Lynn Grubb

Today I am interviewing Lisa Floyd, adoptee extraordinaire! Lisa and I have met in person a couple times -- once we met half way between our houses (I am in Ohio, she is in Indiana) to have lunch and do a little shopping and another time, Lisa joined my daughter and I for a weekend trip to the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  We were like two giddy teens hanging in the hotel room together.  I love meeting adoptees in real life whom I have shared many conversations with on-line first. And adoptee-bonding time is the best! Lisa is an Indiana adoptee in reunion with both sides of her biological family.  She wrote an essay titled, "Discovering the Real Me" for The Adoptee Survival Guide. Hi Lisa! Thanks for joining me today!! I was curious -- what made you want to write an essay for The Adoptee Survival Guide ? I wanted to write an essay for The Adoptee Survival Guide, because I wanted to let adoptees know that they're not alone and there is a way to come out ...

Hi JoAnne! Thanks for being willing to do this interview today!   You state you live in the Pacific Northwest.  Being from the Midwest and never visiting the  PNW (yet!), I am curious to know what it is that people love about living there? I still remember with fondness when I first moved from California to Oregon with my husband and our oldest daughter. We have three daughters, one was born in Los Gatos, CA, one born in Kirkland, WA, and one in Portland, OR. The beautiful Pacific Northwest is so green from the tops of the tall trees to the golf-course-looking grass. I had previously lived in many cities across CA and in Reno, NV, up until the age of 6, but I feel the most at home in Oregon. At first, my lungs weren’t acclimating to the dampness in the air, and I ended up in the hospital, and then Mount Saint Helens blew a short time after we arrived. After moving here, we had just changed our license plates when I walked out of the grocery store. Ther...

Hi friends!  I haven't had the time to post here on my blog as of late as I was taking on the monumental task of publishing my first book!  Its been an exciting journey and I want to thank everyone for their support over the last year.  This project would have never been possible without the courageous contributors who joined me in telling their stories. 30 adoptees, from different countries and states in the U.S. all came together for this project. We have an Australian-born contributor, a Canadian-born contributor and a contributor born in Hong Kong.  The age ranges of adoptees are from 20's to 70's.  Some of the authors are writers for Lost Daughters, some are first-time authors and many who already have published books out.  I will be featuring each writer on a blog tour in the coming weeks and months.  We will hi-light each of the author's other writings on adoption or in some cases, their books and articles in other genres. Last week was an...

www.thelostdaughters.com As part of the Lost Daughters  bloggers, I wanted to take the opportunity to shine a light on our Flip the Script campaign. As Amanda Woolsten states in the video below: "We are missing a bigger part of the picture -- that bigger part is adoptees who can tell everyone what living adoption is actually like. We need to flip the script because right now adoption agencies, professionals, and adoptive parents are doing most of the talking. ..... Flip the Script says: What if it was me? What if it was us that got to do the talking? and everyone just listened.   What would we stand to gain if we did that?  I argue, we would gain alot." 1.   We are not children anymore , Rosita points out. When you are in your 40's, it gets old when people keep referring to you as "an adopted child".  I am an adult and I can handle my affairs like adults do.  I deserve to have the same birth documents that everyone else has and to ...

Some of my fellow Lost Daughters got together and talked about what we hope for the future of National Adoption Month. It's time adoptees were listened to. #Flip the Script

I am excited to announce that Dear Wonderful You : Letters to Adopted and Fostered Youth (edited by Diane Rene Christian and Mei-Mei Akwai Ellerman, Ph.D) is available for sale on Kindle beginning today! Taking part in this anthology was not only an honor, but an emotional journey in itself.  Penning my letter was difficult. I had to get outside of myself as an adult, with all my opinions and ideas about the world and really take myself back to who I was then - the young, inexperienced and vulnerable pre-teen who was teased for having hair that didn't move (I was accused of using lots of hair spray because of how thick my hair was and is).   I also experienced being made fun of in middle school for being adopted.  Later in high school I was teased when I got my hair cut into the Dorothy Hammel style that was popular at the time.  I somehow inherited the nickname Duck and in 9th grade, people would actually quack at me when I walked by (I know, it's kind of ...

Photo credit:  psmag.com I have been re-reading Journey of the Adopted Self by Betty Jean Lifton (psychologist, author, adoptee).  I read it in 2006 at the beginning of my adoption reunion journey. The dedication at the beginning of the book reads like this: "To the memory of my adoptive mother Hilda and my birth Mother Rae who might have known and even liked each other in another life and another adoption system." I love this book.  I experienced so many revelations when reading this book the first time.  It was complete validation for everything I felt growing up and a realization that I am not crazy when I feel wounded, damaged or misplaced for growing up in closed adoption. As I've stated before, my opinion is that closed adoption is a form of emotional abuse.  After re-reading Journey of the Adopted self 8 years later post-reunion, I found that Betty Jean Lifton agrees with me.  She states that telling a child he or she is adopted without "...