What if the key to a successful adoption match was simply being yourself? Libby and Cory Rhoads share their adoption journey, sharing their beliefs in creating an authentic profile book and building an open relationship with their daughter Penny's birth mom.

A 24-hour Matching

In this episode of Voices of Adoption, Voices of Adoption, host Donna Pope sits down with Libby Rhoads (Chief of Learning and Outreach at the United States Botanic Garden) and her husband Cory to share their complete adoption journey, starting their journey which began with fertility challenges and to matching with their daughter Penny's birth mother in under 24 hours.

Authentic Profiles and Honest Preferences

Libby and Cory explain what sets their adoption profile book apart from the rest, including candid photos, personal interests like Harry Potter and their dog, and a refusal to present a polished but inauthentic version of themselves. They also open up about the emotional weight of setting adoption preferences and the internal tension of wanting to help every child while being realistic about what they could support as a family.

Open Adoption and Community Connection

The couple describes how their ongoing relationship with Penny's birth mother has enriched their family, including annual FaceTime calls, regular updates through the Heart to Heart app, and a photo of her birth mom in Penny's room. They also talk about the value of finding an adoptive parent community in the DC area and how those connections have become a lasting source of support.

If you are considering adoption and want practical guidance on building an authentic profile, navigating the emotional side of preferences, and creating an open adoption that benefits everyone involved, this episode delivers the insights you need to take your next step with confidence.

#Adoption #AdoptiveParents #OpenAdoption #AdoptionProfile #AdoptionAdvice #AdoptionCommunity #AdoptionJourney #DomesticAdoption #AdoptionStory #HeartToHeartAdoptions #VoicesOfAdoption #AdoptionSupport #BirthMom #AdoptionMatching #AdoptionPreferences #FertilityToAdoption #AdoptionProfileBook #AdoptionWaitTimes #AdoptiveFamily #DCFamilies

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Early childhood educator Danielle Baker shares why defining family values and prioritizing unstructured play are the two things adoptive families need most.

Values and Play in Adoptive Families

Danielle Baker has spent years working with families navigating adoption, special needs, and complex transitions. As a registered early childhood educator and the founder of Being Connected eLearning Inc., she has seen firsthand what helps families stay strong and what quietly pulls them apart.

The Rudder That Guides Every Decision

In this episode of Voices of Adoption, host Donna Pope sits down with Danielle to explore why getting clear on family values is the single most important thing adoptive parents can do. Danielle explains that while most families share similar values such as honesty, respect, and love, the definitions of those values often differ in ways that create friction. She encourages families to write their own mission statement and revisit it regularly, just like organizations do during strategic planning.

Play Changes Everything

Danielle also makes a case for unstructured play as the most overlooked tool in an adoptive parent's toolkit. When children play freely, they drop their masks, express what they cannot say in words, and build the kind of connection that lasts a lifetime.

Subscribe to Voices of Adoption for more conversations with the people who are changing how we think about adoption, family, and connection. Listen to the full episode of Voices of Adoption to hear Danielle share her complete framework for helping adoptive families build stronger connections through values and play.

#Adoption #AdoptiveFamilies #FamilyValues #PlayMatters #ParentingTips #VoicesOfAdoption #OpenAdoption #AdoptionSupport #ChildDevelopment #EmotionalRegulation #TalkToDanielle #BeingConnected #DanielleCBaker #ConnectedParenting #BringingUpTheWorld #RECE #EarlyChildhoodEducation #ParentHealing #BreakingPatterns #SelfLeadership

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Kristina and Herbert Heagh-Avritt explain why education at home builds stronger attachment, better life skills, and more confidence for adopted children.

Rethinking Education for Adopted Children

Kristina Heagh-Avritt spent 27 years as a public school teacher before realizing she could make a bigger difference by working directly with parents. Together with her husband Herbert, she created Vibrant Family Education, a mentoring service that helps families take charge of their children's learning at home. Their approach centers on coaching and mentoring parents through every step of the transition.

Breaking Down the Myths

In this episode of Voices of Adoption, host Donna Pope sits down with Kristina and Herbert to tackle the three biggest myths that keep adoptive parents from considering education at home. They address the "weird homeschooler" stereotype, the fear that parents are not qualified to teach, and the belief that there simply is not enough time. Each myth gets dismantled with real stories and data.

