Episode 28: Handling the Grief and Loss that Adoption Brings
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, a birth mom, Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent, and Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adoptee as they continue to revisit some special guests over the last year. In each episode, your hosts are committed to looking at the adoption system from the perspective of the triad: from the adoptee, who is the center of the triad, from the birth parent, and from the adoptive parent. This episode is especially poignant with heartfelt, vulnerable sharing from hosts and their guests. It is not always easy to deal with the grief and loss that adoption...
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Episode 27_ Love is Only a Beginning: Adoptive Parenting Differs from Biological Parenting!
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, a birth mom, Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent, and Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adoptee as they continue to revisit some special guests over the last year. In each episode, your hosts are committed to looking at the adoption system from the perspective of the triad: from the adoptee, who is the center of the triad, from the birth parent, and from the adoptive parent. Learn more about your ADOPTION MATTERS' hosts and their ICF-approved course Adoption Attuned Coaching Certification Program at . Let's meet our featured special guests...
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Episode 26 Celebrating Author, Jean Kelly Widner, Recipient of The 2026 Shaping the Future Award!
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Celebrating Author and Adopted Person, Jean Kelly Widner! Join your co-hosts and other members of the Growing Intentional Families Together coaching team as we honor Jean Kelly Widner as the recipient of the Growing Intentional Families Together 2026 Shaping the Future Award. We are thrilled to acknowledge Ms. Widner's work to expand communication, nurture understanding, and advance Adoption Attuned practices, policies, and education within adoptive families and the broader adoption community. She has made significant contributions to helping others understand how adoption impacts adoptees,...
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Episode 25 From the Dark Ages of Adoption to an Adoption Attuned Approach
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, a birth mom, Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent, and Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adoptee as they revisit informative interviews with a few very special guests over the last year. Asw always, your hosts are committed to looking at the adoption system from the perspective of the triad: from the adoptee, who is the center of the triad, from the birth parent, and from the adoptive parent. Learn more about your ADOPTION MATTERS' hosts and their ICF-approved course Adoption Attuned Coaching Certification Program at . Let's meet our...
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Episode 24: Support Families & Individuals in the Adoption Community... Become an Adoption Attuned Coach!
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Welcome 2026! Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, a birth mom, Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent, and Sharon Butler Obazee, an adopted person, along with the other members of the Growing Intentional Families team as they welcome the New Year. ADOPTION MATTERS continues to be a podcast with real people sharing real life stories and getting real about adoption from all three perspectives of the adoption triad. Today, hosts and guests celebrate and discuss their recently ICF-approved Adoption Attunement Coaching Certification Program designed to elevate the...
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Episode 23: Interview with Open Adoption Advocate and Author, Linda R. Sexton
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, Sally Ankerfelt and Sharon Butler Obazee, as they welcome this month's special guest, adoptive mom and author, Linda R. Sexton. Linda's greatest joy in life remains the parenting and adoption of her two children in 1994 and 1998, both in open arrangements. Back in those days, Linda was a pioneer in handling an open adoption since guidance on the "how to" was unavailable. Yet she and her husband defined a path to stay in contact with all four of her children’s birth parents throughout their lives. Her greatest desire now is to help...
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Vlog 22: ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk with Guest, Simon Benn
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, Sally Ankerfelt and Sharon Butler Obazee, as they welcome this month's special guest, adult adoptee and adoption coach, Simon Benn. Mr. Benn is also the driving force behind the "Thriving Adoptees Podcast." A warm, delightful United Kingdom native, he's an informative guest with helpful positive insight into living life beyond adoption as he shares his own personal journey from anger to acceptance to joy. As an adoption coach, he has assisted adoptive parents and adoptees live life beyond adoption's trauma. As Simon says, his work...
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An Interview with Special Guest Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao, a pioneer in adoption understanding
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, Sally Ankerfelt and Sharon Butler Obazee, as they welcome this month's special guest, adopted person and author, Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao. A warm, delightful guest with great insight into adoption from her own personal experience as well as many years of professional practice. Dr. Pavao shares with her hosts her personal story, one that pushed her forward into advocacy for ethical adoption practices and better training for professionals to become adoption competent. From Dr. Pavao's website: "Dr. Maguire Pavao began her adoption...
