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 like her, she recognized that her unresolved issues about her adoption kept her from loving herself, and she begins working with a life coach. This is pivotal for her as she begins to speak truth to power, openly acknowledge her adoption, and embrace her calling to help others in this world.
This story solidifies how secrecy, stigma, shame, and silence are detrimental to adoptees being able to fully, heal. What’s an adoptee to do when it appears that society and adoptive/biological families express that adoptees should just move on with their lives and remain in the dark about where they come from? How do adoptees receive adequate medical care when a visit at the doctor’s office feels disempowering if you don’t have information about your health history? When the credits roll, is it not fair to admit that sometimes, reunions are “like a gift wrapped in sandpaper?”
We have questions, and the answers. Take a listen to Season 4, Episode 47. Share. Subscribe. Leave a review.
SHOW NOTES
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RECOMMENDED ADOPTION RESOURCES
- LIFE COACHING: with Regina Smithwick
- READ: Adoption, the Unknown Blessing by Regina Smithwick
- WATCH: My Other Mother
- LISTEN: Voices of the Black Adoption Experience and African American adoptees on The Black Adoption Podcast
- REQUIRED READING: Black to the Beginning Reads Bookshop - A carefully curated list of #BTTBreads #BTTBreads
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