A New Path for Adoptive Families

Herbert and Kristina explain why adopted children, especially those with trauma histories, often struggle in traditional classrooms and how bringing education home creates the safety and connection they need. They share practical steps to getting started, the real time commitment involved, and why colleges are actively recruiting homeschooled students. Their message to adoptive parents is simple: you are already your child's best teacher.

Listen to the full episode of Voices of Adoption to hear Kristina and Herbert share their complete framework for helping families reimagine education.

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Lena Livinsky, speech pathologist, BLOOM framework creator and host of The Livin'sky Podcast, shares why adopted children often struggle with food and what parents can do about it.

Feeding Challenges in Adoption

When Lena Livinsky prepared a meal for her son and saw fear on his face instead of excitement, everything shifted. That single moment changed the way she approached feeding, parenting, and her own health. Now a speech pathologist and holistic feeding specialist, Lena helps families look beyond the surface of picky eating to understand what's actually driving it.

Connection Before Correction

In this episode of Voices of Adoption with host Donna Pope, Lena introduces her BLOOM framework, a five-part system designed to assess Balance health, Learned oral motor skills, Optimal microbiome, Open exploration, and Mealtime boundaries. She explains why adopted children may face unique feeding challenges tied to early trauma, separation, and nervous system dysregulation, and why connection must come before correction at the table.

A Mother's Own Healing

Lena also opens up about her health transformation. After years of hormonal struggles, postpartum depression, and autoimmune flare-ups, she lost 50 pounds by addressing her gut health through the GAPS diet. Her story is a reminder that parents cannot pour from an empty cup and that self-care is not optional when raising children who need stability and safety.

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In this candid conversation with trauma care practitioner and adoptive parent Stacy Uhrig, host Donna Pope of Voices of Adoption explores the complicated space where gratitude, loss, anxiety, and attachment all intersect. Together, they name the often-unspoken reality that every adoption begins with rupture and that these early experiences can echo through a child’s nervous system for years.

Understanding Anxiety And Attachment In Adoption

Stacy shares her family’s international adoption story from South Korea and reflects on what she wishes she had known about attachment ruptures, foster care moves, and how those early separations affect a child’s sense of safety. She and Donna discuss why so many adoptees and adoptive children receive diagnoses like anxiety, ADHD, ODD, or reactive attachment disorder, and how those labels can sometimes mask the deeper impact of early loss.

Parent Triggers, Family Rules, And Healing

From there, the conversation turns toward parents’ own unhealed stories. Stacy explains how unresolved trauma and inherited family rules about how parents and children are “supposed to” behave shape the way adults respond when kids get “big and bold” or shut down. Instead of asking “What’s wrong with you,” she invites parents to ask “What happened to you” and to do their own inner work so they can offer steady, more compassionate co-regulation at home.

Personal Responsibility And The Calm Code

Stacy also shares her three-decade journey with anxiety and what finally shifted when she began studying trauma, the nervous system, and hypnotherapy. She describes her Calm Code framework, her group work, and her podcast Flip Your Mindset, all designed to help people understand that while they did not cause their wounds, their healing is still their own.

Throughout, she emphasizes that healing should be personal but not lonely: you can take responsibility for your growth while being held in a safe, supportive relationship. Whether you are an adoptee, a birth parent, or an adoptive parent, this episode offers language for experiences that are hard to name and hope that real healing is possible.

Looking for support on your adoption journey? Visit VoicesofAdoption.org for support, resources, and community from every corner of the adoption constellation. Subscribe to the Voices of Adoption show for real stories and resources that help families across the adoption constellation find support and for expert insights on adoption wellness.

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Elmarie Arnold discovered her authentic voice through life’s most challenging moments, transforming decades of silence into a mission of hope for the adoption community. Adopted as a newborn in apartheid South Africa by loving parents, she initially struggled to balance gratitude with her need for authentic self-expression after a childhood experience taught her to suppress adoption-related feelings.

Awakening
In this episode, Elmarie reveals how her son's death became the catalyst for writing her memoir "Unadoptically Me" and embracing complete authenticity. She shares insights about the complex emotions adoptees navigate and how understanding these feelings leads to deeper healing and connection.

