Christina, adopted as an infant, spent her life wondering if her birth mother thought about her. She enjoyed a happy childhood with her adoptive parents, who adopted her in the late 60’s. Yet, throughout her life, she struggled with unanswered questions about her biological parents. Christina found answers to her questions when she began her
Adoptee Starts Company to Inspire Others
Lee Arnold, an adult adoptee, is driven to motivate others to live their lives to their fullest. “I’ve had a lot of opportunities to meet really inspiring individuals who are doing great things. I wanted to create a platform to highlight them and teach through them,” he shares. That’s exactly what he is doing. This
Adoption Support Fund Grants
Our Adoption Support Fund is a unique grant program open to anyone using our adoption or post adoption services. Those interested complete a short application process and a grant committee consisting of staff from all of our program areas reviews each application and determines the award amount. We prioritize grants for post adoption services and for
Letter to My Mother
Dear Mother, Writing “Dear Mother” seems so formal, yet I never met you so I can’t call you “mom.” I don’t even know if you would have wanted me to call you “mom.” Let alone if I would have been comfortable with that either. How strange all of this is—and to think that at my
A Letter from My Birth Parents
The following is an excerpt from How Did You Find Me, a sweet story about love lost and found again. Crossing over decades, the book weaves together the narratives of an adopted woman, her birth mother and birth father, highlighting how the adoption affected each of them and their relationships over the years. Though the narratives
Do Everything You Can to Participate in Tour Korea!
Do everything you can to participate in the Tour Korea! Birthland Tour. Your experience, and most importantly the experience with your child, sibling, parent, spouse, friend, or loved one, will forever be a treasured shared experience in your lives. More than any adventure or vacation you have taken, Tour Korea has a depth of layers
Are You My Mother? Adoptees are in reunion whether they’re searching or not
During a recent presentation at an adoption conference, I had the members attending my session participate in a quick exercise before they took their seats. I asked them to walk around the room and find the person they thought they most closely looked like. The room instantly filled with nervous laughter as the participants met
What to Do Before Your Child Starts a Birth Family Search
Adoption search and reunion seems to be everywhere we turn these days: from tearful reunions displayed on TV to advertisements for DNA websites that can link you to birth relatives. As an adoptive parent you may be wondering, what should I say to my child about searching for their own birth family? Adoptive Families’ magazine
Humble Beginnings, Beautiful Families
Tammy Makram’s and Liz Kellner’s first days of life garnered headlines in the 1960s as they would today. The full biological sisters were both abandoned during the holiday season, four years apart, stowed in a cardboard box and left for someone to find. Fifty years later, the sisters are again attracting attention, this time with
Like Mother, Like Daughter | Then and Now
Mother’s Day is right around the corner. I got to thinking about my first Mother’s Day in 2004 and my experience searching for birth family. The experience inspired an article first published in Adoption Today Magazine. Today, I have added “Mother’s Notes” given it’s 12 years later. For me, not knowing was the hardest part,
