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 www.giftfamilyservices.com.

Let's meet our featured special guests for this episode:

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 today a little of her personal story, one that pushed her forward into advocacy for ethical adoption practices and better training for professionals to become adoption competent. *Learn more about Dr. Maguire Pavao: https://www.pavaoconsulting.com/about *Listen to her podcast: https://familytwistpodcast.com/joyce-maguire-pavao/

April Dinwoodie, advocate for adoption, foster care, and multiracial Families. Relinquished into foster care at birth and adopted by the age of two, Ms. Dinwoodie grew up navigating life as a Black/biracial woman in predominantly white spaces. Her personal journey—shaped by questions of identity, belonging, and family—has fueled her lifelong commitment to embracing empathy, inclusion, and understanding. *Learn more about April at Aprildinwoodie.com

Sharon McNamara, adoptee and developmental psychologist, shares a bit of her own personal story that demonstrates that adoption may very well be the factor in an adoptee's emotional response to a given situation. For adoptive parents, Sharon's philosophy is one that promotes a practice of "unconditional positive regard" as an adoptee works through trauma, grief, loss, rejection, identity, and other issues. Learn more about Sharon McNamara and her work here: www.sharonsteinmcnamara.com

*Learn more about your hosts, Adoption Coaches, Kim, Sally, and Sharon as well as other Growing team members at www.giftfamilyservices.com

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 practice of those working and living in the adoption arena. The Adoption Attuned Coaching lessons, like the coaches who created it -- and your hosts -- are committed to looking at the adoption system from each perspective of the triad: from the adoptee, who is the center of the triad, from the birth parent, and from the adoptive parent.

ADOPTION MATTERS, a podcast with real people sharing real life stories and getting real about adoption from all three perspectives of the adoption triad.

Learn more about your ADOPTION MATTERS' hosts and the ICF-approved course Adoption Attuned Coaching Certification Program at www.giftfamilyservices.com.

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 those who are embarking on this same wonderful and sometimes frightening, unnerving commitment.

Listen to Linda and our hosts discuss the joys and challenges that an open adoption can bring to adoptive parents, their adopted children, and their children's first family.

*Learn more about Linda R. Sexton: https://www.lindarsexton.com/about

*Learn more about your ADOPTION MATTERS' hosts at www.giftfamilyservices.com