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

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 with others is "Trauma Informed. Healing Focused. Thriving Obsessed."

Simon Benn was adopted at 5 weeks old and told so young that he doesn't ever remember not knowing. All went well until at age 40 he found out that his teddy bear was a gift from his birth mother. He recalls that that knowledge unleashed feelings of anger, rejection, and being unloved. Yet it kickstarted a profound healing journey for him, finding the amazing truth about Ted and interviewing over 500 people in the adoption world, and helping others thrive.

*Learn more about Simon Benn: https://thrivingadoptees.com/

*Listen to his podcast, Thriving Adoptees: https://thrivingadoptees.com/page-057p-1pst

*Learn more about your ADOPTION MATTERS' hosts 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, 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 journey 78 years ago when she was born and placed for adoption. Growing up in the secretive atmosphere of the 1940s and 50s, she developed a relentless curiosity about her origins, which later inspired her to pursue legal avenues to uncover her birth records—an unusual success story for the era.

Transitioning from a potential medical career, Dr. Maguire Pavao chose to specialize in psychology at Harvard, focusing on adoption and foster care. She pioneered clinics that dealt exclusively with adoption-related issues, advocating for ethical practices and training professionals to be adoption-competent. Her clinics were unique for not being affiliated with adoption agencies, avoiding potential conflicts of interest.

She has also been an influential advocate for changing adoption laws, particularly concerning access to original birth certificates. Her efforts contributed to policy changes that aim to improve the transparency and ethical handling of adoption processes."

*Learn more about Dr. Maguire Pavao: https://www.pavaoconsulting.com/about

*Listen to her podcast: https://familytwistpodcast.com/joyce-maguire-pavao/

*Learn more about your hosts at www.giftfamilyservices.com

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