Adoptee Voyages: Recent Episodes
Adoptee Voyages
An adoptee spends their lifetime navigating the complex trusts of how being adopted impacts their identity. For transracial adoptees, which is defined as a person who is raised by someone of a different race, another layer of confusion is added. On the Adoptee Voyages podcast, I and others will share our stories surrounding first culture, birth families, adoption trauma, and more.
Join us for the final episode of Season 3. Amber and I discuss what chosen family means to us and how it relates to interacting with our family units. Along with this, we share some of our closing thoughts about the entire season.
Joy is the CEO of IAMAdoptee, an online non-profit that provides resources for adoptees. She speaks on how this non-profit can help adoptees navigate their adoption journey in regards to the family unit as well as sharing a bit about her expertise in this work.
Mireille Adele is a transracial adoptee from Canada. She was adopted with her twin sister and they had an interesting introduction to their birth mother at a young age. Listen in as she shares her story on reuniting with her birth family.
As far as family goes, the older you get the more likely you will experience the question "do you want kids?". For adoptees that question may seem more complex as we try to understand how or if we want to have children. Listen in as Amber and I discuss our own experiences and season of life exploring this idea of "the next generation".
Owen Knight is a transracial adoptee from Korea. He was also a contestant on Survivor Season 43 where some of his story about being a transracial adoptee was shared. Listen in as he talks about his childhood, his adoptee identity, and the various ways he's navigated his adoption journey.
Darci Wen Siegel is a Chinese adoptee from Huangshi and identifies as a transnational adoptee, activist, and advocate, whose dedication to examining the relationship between gender, race, and policy is driven by her personal experiences stemming from China’s One-Child Policy. Listen in as she shares her story of returning to China along with seeing how her adoptee identity has impacted her perspective on herself and relationships with others.
Continuing on the focus of romantic relationships tune in to this episode where Eric Bartram, a Korean adoptee, shares his experience navigating his adoptee identity while in relationship with his wife who is also Korean.
Join us this week as Amber Davies-Sloan and I discuss how our adoptee identity might have impacted some of our previous romantic relationships. We also briefly talk about our spouses and what our experiences have been like not only sharing our adoption journey with them but also with others like our in-laws.
Joh McCormick, a transracial adoptee from Colombia, shares his story about reuniting with his birth family. He discusses different resources that supported him through his journey and talks about his most recent visit to be with his birth family.
Listen in while Sam Severns, a Korean adoptee raised in Colorado, discusses his birth family reunion story. While Sam also shares about his story, he adds in about a non-profit that impacted him from childhood to now.
Sarah is a Transracial Jamaican adoptee who was raised in Lancaster, PA. She shares about her adoption background and provides insight into the past 12 years of being in reunion with her birth family.
In this episode, Amber joins the conversation about what the family unit means. We discuss topics like what we believed the family structure was suppose to look like due to media influence, to our thoughts regarding our adoption and birth families.
On today's episode we are meeting Amber Davies-Sloan, my co-host for a few episodes this season. Amber is a Korean transracial adoptee whose experience and research provides a new depth to this season. For today, listen in as you get to know parts of her adoption journey, perspective, and experiences.
Join me this season as transracial adoptees share their experiences and story regarding different ways their family unit has impacted their identity. Along with hearing those stories, I have the privilege to go deeper into topics like our foundational concept of family, relationships we hold close to our hearts, and navigating our chosen family with my new friend- Amber Davies-Sloan. Her voice and perspective as not only a Korean transracial adoptee but also as an educator who has studied how the adoptee identity effects interpersonal relationships is so vital to these conversations this season. I look forward to sharing new episodes with you each Wednesday from April 5th till June 28th as the adoptee voyage continues.
