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Video Trailers for “Adopted or Abducted?”

Dan Rather Reports: Preview Trailers Dan Rather Reports, “Adopted or Abducted?” will devote the entire hour on Tuesday, May 1st to the heartbreaking accounts of women — most of whom were teens at the time — who were forced to hand their babies over for adoption. In a sweeping and exhaustive six month investigation that spanned from Australia to the United States, producers from Dan Rather Reports conducted nearly one…


Interviewing with Dan Rather Reports

  Dan Rather Investigates Adoption & Coercion Yesterday, April 6th, 2012, I was interviewed by Dan Rather. I usually don’t like writing these kinds of “I’m going here and doing this” kind of thing because it feels insanely self promotional and I end up feeling like a show off and that’s not my intention. However, enough people know and will ask me about it. The one thing I love about…


Australia’s Adoption Apology

What Does the West Australian Adoption Apology Mean? For so many years, we have turned and looked to Austria as a model for adoption. Australia opened their records. Australia changed adoption practices. Australia does not nearly have the same number of domestic infant adoption as the US does proportionally. Australia honors the mother and child, their bond, values motherhood. So very far ahead of us in America, and yet, the…


More of the Amazing Mary Gauthier

  “Before You Leave” an Adoption Story Once again, I find myself happy that I landed in this weird wide adoption world. Yes, I hate that adoption is in my life and probably always will hate how my family was separated. Yet, as always I am so thankful for all the wonderful people that I get to met along this journey. One of those people is Mary Gauthier.


The Adoptee Rights Coalition Needs YOUR Help!

  What happens AFTER the Adoptee Rights Demonstration? The profit in adoption, happened along time ago in most of our lives. As we all know, there is NO money in the work that we do. When it comes to changing laws, the adoption groups are marginalized, underrepresented, ignored, and unfunded. That’s one of the main reasons we have the demonstration at the NCSL Summits. The good old fashioned stick waving chanting protest is…


Lessons in International Adoption

Media Attention of Haiti Adoption Sheds Light on Raw Adoption Truths It seemed like the minute I heard about the earthquake in Haiti, the story was linked to adoption. My poor husband, such a news junkie, started clicking away from the channels when an adoption related story came on. I had to tell him that I would not start screaming at the TV, rather, I knew and expected that when…


Adoptees and Sisters Reality Show Casting Call

Prime Time Reality Show Looking for Adoptees and their Sisters I’m just a passing this on….I DO encourage peope to DO these sorts of things, not becasue you want to be on TV, but becasue the more TURE stories out there.. the more it helps. PLEASE remember to SUPPORT ADOPTEE RIGHTS if, you know, you happen to go for it. Mentioning on TV the reality of adoptees sealed records could…


Make it OK for Adoptees in OK

I was wondering if some first mother’s would mind writing a quick email to the Oklahoma legislators below and please point out that as first mothers you were not “promised” confidentiality, but that it was enforced upon you when you relinquished your children. They are trying to include language about balancing “birthparent privacy” when Judge’s consider an adoptee’s request for their records, in their adoption bill and some of the…


Adoptee Rock Wilk Coming to the Hudson Valley

Kingston Receiving an Emotional Journey of Adoption Truth I love it when the universe comes to a full circle. When I was working on the Blondie Music Video I got to talking to the one of the producers of the local Kingston venue where the video was shot . Now Hudson Valley locals know it as BSP, or Backstage Studio Productions, on Wall Street, right down the block from both…


Adoptee Rights Legislations & Open Records

Restore Unrestricted Equal Access & No One Left Behind One of the major problems in the adoption community is that there is lots of disagreement. After all, adoption is a very emotional subject and one that really incites deep passions and strong beliefs. I’m not even talking about the most obvious sides of the fence: adoptive parents desires to adopt children verses the birthparent loss verses what the adoptee might feel…


A Gift for the Adoption Community!

Adoption News and Events on Facebook So there is a new Facebook Page for Adoption called Adoption News and Events There is a bunch of people from around the adoption community already putting up links to what they find online having to do with adoption. Yes, I picked people who are mad sharers and who seem to be the source for the stuff that we all pass around on Facebook….


Adoptee Records New York Event

I’m leaning towards going to this… The Evan B Donaldson Adoption Institute is holding an event on March 10, 2011, to “heighten public, media and policymaker awareness about the need to restore adopted adults’ right to access their original birth certificates.” I can get down with that. Plus, I like the chance to see Adoption Peeps and Bastards in person! The adoption event will feature the official world premiere of “I’m…


The Loss of Betty Jean Lifton

One cannot begin to understand the truths about adoption and to gain insight into the life of those adopted without hearing about the writings of BJ Lifton. How many times have I heard an adoptee credit her books as a pivotal point in feeling understood or coming to terms regarding their own life experience. As a birthmother, BJ Lifton represented more than an adoptee voice, she was for many THE…


Mothers Finally Teaching the Professionals in Adoption

I don’t know why I haven’t written about this before. I guess things have just been crazy busy this year and until now, it just has not been on my radar. An Academic Adoption Conference in NY Anyway back in the end of March I ran across a link to Sixth Biennial Adoption Conference – Open Arms, Open Minds: The Ethics of Adoption in the 21st Century. Being that it…


BlogHer ’10 Recap: What I Learned

About Myself, About Judgment, About Adoption, About the World. As I said a lot this past weekend at BlogHer ’10 in New York City, I wore a lot of hats. Part of me went to BlogHer as the Dragon Search Social Media Queen and I have a “Marketer’s View of BlogHer” over at the work blog, but part of me went to BlogHer as “Claudia the Adoption Blogger from Grown…