As I look forward and prepare for a new series of interviews and posts for Adoption Stories, it seemed like the perfect time to take a look back at some of the diverse voices I've had the pleasure of featuring here. These six approached the topic of adoption from such entirely different angles, I decided to call them out and (re)share--something I'll be doing from time to time.
"Many adoptive parents spend their time during the adoption process demonstrating they are not only going to be fit parents, but super parents, and then they struggle with trying to be the world's best parent when the child is placed in the home...Adoptive parents also may experience feelings about their legitimacy as a parent, or even surprise if they don't readily bond with the infant or child."
—From my interview with Dr. Karen Foley, PhD, faculty at Purdue University, author, The Post-Adoption Blues, published in the post The "Blues" Can Surprise Even Adoptive Parents (5/27/10)
"You go into it with the best of intentions, and there is a selfish aspect. Sometimes it turns out beautifully and terribly and sometimes it's a mixed bag....You can never foresee the outcome, to people never finding each other, to people finding each other who died, people finding each other and connecting a lot, or very frequently people finding each other and the connection and fizzling out. I wanted to honor that you never know which way it's going to go."
—From my interview with film maker Rodrigo Garcia, who talked about parenthood, adoption and the making of his film "Mother and Child" with the idea of adoption as a love story, published in the post Rodrigo Garcia's new film is about far more than adoption (5/5/10)
"It feels like someone died, like your heart and guts are being ripped out, the most excruciating emotional pain you can imagine....The love the decision springs from comes from a deep knowing in your soul from the bottom of your heart to every inch of your being that you might think it's okay to drag yourself through hell financially, physically, and emotionally, but to do it to a child is another story."
—From my interview with Terri Rimmer, who shared her insights and experience here about giving birth, and deciding it was best for her daughter to be adopted by another family. Published in the post, One Woman's Truth: Placing Her Baby for Adoption (4/14/10)
"The most striking thing about Mike Nyberg has always been that he had made the decision to let Elleia go. I think at first pass, when we hear the story, we think good, he did the ethical thing. And then you think about it some more and you try to put yourself in the role of an adoptive parent and it becomes much more of a question - Did he do right by this kid? Did he do right by his own family? I started to wonder if his altruism had backfired - if his rational ethics had overpowered the most basic of parenting urges, to hold and protect. That was the question that drove the story and my investigation - how do you decide what is right when all directions lead to heartbreak?"
—From my interview with Ted Gesing, documentary producer in Brooklyn, NY who works with "Frontline," about his investigative piece on "This American Life," published in, Moral Obligations: Giving a Child Back (7/29/10).
"I think that once you have your child, thinking about his adoption all the time would be like a non-adoptive mom thinking about her pregnancy all the time. What becomes important isn't how your child got there, just that he or she did."
—From my interview with Janis Cooke Newman, author of The Russian Word for Snow, published in, The Waiting (7/29/10)
