An Adoptee's Journey

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Join us to talk with Cam Lee Small about his new book, The Adoptee's Journey: From Loss and Trauma to Healing and Empowerment.
In this episode, we talk about:

• You wrote this book for Christian adoptees. Why that specific audience?
• Adoptees have been objectified, scrutinized, and infantized. Can you give examples of where you see this?
• The narrative surrounding adoption, especially international adoption: you were saved, you are better off, God called us, etc.
• Loss and grief that is inherent in adoption. Ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief.
• Is trauma a part of all adoptions?
• What are the stages of recovery from trauma and how can adoptive, foster, and kinship parents help with this recovery?
• “The cost of gratitude-driven silence is high.”
• I am adopting (kin) a two-year-old girl and planning to keep her basic birth story as part of open conversation. She has details in her story that may be difficult to hear and I would like to keep those from her until she is much much older. Do you agree or disagree with this idea and why? How old were you when you learned your full adoption story?
• Your parents gave you full access to your records, which you could look at with them or alone. Was this helpful, and do you recommend this approach?
• 3-5-7 model for preparing children for permanency
• The reunion experience. Dr. Susan Branco’s seven themes of emotions that participant report from their reunion experience.

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Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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