For this week, join myself and Amanda (Mandy) Dortschy. She is a transracial adoptee from Lima, Peru, grew up in Charlotte, NC and now is located in San Diego, CA. Mandy's adopted mom is from the States and her adopted father is from Germany, giving her citizenship in all 3 countries. Mandy is thankful to have an opportunity to share her adoption story and how it has made her the person she is today. It's taught her to always stay curious with an open mind, to planning an upcoming trip back to Peru (for the first time) to meet her biological family. We discuss how these different cultures shaped her, some experiences she had in Charlotte, and this new curiosity to understand her adoption story has made her who she is today.
In this episode, Kate McCann, a Korean adoptee speaks about her experience interacting with her first culture. Being adopted and growing up in Minnesota gave her feelings of wanting to just belong and fit in with the other white kids in her community. While seeing many other Korean adoptees, she feels like it wasn't until 2020 that she starting recognizing her Korean culture. Listen in as she speaks about the journey of getting to know herself better as she processes this piece of her identity.
This week’s guest is Kecia Weltz, an adoptee from India who was raised in Mount Vernon, WA. Her mom, who recently passed, raised her and her sister who is also adopted from India. Kecia’s story includes some work experience supporting families in the adoption and foster community. Tune in as we discuss her childhood, work experience, and current interactions with her first culture.
Adrian is a Peruvian adoptee who grew up in Canada. He has been on a journey to reconnect with his roots and has made some great memories from it. Listen in as he explains his love for Peru, his culture, and his experience.
On this episode, join Jennifer Lee, a Korean adoptee who was raised in the Greater Seattle area. She discusses her story, the difficulties on navigating her ethnic identity, and how she is passing the gift of being Korean onto her daughter. Jennifer is a single umma (mother in Korean) and has been estranged from her adoptive parents by choice for 5 years. For the past 20 years she has worked in the immigration law sector. Her work to reclaim her lost identity and culture inspired her to found a run a Families of Color group at her child's school, serve on Racial Equity and Educational Justice school committees, and form connections with her adoptee community. She's an avid runner and podcast listener, and hopes to find her lost biological family one day.
Sarah Guimond is a Peruvian adoptee who was raised in the Boston, MA area. She grew up with her sister who is also a Peruvian adoptee. When in college, she studied abroad in Peru and once she received her degree a year and a half later, she decided to move back to Peru permanently. Now, she supports the adoptee community through Peru Datos, which helps Peruvian adoptees locate their birth families or obtain dual citizenship; and Rewriting Adoption, which is a place where her sister, her, and other adoptees try to raise up adoptee voices and show more adoptee centered narrative. Find out more about her journey as you listen to today’s episode!
Alexis Bartlett is an adoptee from South Korea who was raised in Sydney, Australia. As a child she felt very little support from her family or community to understand her adoptee identity and birth culture. Once she began attending University she had various experiences engaging her birth culture. Now, after some newer experiences interacting with her first culture, Alexis resides in California with her husband and son. Hear more about her journey on today’s episode!
Joanna Jackson is a Peruvian adoptee who was raised on the East Coast. She has an open adoption so learning about her culture was a very open topic in her family unit. Throughout her life she was able to visit Peru and be in touch with her birth family. As an adult, she has her Masters in Social Work and is in the process of returning for her Doctorate in Social Work with a focus on adoption, relinquishment trauma, and identity development during adolescence into adulthood. Outside of pursuing this education opportunity, she loves being a mom to her 12 year old son. Listen in as she explains some challenges she faces when exploring her first culture.
Listen in to the heart behind why it's important for transracial adoptees to share their journeys as they embrace their first culture. The founder, Erika Lorenz, also speaks to her experiences over the years engaging with her birth culture in various ways. We also would like to say, some TRAs don't explore their first culture, and that is completely ok; however, the stories you will hear this season will be of TRAs who have decided to.
Join me October 5th for another season of The Adoptee Voyages Podcast. This season various transracial adoptee express their experiences of when, how, and why they decided to explore their first culture.
For the final episode of Season 1, Kelli Hall, a licensed independent clinical social worker who specializes in trauma informed therapy with foster and adoption children, joins me. She not only works as a resource to the adoption community, but adoption also is a part of her story since she is a domestic adoptee. Listen in as we discuss ways a piece of her story, common challenges adoptees face, and options for adoptees to continue their healing journey.
