"How could my life until that point not be the authentic life that I thought I was living?" - Lorna Little, Black, late discovery adoptee With an impressive academic and professional background in social services, Lorna Little, MSW is intimately connected to the challenges and needs of families, particularly youth parents, youth in foster care and individuals impacted by adoption. Since 2018, she has served as the President and CEO of St. Anne's Family Services. In 1997, the professional turned unexpectedly - an unimaginably - personal. "It's out now." With those three simple words, Lorna le ..read more

“I just want to get into some ‘good trouble’.”   - Ryan Hill, Black, same-race adoptee For as long as Ryan could remember, he always knew that he was adopted. His mother was a social worker who also  worked at The Cradle, an Illinois adoption agency, for 10 years.  She would often hold him close and softly speak the words, “we want you,” into his ear.  Ryan felt special and internalized that he was “chosen.”   While his mother was very intentional about demonstrating her love and support through open conversation, she opted to not have other family members to spea ..read more

What happens when a happy-go-lucky Black boy with a healthy sense of curiosity is silenced by a secret from the shadows?  He retreats, hides, and selectively mutes himself. What those around him don’t know, is that the “mic-drop” reveal by his parents of “you’re adopted,” is never discussed again.  The little boy, with questions about his story, is not permitted to ask them.  Consolation is not an option.  Rather, he’s told to “fix your face and act right.” Coming to the proverbial BTTB stage for Season 4, Episode 49, is Poet Loschil (sounds like Lost Child).  Listen i ..read more

"I just believe that the plan for their life and my life is going to exceed everything I've gone through." - Michelle Senior, adoptive mom following emergency foster care placement Less than a year after her son was murdered, Michelle Senior found herself unexpectedly caring for three children under the age of two. When people comment that she "saved" them, she's quick to correct them that her three "miracles" saved her. Grief mixed with the overwhelm of unplanned motherhood and trauma from her past had her contemplating taking her own life. Thankfully, she didn't. Although Michelle, instead ..read more

There’s a price for freedom, and it involves doing your work.  For Regina, this meant moving from a place of being “ok” about her adoption status, to being accepting of it.  This was no easy task, because adoption was not discussed with her since the age of six, during an interrupted viewing of Soul Train.  40+ years later, the topic remained, hush.  Consequently, Regina grappled with failed relationships, being loyal to a fault, and suppressing her feelings and emotions about who she was and how she came to be with her family. After one critical event of begging a man to l ..read more

"Why didn't somebody tell me that I had fibroids? Even if they weren't that big, why didn't somebody tell me that I had them?" - Jamel Hicks, Mothering via adoption after fibroids + infertility After having years of annual exams, Jamel Hicks was 34 years old the first time a gynecologist told her she had fibroids - several fibroids, to be exact. Not only was this news to her, she was also shocked to learn from her mother that many of the women in their family suffered with fibroids. Jamel remembers being about 10 years old when she helped care for an aunt who had surgery. Come to find out, her ..read more

Reading through documentation from a half-baked adoption file is the only way to “jarg” Michelle’s repressed memories of her childhood. As she sifts through the notes that a social worker has penned, she learns that her early life included living in a motel that housed prostitutes and drug addicts. A line that jumps off the page of that report states “it is a great concern that she was allowed to spend the first three years of her life here.” This begins Michelle’s journey into the foster care system, but ultimately becoming an adoptee. Throughout her time within the foster care system, Michel ..read more

"The Woman King," starring Viola Davis, is a box office blockbuster and to our pleasant surprise, it's also a whole Black Adoption story! Take a listen as we break down the many Black Adoption themes in The Woman King as seen through the lenses of two Black adoptees. We're talking search and reunion, the liberation of the Black birth mother, the rise of the orphan, sisterhood, and of course the Three S's: secrecy, stigma and shame.  We encourage critically watching/reading movies, television shows, books and magazines to understand how adoption - specifically Black Adoption - shows up in ..read more

What would it look like for Black adoptees, their adoptive parents, and their birth families to be free? Free from generational trauma. Free from secrets. Free from societal expectations. Free from what can be viewed as hypocrisy from the Black church. With this freedom comes responsibility, and Black women often find themselves at a crossroads of choosing themselves and attending to the needs of others. In this episode, Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies gets as honest and vulnerable as anyone can get. After experiencing secondary infertility, she and her then husband ..read more

"I had nobody else to really give me the answers that I was looking for, so I used my faith, my prayer to navigate on this journey."  - Makayla Brown, Black, Same Race Adoptee + Host, Adopted but Identified When you know who you are in your adoptive family and who you are in your biological family, how do you merge the two and still be YOU? Makayla Brown answered this question by being exactly who God created her to be.  Rooted in her family's Christian upbringing, Makayla found God for herself and developed a personal relationship by talking to God through the letters she wrote in h ..read more