Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee Stories Louise Browne & Sarah Reinhardt

Cary is a baby scoop-era adoptee who was born in a Florence Crittenton Home in Atlantic City NJ in 1964. Her first mother was 19 years old and was forced to relinquish her baby like many young mothers of those times. Cary had a great upbringing in a family that loved her and never made her feel othered. In her early 30s she reunited with her birth mother and then her birth father. The reunions went well for the most part, but some family members that started out enthusiastic soon became clear...

Ellen is a baby scoop-era New York State adoptee. She was adopted by a loving Greek American couple through a closed private adoption and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area with a younger adopted brother.Ellen always wanted to find her original family and searched off and on starting in the early 90s but kept hitting roadblocks. Her adoptive parents were not supportive of her search so she had very little information to go on. Then a friend had her rescue dog’s DNA tested which changed ever...

Simone Pajo was born in Auckland New Zealand in 1968, the baby scoop era. She was the middle child between two bio children and was adopted after the death of the middle bio daughter. She grew up knowing her adoption was the result of a baby's death and this greatly affected the way she saw the world and her place in it. It has taken decades for Simone to form a coherent worldview where her right to her identity does not depend on the needs of others.She has lived in the UK ...

Ryan Anderson is a foundling and a transnational, transracial, and late discovery adoptee (LDA). Found on the street in El Jadida, Morocco he was adopted at age 3 months and then brought to Scotland at age 6 months, in between this time he was fostered by a Moroccan family. He first found out he was adopted at age 18. Since 2020 he has been focused on personal development, to then became open to sharing his story at age 31.To skip ahead to the interview go to timestamp: 14:21Relinquished: The...

Jessica is a 1970 baby scoop-era adoptee, who started discovering her roots at age 50. After more than 80 years of closed records in NYS, she was able to obtain her original birth certificate in 2020. Two DNA tests and one secret after another uncovered a history of relinquishment, trauma, and family ties nearby of where she resides in upstate New York. At 54, Jessica is learning to live her truth on her terms and allowing herself to heal from the lifelong effects of being adopted. A ret...

Valerie Naiman is an adoptee, singer, story-songwriter, eco-village founder, ontologist, and author. Her #1 bestseller book, Mystic Masquerade, an Adoptee's Search for Truth, was based on five decades of a search that took her around the world as she unraveled the mystery of her stolen identity. Valerie holds a master's degree in Art and worked as a costume designer and actress in film and theatre in NY, Miami & LA. She’s the President of the Spirit Foundation, a non-profit that supp...