8/2022: Adoptees and Parenting

**This is a recording of our We the Experts event on August 13th, 2022.**

August’s “We the Experts: Adoptee Speaker Series” will feature four adoptees who will share how being an adoptee influences the parenting of their biological children.

Panelists

Nari Baker is a mother and a Korean transracial adoptee who lives in the Pacific Northwest. A Fulbright scholar and an art maker, Nari has contributed to Korean transnational adoptee community organizing for over 15 years via GOA’L, ASK and AAAW. She currently co-hosts Labor of Love: A Podcast for BIPOC Adoptees Navigating Parenthood.

Jennifer Dyan Ghoston is an adoptee in reunion with both sides of her birth family. She has been connected to the adoption community for over a decade and in 2015 self-published her book, The Truth So Far…a detective’s journey to reunite with her birth family. Her continued efforts to be open, honest and public with her adoption experience has led to hosting a podcast, Once Upon a Time…In Adopteeland. Jennifer is always excited to contribute to the adoption community in a meaningful way.

Romanian adoptee and author Yael Adler wrote From Gypsy to Jersey to share her personal story in the hopes of inspiring and helping other adoptees who want to learn more about their past and uncover their roots. Married and the mother of three, Yael and her family live in New Jersey. Yael enjoys being active in the adoption community and savors every opportunity to listen and learn from other adoptees, adoptive parents and birth families. Yael looks forward to being on this panel to talk more about the joys and challenges that come with parenting as an adoptee.

Adam Chau is a Vietnamese American Adoptee, War Orphan, and Immigrant. He has sat on the Resource Committee For Adopted Adults, the Vietnamese Adoptee Network board (briefly serving as its president), the Adopsource board (a pan-adoptee organization), and helped start the Minnesota Transracial Film Festival. Adam is a co-founder of the Vietnamese Resource Center (for transracially adopted individuals of Vietnamese descent) that finished piloting out a new language class. Adam also runs a small micro-digital press that has published over 50+ adoptee authors, including the anthology, Parenting as Adoptees. Adam is excited to be joining this panel to add his voice and perspective along with others in the adoptee community.

Jenna Corriveau is a 39-year-old Colombian Transracial Adoptee, raised in CT. She and her partner Tucker have 3 children: 7, 5 and 1-year-old. In addition to being a parent she has over 15 years of experience working with children and families. Her work spans from preschool teaching, foster care system, practicing Synergetic Play Therapy, parent coaching and Adoption Mosaic. She practices gentle brain/body-based parenting. Currently, she can be found de-schooling and secular home-educating with her family. She is excited to be a part of this panel because the adoption community has been her safe haven and she loves to connect and share when she can!