Please join me as I talk the National Council for Adoption conference with Renee Gellin, founder of Saving Our Sisters and fellow board member and founder of The Family Preservation Project Katie Nelson Burns.

We begin our conversation with an overview of the keynote speakers address, and then dive into the first two sessions attended by Katie and Renee. Renee heard about how CPS and DCFS partners with medical providers to keep an eye out for prospects in medical settings. Katie listened as a lawyer who represents Gladney, is a board member for NCFA, and a member of the Association of Adoption Attorneys presented on how agencies should work to protect themselves against disrupted adoptions(contested adoptions).

I hope to have them back to continue the conversation, as there is much more to learn about how the National Council for Adoption works to promote family severance.

The host of the podcast is not a lawyer, or an adoption professional, or a board member of any organization. The opinions of the host and their guests are just that, our opinions. They may be informed opinions, but they are still our thoughts on the topics discussed, and we are allowed to have opinions on our lived experiences. If this bothers you, perhaps ask yourself why.

Thank you to all the listeners! This podcast is for you. Please takbe a moment to rate the show if you can, as this makes the information more widely availale thanks to the lovely algorithms.

Please join the host as they wrap up the review of the book Conceiving Christian America; Embryo Adoption and Reproductive Politics by Risa Cromer.

Mentionedin the episode:

Conceiving Christian America: Embryo Adoption and Reproductive Politics (Anthropologies of American Medicine: Culture, Power, and Practice) - Kindle edition by Cromer, Risa. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. ‘Scratching their heads’: State lawmakers take a closer look at personhood laws in wake of Alabama ruling - POLITICO Mississippi Code § 41-41-191 (2019) - Gestational Age Act; legislative findings and purpose; definitions; abortion limited to fifteen weeks' gestation; exceptions; requisite report; reporting forms; professional sanctions; civil penalties; additional enforcement; construction; severability; right to intervene if constitutionality challenged :: 2019 Mississippi Code :: US Codes and Statutes :: US Law :: Justia 13 States Have Abortion Trigger Bans—Here's What Happens When Roe Is Overturned | Guttmacher Institute The opinion of the host is just that, their opinion. The host is not a therapist, a fertility specialist, or a lawyer. The host is a former evangelical who spent decades in leadership roles, and is a late-discovery, intercountry adopted person with a background in psychology and education.

Thank you for listening!

Please join the host as they review the interlude Supreme Appeal in the book Conceiving Christian America: Embryo Adoption and Reproductive Justice by Risa Cromer.

Mentioned in the episode:

conceiving christian america - Search (bing.com) Planned Parenthood v. Casey - Ruling, Controversy & Legacy (history.com) Planned Parenthood v. Casey - Ruling, Controversy & Legacy (history.com) June Medical Services LLC v. Russo | Oyez The Case in Depth - Center for Reproductive Rights The opinions of the host are just that, their opinions. The host is not a lawyer or a fertility specialist.

Thank you for listening!

Please jioin me and guest Dani Joy as we begin a conversation about deconstruction, about asking ourselves the hard questions and why doing so is so important. This is the first in a series of conversations with Dani and others about the intersection of adoption and religious trauma.

Dani Joy is a mother of loss to adoption who has been on a deconstruction journey from narratives about race, adoption and religion. You can hear more about Danis experience on an earlier episode of the podcast.

https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/IbncUWObGKb

There are a number of resources available for people who are working to examine the beliefs they hold about the issues mentioned in the podcast. I encourage people to explore media being created by people of color, by adult adoptees and transracial and intercountry adopted people, by parents of loss to adoption, by former foster youth, and by former evangelicals and others who are challenging dominant historical and present day narratives.

I also encourage people to create support systems as you move forward. Questioning can be scary, but is ultimately rewarding. Humans like to exist in binary systems of thought, and to categorize people and experiences. Doing so evolved as a survival strategy in a different time. Existing in those spaces can be valuable if used in the right context. Utilizing those structures in other contexts can lead to a stifling of creativity and to disconnection with ourselves and with others.

Why Communication Matters | Psychology Today Being Antiracist | National Museum of African American History and Culture (si.edu) When Religion Hurts You: Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High-Control Religion - Kindle edition by Anderson, Laura E.. Health, Fitness & Dieting Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. Transracial adoptees struggle to talk to their White parents about race - Washington Post Exvangelical (exvangelicalpodcast.com) the above resources are inadequate but a place to begin? Please visit The Adoption Files fb page and add links to resources that have helped you or others to navigate deconstruction.

Thank you for listening!

Please join the host as they discuss the interlude A Warm Body from the book Conceiving Christian America: Embryo Adoption and Reproductive Politics by Risa Cromer.

Mentioned in the podcast:

Amazon.com : conceiving christian america Spiritual Bypassing: Spiritual Bypassing as a Defense Mechanism (verywellmind.com) The opinion of the host is just that, their opinion. The host is not a lawyer or a fertility specialist.

Thank you for listening!

Please join Lynn, Lorah and I as we continue a discussion of the book Conceiving Christian America. Today we talk a bit more about disability and adoption.

Joining me is Lynn Grubb, The Adopted Genealogist, and Lorah Gerald, The Adopted Chameleon. They can be found on Facebook, IG and Twitter.

Mentioned in the show:

Conceiving Christian America: Embryo Adoption and Reproductive Politics (Anthropologies of American Medicine: Culture, Power, and Practice Book 13) - Kindle edition by Cromer, Risa. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. What is Disability Justice? - Disability & Philanthropy Forum (disabilityphilanthropy.org) There are many articles online that address the intersection of disability and faith. Because I am not anxious to endorse any of them without time to read and consider them carefully, I can only encourage you to explore how the church, and most especially the Evangelical and Pentecostal churches, view and treat disability. My personal experience was an emphasis on praying the disability away; which will be familiar to anyone who has ever attended a faith healing service. This puts a tremendous burden of shame on any disabled person who appears to lack the necessary faith to receive Gods healing. Shame is the predominant theme of most of the churches I encountered between 1984 and 2015. I'd like to say I just had really bad luck with churches(and this may be true on a grand scale) but at least one of these churches was a very well regarded mega church in Colorado Springs.

The opinions of the host and their guests are just that, our opinions. The host and their guests are not lawyers, geneticists, doctors, fertility specialists , yada yada.

Thanks for listening!

Please join Lynn Grubb and me as we talk with Lorah Gerald about the book Conceiving Christian America; Embryo Adoption and Reproductive Politics by Risa Cromer. Chapter 4 is called Unselection, and discusses the gap between the stated goals of agencies promoting the idea of embryo adoption and the need for marketing what they call less desirable embryos.

Lorah can be found online as The Adopted Chameleon @theadoptedchameleon | Instagram, Facebook, TikTok | Linktree

Mentioned in the episode;

Conceiving Christian America: Embryo Adoption and Reproductive Politics (Anthropologies of American Medicine: Culture, Power, and Practice) - Kindle edition by Cromer, Risa. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. The birth dearth : Wattenberg, Ben J : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive The opinions of the hosts and their guest are just that, opinions. The hosts are not lawyers or fertility specialists. We are, however, adopted people, and we have opinions.

Thank you for listening!