S12, Ep. 15: Samantha

Samantha (Sam) Shields was born in San Francisco in 1970 and adopted from foster care as an infant. She grew up in nearby Napa knowing she was adopted, and provided many of the same platitudes as a lot of other adopted people: She wanted you to have a better life. She did what was best for you because she loved you. But Sam was certain something was wrong with her. Why else had she been placed for adoption? Failure to bond with her adoptive mom and her adoptive dad's death when she was seven meant that Sam often fantasized about meeting her original mom. After a years-long search, Sam finally located her original mom in 1997 at the age of twenty-seven and was reunited with her until her mother's death in 2020. The relationship was both challenging and rewarding. Both she and her original mom carried the shame of what happened, making self-acceptance hard. Studies back this up: many adoption reunions break down within the first few years after making contact, and after eight years, nearly half of those in an adoption reunion have abandoned the relationship altogether. Ultimately, what allowed Sam to find acceptance in herself was by facing her father, the man who had sexually violated her mother. Sam is currently at work on a memoir about her experience of reuniting with her original mother.

Samantha on YouTube

S12, Ep. 14: Gabriel

Originally from Chicago, Gabriel is an adult adoptee, street dancer, reconnecting P’urhépecha native, founder of MoFundamentals - the only foster-adoptee-led dance program in the U.S.- and artivist dedicated to highlighting the resiliency of the foster-adoptee community in Los Angeles. His work includes visibilizing powerful narratives rooted in foster care memory while honoring P’urhépecha and street dance culture in conversation with lessons of manhood; experiencing houselessness; being his own financial safety net; and, through dance healing, processing the loss of his little sister.

Across 14 years, his contributions at the intersection of dance artivism, healing practices, and foster youth advocacy have led to: training at intensives hosted by Rennie Harris (founder of the first and longest running hip-hop dance touring company), hosting the first foster-adoptee dance festival in the U.S., representing LA City District 1 as an ACTIVATE Cultural Policy Fellow, recruitment to pilot re-entry through performing arts programs, and being a 2022 DanceUSA Fellow, and being a 2024-2025 MAP Grantee to visibilize P’urhépecha, foster-adoptee, street dance narratives.

Check out our MoFundamentals website here

Check out our work here!

Gabriel on YouTube

S12, Ep. 13: Lynn

Born & adopted in 1970 as an infant, Lynn always knew she was adopted. Told the sweet stories of being chosen & special. Lynn’s story later revealed many secrets & lies. Lynn grew up in a middle-class family with both parents, teachers & a brother 8 years older, biological to her adoptive parents. The secret revealed at 16 yrs old was that this was a kinship adoption & she’d known her birth mother her whole life; only as a cousin, not her birth mother. So she didn’t have a reunion but more of a reintroduction to her BM.

Through DNA, she later found her BF in 2019 at age 49 & the last puzzle piece she desired for many years. Only to bring more secrets & lies revealed. This reunion started well, but has unfortunately faded. Both relationships with BM & BF are broken with a second rejection.

Lynn is also an adoptive parent with her husband of 37 years & shares the journey with her daughter’s birth mother in an open adoption.

 Lynn’s heart is for clear truth for adoptees & education for adoptive parents before adopting. It’s not a blank slate.

Lynn on YouTube

S12, Ep. 12: Mary Lynn

Mary Lynn was born in March of 1966 and spent her first ten months in foster care before being adopted and brought to Pittsburgh as an infant. Her foster mother later sent a heartfelt letter to her adoptive parents, carefully recording early milestones—first steps, first words, favorite foods—clear signs that Mary Lynn was well loved from the very beginning. Still, one question stayed with her as she grew up: why hadn’t she gone home from the hospital with her adoptive family? The explanations she received never quite felt complete.

Decades later, with curiosity and a sense that time mattered, Mary Lynn decided to look for answers. Despite the challenges of closed adoption records, she began researching, taking DNA tests, joining online communities, and sharing her story publicly. For years, she followed leads with patience and persistence.

Then one evening, a simple online post changed everything—a birthmother searching for a daughter born in March 1966, with details that closely matched Mary Lynn’s own. With help from experienced search volunteers, connections were made, and DNA confirmed long-held questions about her biological parents.