Healing
Elmarie presents her empowering philosophy that adoptees are on a chosen soul journey, encouraging them to honor their experiences while building resilience. She offers adoptive parents transformative guidance: create supportive sanctuary spaces, stay present during difficult moments, and trust in your child’s inherent strength to navigate their adoption story.

Wisdom
This conversation reframes the adoption experience as a path toward personal sovereignty, inspiring adoptees to embrace their unique journey and recognize their exceptional courage. Elmarie’s story demonstrates how adoptees can transform challenges into wisdom while honoring both their adoptive families and their complete identity.

Reclaim your narrative, honor your roots, and write the next chapter on your terms. You are not alone on this adoption journey, and support is within reach.

Looking for support on your adoption journey? Visit VoicesofAdoption.org for support, resources, and community from every corner of the adoption constellation. Subscribe to the Voices of Adoption show for real stories and practical guidance that help families across the adoption constellation find support, along with expert insights on adoption and emotional wellness.

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In this episode of Voices of Adoption, host Donna Pope sits down with Christina Dent, founder of End It For Good, a nonprofit working to shift how we approach drugs and addiction from punishment to help-centered solutions.

One Placement Changed Everything.

Christina and her husband started fostering in 2014. Their three placements produced three different outcomes: one child they adopted, one returned to family with an ongoing connection, and one left after two years with no contact since. But it was their second placement that changed her life and career.

Lullabies Over Speakerphone.

When baby Beckham came to them straight from the hospital, Christina expected his birth mother, Joanne, to fit the stereotype she'd absorbed growing up: that people who use drugs are bad people who don't love their children. Instead, she watched Joanne run across a parking lot, crying to kiss her newborn. She answered daily phone calls where Joanne asked every detail about her son and then sang to him over speakerphone. She drove Beckham to a treatment center that allowed mothers to keep their babies with them during recovery.

Ten Years Sober Today.

Everything Christina thought she knew about addiction fell apart. She went back to square one and started learning. That journey led her to launch End It For Good, advocating for health-centered approaches to substance use instead of criminalization. Today, Joanne is 10 years sober, working at the same treatment center where she got clean, and raising Beckham herself.

This episode challenges foster and adoptive families to ask a difficult question: can we love a child enough to give them back? Looking for support on your adoption journey? Visit VoicesofAdoption.org for support, resources, and community from every corner of the adoption constellation.

#VoicesOfAdoption #FosterCare #Adoption #AddictionRecovery #EndItForGood #ChristinaDent #FosterToAdopt #BirthMom #Reunification #TraumaInformedCare #SubstanceAbuse #FosterParenting #AdoptionJourney #RecoveryIsPossible #FamilyReunification

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In this continuation of our two-part conversation with Simon Benn, host of the Thriving Adoptees podcast, Donna Pope host of Voices of Adoption, digs deeper into what it actually takes to move toward greater stability and growth.

Building on the rock paper scissors metaphor from Part 1, this episode focuses on practical application. Together, they discuss how adoptive parents can better support their children, why personal work matters, and what tools can help adoptees recognize their inherent worth.

Helping Others Find Wholeness

Simon explains that parents often need to begin by recognizing their own wholeness. Using the example of French ski instructors, he shows that helping others requires both personal depth and the ability to teach. Healing unfolds through many “penny drop moments,” not a single breakthrough.

Storm and Sky

Simon offers another metaphor: trauma is like a storm temporarily covering a blue sky. The storm passes, but the sky remains unchanged. He explores how identifying solely with painful experiences, including trauma bonding, can keep people stuck, while curiosity and openness support movement forward.

Doing the Work

Simon shares practical approaches to healing, including Byron Katie’s belief inquiry process known as “The Work,” somatic experiencing for preverbal trauma, and the importance of finding what works for each individual.

He closes with the meaning behind his podcast’s diamond logo. While some adoptees come to see themselves as trash cans, he emphasizes that every adoptee, birth parent, and adoptive parent is a diamond. Thriving unfolds through patience and continued excavation.

If you have not listened to Part 1, we recommend starting there to hear Simon’s full adoption story and the metaphors that shape this conversation.

Looking for support on your adoption journey? Visit VoicesofAdoption.org for support, resources, and community from every corner of the adoption constellation. Subscribe to the Voices of Adoption show for real stories and resources that help families across the adoption constellation find support and for expert insights on adoption wellness.