Alana: Finding Home in the Truth
Alana Godin, a Vancouver-born adoptee raised by loving parents who longed for a daughter, grew up grateful yet constrained by expectations, later becoming a young mother whose second child sparked a determined search for her origins. Through years of searching and eventual reunion with both birth parents and many siblings, Alana’s journey—marked by mental health struggles, chronic illness, and deeper understanding of her mother’s relinquishment—became one of resilience, healing, and the fundamental right to know where we come from.
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee Stories
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (pscrb.fm) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
Alana Godin, born in 1966 in Vancouver, British Columbia, is an adoptee raised in a family whose mother, after three sons, had longed for a daughter. Growing up, Alana struggled to fit the role imagined for her but remained deeply grateful to her adoptive parents, whose support later allowed her to keep and raise her own child.
As a teenager, Alana had to navigate adulthood early, becoming pregnant and marrying young, but it was the birth of her second child that created a strong pull to understand her origins. Without the internet or DNA testing, she spent five years searching through parent registries, census records, and newspaper ads, ultimately reuniting with her birth mother and, a year later, locating her birth father as well, both of whom welcomed her immediately. In her search for her family, Alana gained seven sisters and three additional brothers - an expanded family that helped complete her sense of identity, feeling of being home, and finally, with her tribe. And although her instant newfound connection was profound for her, like many adoptees after reunion, she struggles with guilt and the need to protect her adopted family, for also loving her newly discovered family.
Alana has confronted her own struggles with depression, suicidal ideation, and chronic illness, traits common among adoptees, and is now learning to heal through understanding and meeting other adoptees with similar experiences. As well, recently, Alana has learned more via a freedom of information request of her adoption documents of what her biological mother endured as a young, unwed mother in 1960’s - the rigid social stigma of the times that would push someone to relinquish their child.
Alana’s story is one of resilience, truth-seeking, and healing - a testament to identity, motherhood and the enduring human need and RIGHT to know where we come from.
Season 11: Adoptee Memoirs - books in order:
Practically Still a Virgin by Monica Hall
You Can't Get Rid of Me by Jesse Scott and Keri Ault
EVENTBRITE LINK - AUSTIN, TEXAS - LIVE PODCAST EVENT: 4/17 & 4/18 2206!
Thank you to our Patreons! Join at the $10 level and be part of our monthly ADOPTEE CAFE community. The next meeting will be Saturday, January 3rd, at 1 pm ET.
RESOURCES for Adoptees:
Gregory Luce and Adoptee Rights Law
Fireside Adoptees Facebook Group
Dr. Liz Debetta: Migrating Toward Wholeness Movement
Moses Farrow - Trauma therapist and advocate
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – 1-800-273-8255 OR Dial or Text 988.
Kristal Parke Because She Is Adopted
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.