Meeting her birthmother was meaningful and emotional, even as it revealed a complicated family history and long-kept misunderstandings. Over time, Mary Lynn chose balance and peace, carrying forward the clarity she had gained.

Most importantly, the journey gave her a new purpose. Guided by others who had helped her, today Mary Lynn is a search angel, paying forward the gift of truth, connection, and hope.

Mary Lynn on YouTube

S12, Ep. 11: Diane

Adopted as an infant by a naval officer and his wife during the Baby Scoop Era, Diane Wheaton has always heard conflicting versions of the truth of her origins — but it’s not until she is forty-seven years old that she begins to search for her biological family in earnest. Amid search and reunion, however, Diane’s adoptive parents become ill — and while overseeing their care, she is told about a secret they have kept from her for over fifteen years. This shocking disclosure complicates her already complicated feelings for them, and she finds herself faced with an important decision — one that feels almost impossible to make, but which results in a level of healing she never could have anticipated.

A touching memoir of self-discovery, Finding Loretta is Diane’s tale of searching for history, roots, and family. Ultimately, she comes to accept the two distinct dynamics of the families who have helped make her who she is today, and in doing so, she learns to embrace herself and feel grateful for everything she has experienced — even loss.

Diane lives in Southern California with her husband and two Siamese-mix cats. Diane is a member of the National Association of Memoir Writers and was a contributing author to the AN-YA Project’s adult adoptee anthology, Flip the Script.  Finding Loretta has recently been named a finalist in the 38th Annual IBPA Book Award in Parenting and Family.

dianewheaton.com

Diane on YouTube

S12, Ep. 10: Jae

Jae Carelli was adopted from Korea at 5 months old and is the oldest of 5 children adopted from Korea through Holt International. They grew up in New Jersey and Cape Cod, and attended the Boston Conservatory at Berklee for their Bachelor's. They struggled with mental health issues as a child and young adult, which sent them on a journey, reckoning with their adoption, through multiple unsuccessful search attempts. Jae is now living in Brooklyn, NY, and works as a vocalist, musician, songwriter, and voice pedagogue whose work examines duality and identity through voice and sound. Jae navigates the space across binaries to explore the capabilities of voice as one of the key markers of identity, which guides their artistic expression as a transracial adoptee and their research with trans/gender non-conforming singers in their Master’s program with the Voice Study Centre. Last year, they released an album, American Doll, and premiered their show solo, Homeward Bound: a Korean Adoptee exploring the longing for belonging in 2025, using the 7 core issues of adoption as the concept for the projects. You can find more about Jae at jae-ci.com

Jae on YouTube

S12, Ep. 9: Virginia

Virginia McQueen Laney is an adoptee in a blended family who is building meaningful work through an adoptee- and queer-centered collaborative practice. Her work extends beyond individual mental health to include advocacy for adoptee rights, collaboration with tribal communities, and serving the LGBTQIA2+ community. She is the founder of the Bozeman Identity Counseling Center. She holds a Master of Science in Clinical Counseling Psychology and is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor.

Live Podcast Event with Virginia on YouTube

S12, Ep. 8: Alex

At the age of sixty, Alex Blum made a life-altering discovery: he was the eldest of four biological
brothers he never knew existed. Born in 1955, Blum had always known he was adopted, yet the
secrecy of the era kept every detail of his origins sealed. Without a court order, he spent decades
without a single clue about where he came from—or why he had been given up.
Raised by a wealthy family on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Blum grew up surrounded by privilege
but plagued by a deep sense of disconnection. He often felt out of place and emotionally unmoored,
longing for a sense of belonging that never arrived.
Having built a career helping others tell their stories—first for brands as a commercial producer and
then as a feature film producer with credits including Behind Enemy Lines and Flight of the
Phoenix for 20th Century Fox—Blum finally turns the camera on himself in An Accident of Birth.
More than a memoir of adoption and reunion, An Accident of Birth explores the universal emotional
landscape shared by adoptees everywhere. With candid, affecting prose, Blum examines the
pressures of “adoptee gratitude,” the quiet ache of alienation, and the lifelong search for identity,
connection, and home.