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Vlog 20 ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk with Guest Jean Kelly Widner
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, Sally Ankerfelt and Sharon Butler Obazee, for another poignant and informative discussion with this month's special guest, adopted person and author, Jean Kelly Widner. Jean shares her own personal story with your hosts as a well loved, mostly happy adoptee growing up in the small town of Yakima, Washington. "They did everything right and imagine ... and it was the 70s I'm talking about!" Jean says enthusiastically. Yet she realized at some point that indeed, she had a deep and enduring trauma having experienced the loss of her...
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Episode 19 ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk with Guest Sharon McNamara, Ed. D.,
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, Sally Ankerfelt and Sharon Butler Obazee, for a poignant and informative discussion with this month's special guest, adoptee and developmental psychologist, Sharon McNamara. Sharon shares her own personal story as well as her work with members of the adoption constellation. Adopted people and adoptive parents need to understand that the separation of an infant from their first caregiver is a traumatic event and has life-long effects on the adopted person. Adoption may very well be the factor in an adoptee's emotional response...
info_outlineJoin co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, a birth mom, Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent, and Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adoptee as they continue to revisit some special guests over the last year. In each episode, your hosts are committed to looking at the adoption system from the perspective of the triad: from the adoptee, who is the center of the triad, from the birth parent, and from the adoptive parent.
This episode is especially poignant with heartfelt, vulnerable sharing from hosts and their guests. It is not always easy to deal with the grief and loss that adoption brings ... so why is it important that we try? This episode focuses on an important adoption attunement element: Acknowledge the grief and loss of all adoption constellation members.
Learn more about your ADOPTION MATTERS' hosts and their ICF-approved course, the Adoption Attuned Coaching Certification Program, at www.giftfamilyservices.com.
Let's meet our featured special guests for this episode: Sharon Stein McNamara, Ed. D., L.P. has been been practicing as a psychologist since 1991 when she graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and did her internship in cognitive behavioral psychology at McLean Hospital, affiliated with the Harvard Medical School. In addition to this, she is was adopted as an infant and have been studying the effects of adoption on families for over 20 years. Learn more about Sharon McNamara and her work here: www.sharonsteinmcnamara.com
Marcie Keithley: Marcie is an author, advocate for genetic rights, speaker, master storyteller and co-founder of the National Association of Adoptees and Parents (NAAP). She retired as Vice President of Retail Bank Management and Merrill Lynch after serving the financial industry for over 32 years. She and her birth daughter, Jessica, were reunited on Father's Day in 2008. Marcie has written, The Shoebox Effect and Transforming Pain Into Fortitude and Purpose and currently is working on her next memoir, Beautifully Broken, Diary of an NPE, A DNA Surprise. Marcie is also the 2025 recipient of the Growing Intentional Families Together Shaping the Future Award. Learn more about Marcie and her work here: https://naapunited.org/about
Linda R. Sexton: A pathfinder as one of three woman in her engineering class, she then became a pathfinder in the world of open adoption. She is a retired fortune 100 company executive and world business traveler, and after her 37-year career in the energy industry, has now turned to her greater passion of educating on the largely unknown subject of open adoption. Her book, The Branches We Cherish, An Open Adoption Memoir, has garnered the RPLA Unpublished Nonfiction Education GOLD Winner, RPLA Unpublished Book of the Year Second Runner-Up, and the Writers' League of Texas Top 5 General Nonfiction Finalist. Linda is a true champion of honesty and transparency for adoptees. Learn more about Linda R. Sexton here: https://www.lindarsexton.com/the-branches-we-cherish
Elizabeth Barbour: Elizabeth is an adopted person living in reunion with her birth family and 11(!) siblings as well as an adoptive mom. She’s the author of the best selling and award winning, "Sacred Celebrations: Designing Rituals to Navigate Life's Milestone Transitions" and "Smart Self-Care for Busy Women" and co-author of "Faces of Grief: Stories of Putting the Pieces Back Together." She’s presently writing her next book about building thriving relationships in adoption reunion, something she knows a little something about! Learn more about Elizabeth Barbour and her work here: https://elizabethbarbour.com/