The Premiere Episode of ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Release Date: 03/20/2024
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...
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Episode 18 ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk with Special Guest Elizabeth Barbour
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Join co-hosts and adoption coaches, Sally Ankerfelt and Gayle Swift, both adoptive parents, for another enlightening discussion with this month's special guest, Elizabeth Barbour. Elizabeth brings a lot of experience to the table both as an adoptee reunited with her birth family and as an adoptive mom. Tune in to hear Elizabeth's wisdom and lived experience navigating reuniting with her birth family and parenting as an adoptive mom. Elizabeth Barbour 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...
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Episode 17: Three Fathers Share Their Reflections About Fathering on Father's Day
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Join co-hosts and adoption coaches, Sharon Butler-Obazee (an adopted person) and Sally Ankerfelt (an adoptive parent) for another lively discussion about Father's Day. First aired in June of 2024, we thought we should bring these three amzing men back in honor of Father's Day 2025. Being a dad in adoption can be complicated! Tune in to hear an adoptee, birth dad, and adoptive father (also an adoption professional) get real as they discuss the joys and the challenges of being a father in adoption. Thank you to our special guests, adoptive father, Truong Chinh Duong; birth/first father, Thomas...
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Episode 16: Mother's Day Reflections
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
This is a rebroadcast of last year's Mother's Day episode honoring and celebrating this special day for mothers. Listen to birth mothers, adoptees, and an adoptive dad share heartfelt feelings and maybe even some complicated thoughts about mothers. Join hosts, adoptive parent, Sally Ankerfelt and Adopted Person, Sharon Butler-Obazee, as they acknowledge not only Mother's Day on May 11 but also honor and celebrate Birth Mother's Day, on the Saturday before -- this year, May 10. As always, your hosts seek to bring a tri-spective view that encompasses the adoption experience of those who...
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Episode 15 Resilience, Leadership & Service as Pathways to Healing with Special Guest Marcie Keithley
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Welcome to ADOPTION MATTERS, a podcast with real people sharing real stories and getting real about adoption from all three perspectives of the adoption triad. Join coaches, Kim Noeth, one of your co-hosts, and a birth mother, along with Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adopted person, and Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent as they explore difficult topics and share frank conversations guided by our commitment to truth-telling and truth-seeking. Today, we honor as the recipient for her work in encouraging dialog and understanding between the members of the adoption constellation. The Shaping the...
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Episode 14 "Blind Spots" in Adoptive Parenting
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Welcome to ADOPTION MATTERS, a podcast with real people sharing real stories and getting real about adoption from all three perspectives of the adoption triad. Join coaches, Kim Noeth, one of your co-hosts, and a birth mother, along with Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adopted person, and Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent as they explore difficult topics and share frank conversations guided by our commitment to truth-telling and truth-seeking. Today's episode features April Dinwoodie: Advocate for Adoption, Foster Care, and Multiracial Families. Relinquished into foster care at birth and adopted by...
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Episode 13: What's Love Got to Do with It?
ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk
Valentine's Day is upon us once again. Love is supposed to be "in the air." But what if it isn't. Today, our hosts, birth mom Kim Noeth, adoptee Sharon Obazee, and adoptive parent, Sally Ankerfelt are joined by adoptive parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift, discuss the idea that love is sometimes an obligation. As always, their discussion is infused with a Tri-spective view that gives voice to all three members of the adoption triad.
info_outlineWelcome to Adoption Matters, a podcast with real people sharing real stories and getting real about adoption from all three perspectives of the adoption triad.
I'm Kim Noeth, one of your co-hosts, and a birth mother, along with Sharon Butler Obazee, an adoptee and Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent. Together we explore difficult topics and share frank conversations. guided by our commitment to truth-telling and truth-seeking. In each episode we discuss important issues using adoption attuned principles to help us navigate even the most sensitive topics with grace and respect. Together, we model courageous communication, and help create a community where anxiety can be reduced, and mutual understanding prevails.
In our first episode, Growing Intentional Families Together announces the creation of its first Shaping the Future Award to acknowledge the efforts of individuals and organizations committed to encouraging dialog across the adoption constellation. Our adoption coaching firm believes that a fuller view of adoption complexity grows a more complete picture, strengthens relationships and honors the individual’s personal experiences. We award the 2024 Shaping the Future Award to Isaac Etter for his efforts on behalf of transracial adoptees to grow communication, nurture understanding, and further ADOPTION ATTUNED PARENTING PRACTICES, policies, and education within adoptive families and the adoption community.
Joins us for each episode of ADOPTION MATTERS. Whether you are an adoptee, a birth or adoptive parent, or a member of the adoption constellation, we are excited to share our stories, insights and support.