ADOPTION MATTERS: Real People, Real Life, Real Talk

Join co-hosts and adoption coaches, Sally Ankerfelt and Gayle Swift, both adoptive parents, for another enlightening discussion with this month's special guest, Elizabeth Barbour. Elizabeth brings a lot of experience to the table both as an adoptee reunited with her birth family and as an adoptive mom. Tune in to hear Elizabeth's wisdom and lived experience navigating reuniting with her birth family and parenting as an adoptive mom...

Join co-hosts and adoption coaches, Sharon Butler-Obazee (an adopted person) and Sally Ankerfelt (an adoptive parent) for another lively discussion about Father's Day. First aired in June of 2024, we thought we should bring these three amzing men back in honor of Father's Day 2025. Being a dad in adoption can be complicated! Tune in to hear an adoptee, birth dad, and adoptive father (also an adoption professional) get real as they ...

This is a rebroadcast of last year's Mother's Day episode honoring and celebrating this special day for mothers. Listen to birth mothers, adoptees, and an adoptive dad share heartfelt feelings and maybe even some complicated thoughts about mothers. Join hosts, adoptive parent, Sally Ankerfelt and Adopted Person, Sharon Butler-Obazee, as they acknowledge not only Mother's Day on May 11 but also honor and celebrate Birth Mother's Day...

Welcome to ADOPTION MATTERS, a podcast with real people sharing real stories and getting real about adoption from all three perspectives of the adoption triad. Join coaches, Kim Noeth, one of your co-hosts, and a birth mother, along with Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adopted person, and Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent as they explore difficult topics and share frank conversations guided by our commitment to truth-telling and truth-s...

Welcome to ADOPTION MATTERS, a podcast with real people sharing real stories and getting real about adoption from all three perspectives of the adoption triad. Join coaches, Kim Noeth, one of your co-hosts, and a birth mother, along with Sharon Butler-Obazee, an adopted person, and Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent as they explore difficult topics and share frank conversations guided by our commitment to truth-telling and truth-s...

Valentine's Day is upon us once again. Love is supposed to be "in the air." But what if it isn't. Today, our hosts, birth mom Kim Noeth, adoptee Sharon Obazee, and adoptive parent, Sally Ankerfelt are joined by adoptive parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift, discuss the idea that love is sometimes an obligation.  As always, their discussion is infused with a Tri-spective view that gives voice to all three members of the adoption tri...

Real life brings challenges that include grief and loss. Of course, this is true for those in the adoption constellation. As adoption coaches, we talk a lot about grief and loss in the context of a child adoptee losing their birth mother even as the adoption brings them an adoptive mom. But what about the adult adoptee? And how might the adoptive parent feel (and deal) with their adopted child's loss of their birth mom?

Two of the ...

It's that time of year again and the holidays are upon us! How do adoptive families handle gift giving when there may be more than one family in the holiday photo? Join hosts Kim Noeth (a birth mother), Sharon Butler-Obazee (an adoptee), and Sally Ankerfelt (an adoptive parent), along with their colleagues, adoptive parents and coaches, Gayle Swift and Susan David as they discuss a few of the nuances of gift-giving in the adoptive ...

November has arrived and time once more to recognize National Adoption Awareness Month. This year's theme, "Honoring Youth; Strengthening Pathways for Lasting Bonds", highlights the importance of helping youth identify and nurture support systems and social connections that help young people as they transition to adulthood and through life.

Join hosts Kim Noeth (a birth mother), Sharon Butl...

Special guest, adoptee, adoptee activist, and author, Anne Heffron, joins co-hosts and adoption coaches, Kim Noeth (a birth mother), Sharon Butler-Obazee (an adoptee) and Sally Ankerfelt (an adoptive parent) for an engaging discussion of the "masks" we might be wearing as members of the adoption triad and within our adoptive families. How do the masks we don protect our feelings and the feelings of those around us? If we were brave...

Join co-hosts and adoption coaches, Kim Noeth (a birth mother), Sharon Butler-Obazee (an adoptee) and Sally Ankerfelt (an adoptive parent) for an important back-to-school discussion of adoption in the classroom. Once again, they bring to the conversatin their unique experience and world view as an adoption triad member to inform the conversation. Today, they explore with 6th grade teacher, Michelle Soggs, how she creates a learning...

Join co-hosts and adoption coaches, Kim Noeth (a birth mother), Sharon Butler-Obazee (an adoptee) and Sally Ankerfelt (an adoptive parent) for another lively and upbeat discussion with Brian, an adoptive father of two, now-adult children. Learn how he navigated an open adoption with not one but two different bio families!     

Using their Tri-spectiv...

Welcome to Adoption Matters, a podcast with real people sharing real stories and getting real about adoption from all three perspectives of the adoption triad. As we just celebrated Mother's Day, we hope you embraced and recognized your value as a mother, whether you placed or parented a child. 

Join co-hosts and adoption coaches, Kim Noeth (birth mother), Sharon Butler-Obazee (adoptee) & Sally Ankerfelt (adoptive parent) as they e...

ADOPTION MATTERS' hosts a compilation of triad voices reflecting on mothers. Listen to some special memories, sweet yet at times painful thoughts about being a mother, and poignant tributes to moms.             

Several birth mothers, adoptees, and an adoptive dad share their heartfelt thoughts on Mother's Day. It can be a complicated topic. For example, many people have not heard about Birth Mother's Day, celebrated on the Saturda...

Welcome to Adoption Matters, a podcast with real people sharing real stories and getting real about adoption from all three perspectives of the adoption triad.

In this episode, adoption coaches Susan David and Gayle Swift join our regular co-hosts and adoption coaches, Kim Noeth (birth mother), Sharon Butler-Obazee (adoptee) & Sally Ankerfelt (adoptive parent) for a discussion of Isaac Etter's work focusing on identity and transrac...

Welcome to Adoption Matters, a podcast with real people sharing real stories and getting real about adoption from all three perspectives of the adoption triad.

I'm Kim Noeth, one of your co-hosts, and a birth mother, along with Sharon Butler Obazee, an adoptee and Sally Ankerfelt, an adoptive parent. Together we  explore difficult topics and share frank conversations. guided by our commitment to truth-telling and truth-seeking.  In...