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 first mother at birth. There was no getting around the fact that while she had wonderful, loving, and supportive adoptive parents for which she was grateful, adoption's pall of grief hovered over her. It is true, she posits, adoptees can have a "good adoption" and still suffer emotional pain that is part and parcel of any adoption. Jean has found healing and purpose, in writing and talking about the adoption experience of herself and others.

Learn more about Jean and her work here: https://adoptionparadox.com/about-h/about-jean-kelly-widner/

From Jean's website: Jean Kelly Widner is the author of The Adoption Paradox: Putting Adoption into Perspective, a Powerful Exploration of the Complex Realities of Adoption. Born in 1965 and adopted from birth in Washington State, Jean lives the paradox she writes about, experiencing both love and loss, belonging and separation. In her book, she shares stories from all sides of the adoption triad: adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive families, alongside insights from mental health experts.

Jean brings clarity and compassion to a subject often wrapped in silence and misconception. With a background as a marketing consultant and joint venture affiliate marketing expert, she and her husband have built and sold two successful e-commerce companies. She also owns a local news and storytelling blog in Boulder City, Nevada, where her love of writing continues to grow.

Jean lives in Southern Nevada with her husband and two dogs, and often escapes the desert heat in their camper van, where they work remotely and explore new places. Through her writing, she invites readers to see adoption not as a simple narrative of rescue or loss-but as a layered, human experience that deserves honesty, empathy, and ethical reflection.

Jean Kelly Widner can be reached at PO Box 61072, Boulder City, Nevada, 89006; On facebook at facebook@AdoptionParadox; and at medium.com/@jean_36017

Reach your hosts and adoption coaches at Growing Intentional Families Together

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 to a given situation. And for adoptive parents, it is most important to develop a practice of "unconditional positive regard" as your adoptee works through trauma, grief, loss, rejection, identity, etc.

Sharon's approach to children and families is to help the child and family understand that most children have some version of relational trauma as a result of being adopted. By accepting this as a starting place, the adoptive parents can understand better how an adopted or foster child may have different reactions to so-called “normal” parenting practices. She also tries to help families understand the big picture regarding how information is always useful in helping adoptees and foster children make sense of their situation.

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

Learn more about the adoption coaches at Growing Intentional Fmailies Together: giftfamilyservices.com

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 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's expereinced joyfully in her own life and excited to share with others.

Elizabeth is also a speaker, life and business coach, and retreat leader focused on women's wellness and life/work balance for professional women. An entrepreneur for 25 years and a mom for 14, Elizabeth understands all too well the necessity for professional women to employ smart self-care strategies to increase their success and maintain their sanity at the same time!

Learn more about Elizabeth Barbour

Learn more about your hosts at Growing Intentional Families Together

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 Cast; and Anthony Hynes, Ph.d., an adoptee and adoption professional with the Center for Adoption Support and Education and is an Adoption Training and Content Development Specialist. Their willingness to share their wisdom and experience is greatly appreciated.

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 have been adopted, adoptive parents, and birth mothers. It's 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 Marcie J. Keithley as the 2025 Shaping the Future Award recipient for her work in encouraging dialog and understanding between the members of the adoption constellation. The Shaping the Future Award acknowledges the efforts of individuals and organizations committed to encouraging dialog across the adoption constellation because we know that a fuller view of adoption complexity gives a more complete picture of the adoption experience. When we see more completely, relationships can be strengthened and people can grow in their understanding and care for another person’s experience, especially understanding the adoption person’s experience, which is front-and-center. Ms. Keithley's work surely embodies those goals and aspirations!

Marcie J. Keithley, 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.

Ms. Keithley co-founded the Indiana Adoptee Network and has testified multiple times throughout the years in support of OBC access for the sister organization, H.E.A.R. (Hoosier For Equal Access to Records), where she served as Vice President. She also hosts the twice-monthly, Friday night virtual event, Adoption Happy Hour, with a global audience from across the adoption constellation. Her journey took a dramatic turn in the fall of 2023 when an intended DNA test to search for more Keithley family members resulted in a DNA surprise that would alter her world: she had no biological connections to the Keithleys. Similar to an LDA, she discovered at the age of 68 that she was raised by non-biological people.

An author, Ms. Keithley has written, The Shoebox Effect: Transforming Pain Into Fortitude and Purpose and currently is working on her next memoir, Beautifully Broken, Diary of an NPE, A DNA Surprise. Whether you are an adopted person, a birth parent or adoptive parent, or a member of the adoption constellation, we are excited to share our stories, insights and support. Thank you for joining, “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 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.

As the host of two podcasts, "Born in June, Raised in April: What Adoption Can Teach the World!" and "Calendar Conversations: A Guide for Adoptive Parents," April promotes dialogue about identity, family, and cultural differences. A former Chief Executive of the Donaldson Adoption Institute (DAI), she has led national adoption reform initiatives and founded AdoptMent, a mentoring program for adopted and foster youth.

Currently, she serves as Executive Director of Transracial Journeys, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Lead at Steven Madden, LTD, facilitates adoption affinity/support groups in schools, consults on federal child welfare grants, and serves on advisory boards within the adoption community.

April has been sharing her experiences nationally and internationally for over 25 years as a keynote speaker and presenter, including engagements with the UPMC Hospital System and the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption/Wendy’s Wonderful Kids Summit. Learn more at Aprildinwoodie.com.

Whether you are an adoptee, a birth parent or adoptive parent, or a member of the adoption constellation, we are excited to share our stories, insights and support. Thank you for joining, “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.