Join us this week as Maria Stromsad speaks about her experience as a transracial adoptee growing up in the orphanage she was adopted from. Maria, was born, adopted, and raised in Costa Rica, with her family who does missions work. She loves her country, is a woman working in the STEM field, and truly feels blessed for her story to be what it is.
Meridian Mayer is a Nigerian, born and adopted in Milwaukie, WI who is a sports fan, bodybuilder, and cat daddy to twin Tuxedos (Basil and Stefan). He joins us this week as we discuss his experience as he searched, found, and then reunited with different members of his birth family. Listen in as he shares the highlights of meeting his mom, which is seen in the title photo, being in awe of similarities with his dad, and how he hopes to grow deeper relationships with them. Meridian also provides insightful advice regarding this entire experience in case other adoptees are in the process of reuniting with their birth families.
Analisa Freitas is an adult Peruvian adoptee raised in the Central Valley of California. She is currently based in La Jolla, CA to complete her Masters of Advanced Studies in Marine Biodiversity & Conservation at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She has contributed to the transracial and transnational adoptee community in the US through co-facilitating adoptee discussion groups at Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children, All Together Now Playgroup, Holt Adoptee Camps, and The Ties Program, coordinating annual summer retreats for Nuestra Herencia Peruvian Adoptees (now Network of Peruvian Adoptees), and creating videos with fellow Peruvian adoptees about their experiences, as well as sharing her own personal stories. Analisa loves to connect with other adoptees so feel free to email her at peruvianadoptees@gmail.com. Listen in as we talk about her story, adventures to Peru, and perspective on her adoptee identity.
During this episode, Galen Liberworth, a trans-racial and trans-national adoptee from Korea to the great city of Seattle, speaks regarding his psychology as an adoptee. He strongly identifies with his geographic identity in the Pacific Northwest from his love of rain to his affinity for strong, dark coffee. He also loves anything soccer related and loves the new trend of mainstream media exploring segments of Asian American lived experience! Listen in as we go over our experiences, touch base on how we identify our fears, and more.
In this week's episode Tanisha Hanson and I discuss topics surrounding adoptee centered communities. Tanisha Hanson is a transracial kinship adoptee from Seattle who identifies as a Black, queer woman who is passionate about connecting with fellow adoptees. She explains her experience joining an in person mentorship adoptee group a few years ago. From there we continue the conversation discussing the importance of these groups, how they have impacted us, and yet how to engage with them in a healthy way.
On this week's episode, join my conversation with Rob Leyder about the uniqueness of a transracial adoptee's story. Rob is adopted from South Korea, raised in Michigan, and recently moved to the Greater Seattle Area for a job focused on supporting youth. We share different experiences that are unique to transracial adoptees; all stemming around the idea of what is our adoptee identity, what communities do we feel we belong to, and what hope we have for others who share our experience.
On this week's episode, join my conversation with Tiffany Bluhm about our transracial adoptee identity. Tiffany Bluhm is the author of Prey Tell: Why We Silence Women Who Tell the Truth and How Everyone Can Speak Up and podcast co-host of Why Tho. We discuss how we perceived our identity from a young age endured hardships, negative viewpoints, and struggles. From there, she shares her experience seeing her adoptee identity in a new light as well as what embracing her first culture as an adult transracial adoptee in America is like.
The founder and host of Adoptee Voyages, Erika Lorenz, shares a bit about her adoption story and experiences as a transracial adoptee. Listen in as she explains how Adoptee Voyages got started and answers some questions that had a few weeks prior.
Adoptee Voyages strives to provide a space for transracial adoptees to connect, heal, and speak their experiences. The founder, Erika Lorenz, is a transracial adoptee from Peru who was raised in Colorado. She has the honor to invite other transracial adoptees to speak about their story and experiences every week.