Alex on YouTube

S12, Ep. 7: Lisa

Dr. Lisa Chism is the Clinical Director of the Oakland Macomb Center for Breast Health. She holds four specialty certifications, including Menopause Practitioner through The Menopause Society, Sexuality Counselor through the American Association of Sexuality Therapists, Counselors and Therapists, and Breast Care certification through the Oncology Nursing Society after 15 years of caring for breast cancer survivors and patients at high risk for breast cancer. This past year, she also earned certification as a trauma-informed care practitioner.

Dr. Chism has established a dedicated menopause and sexual health clinic, caring for the menopausal and sexual health needs of women with a history of breast cancer or those at elevated risk. She has authored numerous publications in women’s healthcare, including serving as lead author of The Menopause Society’s 2023 non-hormonal position statement. She guest lectures at universities across the country, and her textbook, The Doctor of Nursing Practice: A Guidebook for Role Development and Professional Issues, is now in its fifth edition.

Dr. Chism is a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and was named Menopause Practitioner of the Year in 2011. She previously served on the Board of Directors for the North American Menopause Society and on a federal advisory committee with the CDC focused on breast cancer in young women. In October 2021, she was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

Most recently, Dr. Chism published her memoir, The Adopted Nurse, and remains passionate about the care of adoptees through a healthcare professional lens.

Lisa on YouTube

S12, Ep. 6: Mioara

Born into Roma heritage and adopted at just six weeks old, Mioara was raised by a Canadian/New Zealand family, growing up between cultures while carrying a quiet curiosity about her own origins.

In 2018, with the help of her father-in-law, she reconnected with her biological parents—an experience that reshaped her understanding of identity, belonging, and the unseen threads that connect us. Through that journey, Mioara discovered she had a younger sister who had also been relinquished at birth and adopted to Canada. This is when the search for her baby bio sister began. 

In 2025, she and her sister found their way to each other. What began as a virtual meeting quickly became something far more profound—they met in person just two weeks later. What could have felt unfamiliar instead felt immediate and deeply known, an unexplainable sense of recognition that defied time and circumstance.

Mioraa’s story is one of duality—of being both rooted and searching, of loss and reconnection, and of discovering that identity is not defined by a single path, but by the courage to embrace every part of it.

Mioara on YouTube

S12, Ep. 5: Jeff

Jeff was born in San Francisco in October 1962. He was relinquished at birth and placed with his adoptive family three months later, in January 1963. His family moved from the Bay Area to Southern California when he was five years old. His older sister was also adopted, and both children grew up in a caring, loving home. They were informed of their adoptions at an early age, and the topic was always discussed positively anytime afterward. Nevertheless, specific challenges often faced by adopted children led to behavioral issues for Jeff as a teen. Chameleon syndrome's survival mechanism existed strongly in Jeff, and his self-perceived failure to replicate the behaviors, emotions, and interests of those around him led to struggles with shame and substance abuse. Years later, a conversation with a colleague who had an adopted child enlightened Jeff to the PTSD associated with adoption and helped him reconcile his conflicted adolescence. Discovery of legal adoption documents and non-identifying information following his adoptive mother's death in 2004 piqued Jeff’s interest in his biological family. Research went slowly at first, but took off quickly after another colleague introduced him to 23andme in 2017. Immersive exploration led to ancestral revelations, and meetings with aunts and cousins led to some big surprises.

Jeff on YouTube

S12, Ep. 4: Greta

Born in 1968 in Fargo, ND, during the Baby Scoop Era, Greta spent a month in foster care before being adopted. She was never touched or held by her first mother. Greta was raised in a dysfunctional family, which contributed to her pain and the deep loss she felt, wondering who her first mother was and why she didn't want her. Shrouded in secrecy, adoption was never discussed, and Greta retreated into the Ghost Kingdom — finding refuge in basketball and creativity. Greta received a full-ride college basketball scholarship and majored in theatre, people-pleasing, and perfectionism. She was plagued by feelings of loneliness. She found her first mother and father in 1989 and learned her first mother had had her at 16 and had been sent to a home for unwed mothers. Greta has two full-blood siblings and two half-brothers.

