Emma: The Truth Beneath "Chosen"
Born in Tennessee in 1989 and flown home on Valentine’s Day, Emma grew up in rural Western Massachusetts in a loving, creative family, where her adoption once felt more like a fairytale than a lived experience — even as anxiety and depression quietly took root. Meeting her birth mother at twenty sparked a fifteen-year reckoning, unraveling the “chosen baby” narrative and leading her to confront the hard truths at the heart of her story.
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
Emma was born in Tennessee in 1989 and flown home just two days later — on Valentine’s Day. As a child, her adoption seemed more like a fairytale than a lived experience. Growing up in the country in an old farm house in the rolling blue hills of Western Massachusetts, she spent most days drawing, writing or exploring the fields and woods. Despite her home and her loving and creative family, she began to experience persistent anxiety and depression that worsened with age.
Meeting her birth mother at around twenty set off a cascade of often severe mental health challenges and a long search for understanding. Over the fifteen years that followed, she unraveled defenses and began to face the hard truths inherent in her story — the hard truths the “chosen baby” narrative had so neatly disguised.
Season 12 Book: The Adoption Paradox by Jean Kelly Widner
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, March 7th, 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.