S. closed adoptions and the restrictive laws that prevent access to birth records. It wasn’t until 2017, with the help of two spit-in-a-tube ancestry kits, that she could finally answer the one crucial question she longed to answer: “Who am I?” Katherine writes about her experience in the award-winning book, Storked! You...

Join us for a deep dive into 'loss' with David Benjamin ( guest:Season Two ) and Moses Farrow ( guest:Season Five ). To find David Benjamin To find Moses Farrow Magic Mind - The World’s First Productivity Shot™ Use code: ADOPTION20 to save on your subscription. Available in all Sprouts in January 2024 To find NPE Stories Thank you to our sponsor S12F . Gregory Luce and Adoptees Rights Law Joe Soll...

Nikole Shaw also known as "Koko" in the online community was born in Hawaiian Gardens, California, growing up in the suburbs of Orange County.  Adopted as an infant, she is a black domestic adoptee who spent much of her life in a small town called Brea. Koko received her Bachelors of Science from San Jose State University and is currently working for the Department of Public Health San Francisco a...

Shelley Jean is a baby scoop-era domestic adoptee born in 1970. She was in foster care for about 2 months before being adopted. She always knew she was adopted but didn’t think about it very often until her adoptive mother passed away. At the age of 48, Shelley started on her journey of self-discovery. She now has a hard time imagining her life before searching. The journey has had many ups and do...

Kevin Barhydt is a YouTube creator and the author of Dear Stephen Michael’s Mother. His YouTube channel creates a safe space for survivors of addiction, abandonment, adoption, and child sexual abuse, to explore the healing process. Abandoned by his mother at birth, Kevin was enveloped in a labyrinth of adoption, addiction, and child sexual abuse. By age 20, a shell of the boy he once was, Kevin su...

Monica Hall is an author, adoptee, and birthmother.  She was born in Canada, adopted by American parents, and raised in Anchorage, Alaska where she spent the first sixteen years of her life and had many of the foundational experiences that drive her writing.  In addition to working as a business consultant, she has founded several successful companies and has worked in advertising and marketing fo...

A few kismet moments in her early twenties led her on a journey of discovering who she looks like. Vicky Heydon was adopted through a private county adoption right after birth in 1987 and then raised in the same county. Although she believes she crossed paths with her biological family a few years prior, it wasn't until she was in her late 20s when she was helping to pack up her parents to move ou...

Moses Farrow, LMFT is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, who has 20+ years of working in the mental health field. Farrow has spent the last decade within the population of adopted people and their families. As an activist and speaker, he is mission-driven. In 2018, he wrote a blog article speaking out about his personal life as a survivor of abuse and suicide loss. Since then, he has starte...

Haley Radke is an adoptee advocate and the creator and host of the popular podcast, Adoptees On, where adopted people share their adoption experiences. Adoptees On has more than 250 episodes featuring adoptees and adoptee therapists and has been downloaded over 1.2 million times in 140+ countries worldwide. www.adopteeson.com   To go directly to Haley's interview, you can go to the timestamp: 9:42...

Gregory D. Luce is a Minnesota-based attorney born and adopted in the District of Columbia. He is the founder of Adoptee Rights Law Center, where he represents US-born and inter-country adoptees on issues involving identity, records, and US citizenship. He is also a co-founder and the executive director of Adoptees United Inc., a national nonprofit adoptee rights organization. A graduate of Boston...

Allison Olson is an adoptee from a closed adoption in 1979. She is also an adoptive parent, raising awareness of current harmful narratives in children’s adoption books.   To Find Allison: Social Media = @kidsbooksbyallisonolson (FB, Instagram, and TikTok) IBPA Benjamin Franklin Silver Award Winner A Mom’s Choice Awards® Recipient Surrounded by Love: An Open Adoption Story on Amazon www.ouradoptio...

Andy was born Anthony in April 1970 in Paisley just outside Glasgow, Scotland in 1970. Although in a material sense, his childhood was relatively affluent emotionally, he struggled with adoption and having nobody to talk to about it. His persistent loneliness was brought on by his adoption and the distance from his adoptive parents. Attending a strict Catholic private school made the problems wors...

Adopted in California in 1975, Jessica's family moved to Pennsylvania around the age of two. As a child, she slowly moved in with the neighbors when she realized her adoptive parents were not able to raise her. Recently, she has reunited with her birth mother and several members of that side of the family. She did not tell her Pennsylvania family about her search until after returning from meeting...

Rita W. Miller was relinquished into the social service foster care system at 6 months of age. In her mind, Rita believes that her biological mother made this decision, not because she did not want her, but because she wanted a better life for her baby. She believes that perhaps the mother thought that she was in no way able, capable, or possibly would not gain the capacity to raise this child. Th...

Sarah and Louise have a powerful and meaningful discussion with Gabrielle Glaser, author of American Baby, and Margaret Erle Katz, whose story is the focus of the book. American Baby by Gabrielle Glaser. Thank you to our sponsor S12F . Joe Soll & other adoptee resources If you want to support our show, you can go to our Patreon Page. Our Patrons:  Laura Christensen, Barbara Frank, Ramona Evans, Li...

Elle Klassen is a Canadian who was born to a young woman of nineteen years of age in 1970. She was relinquished and then placed with her adoptive family when she was five days old. She grew up in a very conservative Canadian evangelical family where adoption was spoken of as God's plan. Much of her religious background didn't sit well with her, including the narrative around adoption. As an adopte...

Patrick Hawes was born in North Carolina on August 10, 1970, and officially adopted in September 1970. From an early age, Patrick knew he was adopted because his adopted mom was Japanese and his adopted father was American but he didn’t look at all Japanese. Patrick never really desired to search for his birth family during his childhood. He was raised in a good home and was well taken care of but...

Janet M was born in Virginia in the late 1970’s to a 16-year-old mother. At 6 weeks old she was placed via a closed adoption into a loving home with her parents and older adopted brother. She always knew she was adopted but it wasn’t a topic that was discussed openly or often in her family. Not knowing her origin story fueled her curiosity around the subject of pregnancy and birth. She became fasc...

Rivi Shocket was born in Baltimore Maryland in 1987. She was adopted two days after she was born and had an open adoption. From the time she was a toddler, her adoptive parents would take her to spend time with her birth family (mom, dad, siblings, cousins, and grandparents) every couple of years. Throughout Rivi's teenage years and into adulthood, she developed strong bonds with her immediate bir...