Reunion was initially a fairytale, and although that ended abruptly, she stayed in reunion for over 30 years. She is currently estranged from her first mother and her sister. Greta has worked as an actor in Los Angeles and Phoenix and spent many years in the public defender system as a paralegal. She lives in Phoenix with her husband and rescue dog, Gilda, and credits the connection with other adoptees as lifesaving. Greta has been in recovery from anorexia since 2022. She has written and performed her one-woman show,  “Searching for Me in All the Wrong Places,”  in Los Angeles and is currently writing a new solo play about her adoption journey.

Greta on YouTube

S12, Ep. 3: Raven

Raven was born in 1949 in North Hollywood, CA. Released at five days old to the delivering doctor and his wife, she has no idea where she went or when her adoptive parents got her.

Raised in Balboa, CA, she always knew she was adopted because she was told her mother had died, giving birth to her.
This story left Raven anxious, guilty, and fearful throughout her growing-up years- that others would die, and she would be alone.

Her adoption into the family was difficult, unloving, and emotionally abusive by her adoptive mother. Though her dad loved her, being 47 years old, his generation didn’t really know how to show love.

At 16, Raven was sent away to an island in British Columbia to live with strangers for 13 months and to attend 11th grade. Out of sight, out of mind.

When she was in her early 30s, her oldest adoptive brother shared with her that her biological mother hadn’t died when she was born.

This news left her in shock and numb… talk about being thrown into a deep fog! Though Raven’s whole life history was about death, lies, abandonment, lack of trust, she’s gone on to find she has a deep desire, after the death of her husband, to sit with the dying.~ that it’s important and a gift, that we make death as meaningful as birth.

At 77, she’s still learning who she is and works at Home Health and Hospice as a Remote Patient Monitoring Technician. A job she loves.

Raven on YouTube

S12, Ep. 2: Valorie

Valorie was born in New Jersey, she was relinquished at birth and placed with her adopted family at 2 months old.  There were many difficulties and challenges growing up, it certainly was not a fairytale childhood.  Some of the challenges included not bonding with her adopted mother, problems at school with other children and authority figures, drug and alcohol addiction in her teen years.  Despite these difficulties she found sobriety at an early age, moved out at the age of 19 and started the journey of healing.  Although she did not actively search in her younger years, her biological family was often on her mind, and she desired to search but did not know how to go about it.  After feeling more urgency to search in later years she finally had an amazing break and found both sides of her biological family in one weekend by totally different avenues.  She has been in reunion with both her birth mother and birth father along with many other members of his side of the family since 2024, which although scary at first, has been an incredible journey that is still unfolding.  For Valorie the fairytale came later, the rainbow after the storm.

Valorie on YouTube

S12, Ep. 1: Emma

Emma was born in Tennessee in 1989 and flown home just two days later — on Valentine’s Day. As a child, her adoption seemed more like a fairytale than a lived experience. Growing up in the country in an old farmhouse in the rolling blue hills of Western Massachusetts, she spent most days drawing, writing, or exploring the fields and woods. Despite her home and her loving and creative family, she began to experience persistent anxiety and depression that worsened with age.

Meeting her birth mother at around twenty set off a cascade of often severe mental health challenges and a long search for understanding. Over the fifteen years that followed, she unraveled defenses and began to face the hard truths inherent in her story — the hard truths the “chosen baby” narrative had so neatly disguised.

Emma on YouTube

S11, Finale: Monica Hall, Jesse Scott & Liz Harvie

Season 11 concludes with Monica Hall, Jesse Scott, and Liz Harvie discussing their powerful books - Practically Still a Virgin, You Can’t Get Rid of Me, and Unspoken - and exploring the many layers of the adoptee experience. In a deep and honest conversation with hosts Sarah Reinhardt and Louise Browne, themes of identity, belonging, truth, and voice are thoughtfully examined.

Each book offers a distinct and compelling adoptee perspective, contributing meaningfully to the broader adoption narrative.

