FINDING HOME – My Journey Director, writer, actor, athlete, producer… I’ve been called all of these, and yet, at times, I’ve felt like none of them. For years, I couldn’t quite define who I was—and eventually, I realized that’s because I didn’t really know myself. I was always searching. I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,…

Hi, I’m Alexis <3. I’m a transracial, domestic, and infant adoptee born in CA and raised in WA. This involved predominantly white spaces and a lot of time spent at church (IYKYK). I’ve had the unique experience of an open adoption, knowing my biological mother since infancy-”two sides to every coin” applies well to this…

Angela was born in Tennessee and raised in Washington State. She was adopted from foster care with a diagnosis of spastic quadriplegia and was labeled a “failure to thrive.” Drawn to providing for her medical needs, her adoptive parents welcomed her into a large family with seven other children who were also adopted specifically to…

In October of 1971, April’s mother of origin, Helen June, a 33 yr old single mother of three, gave birth to and named her June Elizabeth.  June was her maternal grandmother’s first name – everyone called her “June Bug”. Soon after she was born, she was placed in temporary foster care while Helen took some…

Badly Licked Bear is a transracial/transcultural adoption survivor. They grew up and live in Los Angeles and work as an educator, mutual aid worker, writer, and artist. At birth, they were purchased in a private party adoption, and have no contact with their biological family. Like many private party adoptees, their original birth certificate, with…

Brad Ewell is adopted. + While this story began in 1970, it didn’t start for me until March 15, 2019.  My wife, Pam, and I were out for a lunch date.  She had been talking with a woman who had reached out through Ancestry trying to figure out how I was related to her.  I…

Actor Brian Stanton was born, adopted & raised in Kansas City. At age 23, he reunited with his birth mother. Upon reuniting, she shared the dark possibility that Brian was most likely born from a non-consensual situation with 3 boys in high school. After 10 years of living with monster fantasies of a rapist father,…

Chris was adopted around age of 4 – 4 ½ years old, number “3” of 4 kids in the adopted family. 10 months after he was adopted the adopted father suddenly died at age 30. He was removed by the county and eventually ended up with the adopted father’s younger brother (Chris’s uncle) for 2…

In 2009, during a late-night internet search, Chris Valdheims discovered a website dedicated to his grandfather – Latvian geometric artist and philosopher Zanis Waldheims. Since being adopted from foster care at seven years old, Chris knew little about what had happened to his biological family. The site he found held many answers – but raised…

Chris Williams, a domestic infant adoptee (yes, that’s the very technical term), prefers calling himself “thrifted” rather than adopted because, well, he thinks it’s funny. That’s key to him, as he’s a stand-up comic who channels his experiences as an adoptee and his ADHD adventures into his material, creating a space for others to laugh…

I am a Los Angeles news anchor. For decades I’ve been telling other people’s stories. In 2024 I started to uncover my own.  I’m known as Christine Devine. I anchor the 5 and 10pm news on Fox 11(KTTV). Devine, however, is my adopted name. I was born to a single mother in the 1960’s. When she…

“Let me go back to the beginning.” As a storyteller, this is something I always say. It makes my stories long, but it adds context. Ironically, I never knew the beginning of my own story — who I was or where I came from. Born in California in 1962, I was relinquished at birth and…

Damon is the host of the “Who Am I Really?” podcast, where adopted people share their stories of adoption and their attempts to find their biological families. The show was born out of Damon sharing his adoption and reunion experiences and occasionally encountering other adoptees who shared their unique, sometimes troubling recount of their adoption…

Dan Matthews is a Korean-Adoptee from Southern California, currently based in Los Angeles.  Dan has been lucky enough to work as a musician most of his life, performing as an indie rap artist. Most of his songs are about identity, love, and life – inspired by much of his adoption experience. Dan is also a…

My name is David DeMarco and I am an adoptee born in 1971. In another life I would have been Ryan Gremillion, though that universe ceased to exist the day I was born. Being the child of an unwed 16 year old certainly would have brought upon a negative social status and shame to the…

