302: Attunement In Adoptive Parenting

We talk often on this show about attunement in adoptive parenting, which is the process of intuiting in the moment what your child needs from you. The first step is to understand as best you can the perspective of an adoptee. You won’t get this from listening to one adoptee’s story, or two, or ten, but to many. As you DO listen to adoptees and their experiences of being adopted, you will begin to spot patterns, commonalities, and a-has that can help you hone your ability to feel with your child, setting you up to respond more appropriately and with connection in those crucial moments where connection is called for but may not come easily.

To that end, we have two guests today who have made it their life’s work to express their experiences as adoptees through plays and other creative endeavors. This is a gift to us adoptive parents, for absorbing experiences through theater is one way to feel alongside a character. In this case, adoptees in starring roles. This is why I’m so pleased to have Maggie Gallant and Suzanne Bachner talk with us.

Show Notes:

More Maggie Gallant

• Website: maggiegallant.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/frenchnotfrench
• Hot Dogs at the Eiffel Tower available to view on demand: https://bit.ly/frenchpapa
• Betwixt & Between virtual reading. Request link via maggiegallant@gmail.com

More Suzanne Bachner

• Websites: TheGoodAdoptee.com and JMTCTheatre.com
• Facebook: @TheGoodAdoptee
• Instagram: @TheGoodAdoptee
• Twitter: @TheGoodAdoptee
• Trailer
• Mercer Island Reporter Article

More on the infamous Louise Wise Agency

• Two Identical Strangers The Atlantic Selects short documentary
• Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited (book)
• The Twinning Reaction trailer
• Three Identical Strangers (and my commentary on those who defend the agency)
• Deliberately Divided: Inside the Controversial Study of Twins and Triplets Adopted Apart (Suzanne is quoted in this book)
• Episode 201 with Gabrielle Glaser, author of American Baby, detailing another Louise Wise-originated adoption.

Other resources mentioned

• Which states have open birth records? Via Adoptee Rights Coalition
• Episode 106 with Sara Easterly on being a “good adoptee”

Transcript

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About this Podcast

Lori Holden (The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption: Helping Your Child Grow Up Whole) brings to you an array of articulate and thought-provoking guests with lived experience in adoption, each with valuable insights to share about the all-encompassing journey of parenting an adopted person from babyhood to toddlerhood to school age to teenage -- and ultimately to adulthood. Join us as we explore Adoption: The Long View.

Named a Top 25 Adoption Podcast