Season Finale on YouTube

S11, Ep. 37: Maria

Maria was born and raised in the SF Bay Area in a hippie town full of diversity and freedom.  Her journey began in a temporary foster home until she was adopted at about four months old from the Children's Home Society to parents who already had three older kids, all boys.  Her adoptive parents divorced when she was three, but co-parented as best they could.  She had a lifelong interest in her creation story, specifically why her olive skin was so different from her adoptive brothers. She always felt distinctly different.  When she was seven, her father gave her the "adoption" speech, "we chose you, you're not biologically ours, etc..  It never felt like enough information.  Her search took many twists and turns, considering it was before the internet, so the journey was a bit longer, but determination prevailed.  She never stopped looking in every corner for clues. Many years later, she fit the puzzle together.  While she still struggles with identity, the answered curiosities proved to calm some of the anxiety.  She now devotes time to discovering all about adoption and how it has formed her life.  Maria still resides in the Bay Area with her three adult kids and two grandkids.

 Maria on YouTube

S11, Ep. 36: Jan

In 1954, Jan was born in a Quaker unwed mother's home. She was relinquished at birth, and her adoptive parents and brother became her world. When Jan turned 38, she was inundated with what she calls "nudges" to locate birth mother. Meeting her birth mother and biological family led to a complex and incredible balancing act because both adoptive and biological families lived in the same city, She considers it a journey worth taking.

After retiring from her years of working in a classroom setting with children dealing with a variety of complex emotional and behavior issues, she decided to organize all the journals she enjoyed writing as a youngster growing up in northwest Ohio. Jan's passion for researching the details of her story heightened the desire to write her adoption story in the memoir, Finding the Rest of Me.

Jan's book details her journey to uncover her roots and discover her true identity. It's also a captivating exploration of the Friends Rescue Home, where she was born. It delves into the home's rich history and fascinating evolution, shedding light on a little-known aspect of the past. A vivid picture is composed of this providential institution and the women who found shelter within its walls, beginning in 1905.

She resides in her country home on the cliff above the Kentucky River in central Kentucky, surrounded by her husband, animals, and nature. When she's not writing, she enjoys being in the woods, hiking or on the water, kayaking.

Jan on YouTube 

S11, Ep. 35: Neshia

Neshia, short for Teneshia, is from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was apprehended from her biological mother due to neglect and entered the child welfare system as a Crown ward in the late 1980s. After being adopted in the early 1990s, she was later remade a Crown ward again in the mid to late 1990s. The systems meant to protect her did not simply fail—they turned away.

Neshia is of mixed race and identifies as Black. Her story lives at the intersection of race, silence, and survival. Within child welfare systems that lacked cultural safety, accountability, and care, she learned early what it meant to endure rather than be protected. What happened to her was not a series of unfortunate moments—it was systemic abandonment.

For years, Neshia carried her truth quietly, holding pain that was never hers to hold. Listening to others speak their stories helped her understand that her own voice mattered and that healing could begin with being heard.

Now almost 40, Neshia is a mother of four and a foster mother by choice. She is raising children while healing herself, rooted in trauma-informed therapy and intentional care. Her life’s work is breaking cycles, reclaiming her voice, and becoming the safety she once searched for.

Neshia on YouTube

S11, Ep. 34: Kelley

Kelly Jean Torres is an author, singer-songwriter, and trauma-informed storyteller whose work explores what it means to survive and heal. Raised in a web of foster care, domestic violence, addiction, and emotional neglect, Kelly grew up learning how to disappear in order to stay safe.

Born in Illinois and now based in Nashville, Tennessee, Kelly’s early life was shaped by instability and fear, but also by a fierce internal will to survive. Removed from her biological parents as an infant and raised in by volatile foster parents who ultimately adopted her, she learned early that love was conditional, and safety was fragile.

After decades of therapy, self-inquiry, and spiritual exploration, Kelly began to revisit the memories she spent a lifetime keeping at arm’s length. Saving the Lost Girl is her first memoir, written with the belief that facing the past is the only way to reclaim the future.

In addition to her writing, Kelly is a musician and lives with her husband and two children. Through her work, she hopes to remind others that no matter how our story began, we get to write our own ending.

Kelly on YouTube