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

Mikayla Mains is a dancer teacher, small business owner and SAHM. She was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri where she now resides with her husband and two children.  After spending years in and out of the foster care system, she was adopted at age 12 to a large family in which she became the 10th child. She battled with questions about her past for years until she finally found her biological...

Tony Corsentino is a cataloger at a public library near Boston, Massachusetts, after a prior career as a philosophy professor. A child of a closed adoption, Tony grew up in the southern United States without siblings. After fighting cancer and becoming a father, he obtained his birth records, reunited with his mother, and connected with other adoptees on social media. He plans to continue to raise...

Trishina was born in 1991 in Sevastopol, Ukraine and was adopted at just 18 months old. She was always curious about her biological family, searching on and off, but it wasn’t until she joined a Russian social media app called Vkontakte, that she was able to find some answers. Trishina is a nurse and military wife currently living in Cleveland, Ohio. Vk Link Also in this episode, Sarah and Louise...

David was born in 1972 in Newcastle, in the North East of England and adopted shortly after he was  six weeks old. He is now a therapist working  predominantly with trauma and adoption. He also sits on a fostering panel and teaches therapeutic parenting. David is married with two children, and he is currently writing his first novel based on his life story. Please also hear more of David at: The A...

Melissa Porter, born "Ryan Keeler" is an adult adoptee and psychologist from New York, who specializes in attachment and trauma theory. After the birth of her daughter, she used DNA and modern-day sleuthing to build her family tree and connected with her first family in 2018.  She found a large maternal family ready to welcome her, and a decades-old mystery in her paternal family that she used DNA...

As early as he could comprehend it, Matt had always known he was adopted – but he never had the desire to find his birth parents. That is until the birth of his only daughter brought more questions than answers about his health and ancestry. When he received his adoption paperwork from the State of Wisconsin, he discovered that his birth father was never told of the pregnancy.  That started 20 + y...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise recap Season One and then they speak to Megan Culhane Galbraith. Megan Culhane Galbraith is a writer, visual artist and adoptee. Her debut memoir-in-essays The Guild of the Infant Saviour: An Adopted Child's Memory Book (Mad Creek Books/Ohio State University Press) was published in May 2021. Megan's work was listed as Notable in Best American Essays 2021 and 2017...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Sixteen  of  “The Primal Wound” by Nancy Newton Verrier and then they speak to Ann Marie Morello. Ann Marie Morello is a licensed mental health counselor, Adoptee coach and self proclaimed “truth warrior.” She owns a boutique private mental health practice in Suffolk County, New York. Ann Marie was a closed domestic adoption, was in foster care, an...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Fifteen  of  “The Primal Wound” by Nancy Newton Verrier and then they speak to Eric David. Born in Queens in 1966, Eric was adopted at two months old. He is the oldest and has one sister who is adopted and one who is not, all treated equally by their parents. Eric's married with two sons: one who died in 2013 and the other who is graduating college...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Fourteen of  “The Primal Wound” by Nancy Newton Verrier and then they speak to Rachel Atiemo-Obeng. Rachel Atiemo-Obeng was born In Southfield Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, adopted as an infant, and raised in Midland Michigan. She received her M.Ed. with emphasis on Applied Behavior Analysis from Arizona State University, and has worked with speci...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Thirteen of  “The Primal Wound” by Nancy Newton Verrier and then they speak to Representative Casey Weinstein. Casey Weinstein is currently serving his second term as a State Representative in the Ohio House of Representatives. He lives in Hudson, Ohio with his wife Amanda and their three children—Nora, Emelia, and Brady. Both Casey and Amanda are...