I am Deedee Burnett, and I’m adopted. My parents acquired me at 8 years of age, after having been in and out of half a dozen foster homes. I was also in and out of my birth mother’s care as she struggled to regulate. She struggled with self medicating, struggled to fit into the narrative…

Since finding out I’m a Late Discovery Adoptee, it has been a challenge when people keep secrets from me and aren’t transparent and authentic. For 23 years of my life I didn’t know I was adopted and it is still surreal for me. Unfortunately, legal decisions were made for us as infants and we didn’t…

Being an adoptee is an identity that I have always known and have always carried. It is an identity that will likely outlive me. I was born in 1968 at Florence Crittenton’s Home for Unwed Mothers in Kansas City, Missouri. My birthmother was 19 years old when she was placed there by her family. I…

Eden Alpert was born in May of 1966 during the Great Baby Scoop era. She was adopted through Vista Del Mar, which was, at the time, an all Jewish Family and Child non-profit service agency. She was blessed to be chosen by a family who knew they wanted a little Jewish girl. Many might think…

Elisa Nickerson was born in Connecticut in 1971. Her relinquishment and adoption were handled by Catholic Charities. All information about her birth parents,original birth certificate, foster care for her first 3 months were all sealed and remained unavailable for most of her life. Elisa was adopted and raised by loving parents who were open and…

Being adopted is such a unique thing. For most, hopefully it’s a blessing and a chance at a life that you may not have had otherwise. That is definitely the case for me, a real gift. I was born on September 10th, 1976 in Poona, India. My birth mother was in her mid twenties and…

Exercising the inherent right to know and tell my story has been a hard won battle. Sharing my story has invariably subjected me to prurient voyeurism and pernicious response due to culturally conditioned false narratives held tightly around the family separation experience. The search for my story began with attempts to telepathically communicate with my…

At the age of 41, my foundation was swept away by the slip of a tongue at a family gathering of about 250 extended family members.  I discovered I was adopted as an infant.  It wasn’t until I contacted the State of Wisconsin the following week to find out my factual identity that the second…

I’m a domestic adoptee, born and adopted in California in 1969. I found out at age ten, having asked in a frantic bid for reassurance if I was adopted, like the character I was watching on TV. Something unrestful swam just beneath the surface of conscious awareness. “Mom! I’m not adopted, am I?” And then…

I’m half adopted and one of my son’s is adopted. I was born in England and my parents divorced when I was 1. I never knew my birth dad until my 40’s. My mom remarried an American serviceman when I was 5 leaving England and moving to CA. I never really considered Pops a stepdad…

I don’t remember finding out I was adopted, my parents told me I was “chosen and special”, since I was a baby, so I grew up always knowing. I guess you could say feeling special and chosen didn’t have the same connotation one might think in my life scenario. I was born in a small…

Jane was born in 1963 in Wilmington, Delaware, during the baby scoop era. Placed  for adoption after 10 months in foster care. Adopted by Frank and Elma Spreckley from Bucks county Pa. who had been unable to have children. But 18 months after Jane was adopted, her parents had her brother Gary. Jane’s life was pretty normal…

Hi, I’m Janet and I’m adopted. I was born in 1977. My mother was 16 years old. I was separated from her and taken to the nursery right away, she never held me. I never got a chance to experience the safety of her arms, her comfort, her voice, her warmth or her smell. I…

My journey through the Los Angeles foster care system was both miraculous and profoundly painful. Between 1982 and 1986, my biological parents had five children together, and I am the middle child. My father, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War, suffered from PTSD due to combat trauma. Years later, a work injury as a…

Jeanette Yoffe is a foster-adoptee from New York. She was raised in the New York State Foster care system from ages 15 months old until 7 years old. It was deemed unsafe for her to remain with her first mother, Celia, due to mental illness and she went to live in a foster home on…