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
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
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,
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
The Delicate Balance of Family
It’s an awfully strange notion to feel a part of two very different families. When I met my biological mother’s family for the first time last month, I felt akin to them almost immediately. It was
The Playbook
A birth mother and adoptive mother reflects on adoption reunion There are playbooks for all sports, directions for electronics, assembly instructions for putting together furniture and even
My Messy Beautiful | A Birth Mother Becomes an Adoptive Mother
Ever since I was a little girl I knew that someday I would be a mom. My sister, neighborhood friends, and I would play house for hours in the old barn. We would dress up in my mom’s old prom dresses,