In this special episode, Sarah and Louise put their chapter discussion on hold to talk to Jennifer Utley, Director of Research, at Ancestry. Jennifer’s journey at Ancestry® began more than 20 years ago with a love of editing, writing, and publishing—and a strong desire to remain close to her Utah roots. Today, her passion for storytelling remains at an all-time high, thanks in part to the technolo...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Twelve of  “The Primal Wound” by Nancy Newton Verrier and then they speak to David Daniels. Adopted at birth by a pioneering Hollywood television couple who were responsible for creating some of the most iconic series of our time, including I Love Lucy, David grew up in the midst of show-biz Los Angeles far removed from the devoutly Christian world...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Eleven of  “The Primal Wound” by Nancy Newton Verrier and then they speak to Nichie Stonall. Nichie (Nikki) Stonall moved from Michigan to Johannesburg South Africa in 2015 to work alongside Impact Africa as the director of their Impact Baby Rescue. She leads a team of women who raise awareness about Baby Abandonment, counsels women as they journey...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Ten of  “The Primal Wound” by Nancy Newton Verrier and then they speak to Damon L. Davis. Damon L. Davis is the host and producer of the podcast,  "Who Am I Really?" ( www.whoamireallypodcast.com ) where adoptees tell their own stories of adoption and share their experiences attempting reunion with their birth families. He has interviewed over 150...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Nine of “The Primal Wound” by Nancy Newton Verrier and then they speak to Denise Cruz-Castino. Denise Cruz-Castino is an advertising writer and screenwriter from Los Angeles. When she was five years old, her four-year-old cousin Kenny moved in and became her adopted brother. No matter how much love he got from Denise’s family, and how much therapy,...

In this special episode, Sarah and Louise put their chapter discussion on hold to talk to Nancy Verrier, author of the groundbreaking book, The Primal Wound , and Rebecca Autumn Sansom, director of the upcoming documentary, Reckoning With The Primal Wound . Nancy raised both an adopted daughter as well as a biological daughter and was able to compare her children’s behavior. She became so fascinat...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Eight  of “The Primal Wound” by Nancy Newton Verrier and then they speak to Mick Smyer. Born and raised in New Orleans, Mick started out life in St. Vincent’s, a Catholic orphanage, where he lived until he was adopted at six months old. His adoptive mother was 50 years old when she adopted Mick, but she lied about her age to the adoption agency (an...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Seven  of “The Primal Wound” by Nancy Newton Verrier. They then talk to Madeline and Laura Lillis, two sisters from Kansas City with a unique story. Raised in a single-parent household by their biological dad, Madeline and Laura’s relationship to adoption may not be apparent to an unfamiliar listener. However, in this episode, these sisters describ...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Six of “The Primal Wound” by Nancy Newton Verrier, and then they talk to Sam Miller, an adoptee living in Dallas, Texas. Raised in the Chicago area, Sam Miller’s father passed away when he was just 3 years old.  Growing up, he didn’t have a close relationship with his mother.  He could never understand how she could be so emotionally distant from h...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Five of “The Primal Wound” by Nancy Newton Verrier, and then they talk to Andrea Ross, author of "Natural Selection: A Memoir of Adoption and Wilderness." Adopted at birth, Andrea grew up inhabiting two ecosystems: one was her tangible, adoptive family; the other her birth family, whose mysterious landscape was hidden from her.  In her early twenti...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Four of “The Primal Wound” by Nancy Newton Verrier, and then they talk to John Frey, who was born in Vietnam and brought to the United States as part of Operation Babylift when he was a year-and-a-half old.  John often struggled with his identity, having been adopted and raised by a White American family while not having any connection to his birth...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Three of “The Primal Wound” and then they talk to Jean Bliss Baron, who was adopted into a loving family when she was a few months old. She always knew she was adopted, but it wasn’t until she was 65-years-old when her biological family tracked her down through Ancestry.com.  Here's our affiliate link for Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?ref...

In this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss Chapter Two from the book “The Primal Wound”, and then it’s Louise’s turn to tell her adoption story. Here's our affiliate link for Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1741800 When you sign up, you get a $20 Amazon Gift card. And if you want to support our show, you can go to our Patreon page here: https://yct.short.gy/auaRqT Support the sh...

Today you’ll meet your podcast hosts, Sarah and Louise.  On this episode we discuss Chapter One from the book “The Primal Wound”, and then we delve into Sarah’s adoption story. Here's our affiliate link for Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1741800 When you sign up, you get a $20 Amazon Gift card. And if you want to support our show, you can go to our Patreon page here: https://y...