Today we celebrate Black History Month with our guest, Iris Bryant, an adoptee and member of the Faith Collective for Truth and Healing in Adoption. Iris is passionate about helping fellow adoptees find purpose and well-being. We explore the connections between shame, race, and adoption, how shame flourishes when we cannot speak the truth, and how churches need to foster courageous truth-telling and listening in order to be places of healing and welcome for all. We also discuss our contrasting experiences as two same-race adoptees and one cross-racial adoptee, and speak on how to reclaim our unique, God-given identities.

Iris P. Bryant, a North Carolina native, has been shaped by some of her most difficult life experiences—walking through rejection and abandonment, learning to navigate life as a caregiver, and facing grief after losing her husband, David, the love of her life. Hence, she is able to speak with empathy and compassion into the pain of others. She shares stories from her life in order to share God’s message through her own podcast, Adoptees in Arms. Iris has two young-adult children and two adorable granddaughters.

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Iris Bryant: Website | Adoptees in Arms Podcast

Faith Collective for Truth and Healing in Adoption: Website | Instagram

In this first episode of the new year, we explore the topic renewal and resetting, which can be particularly sensitive for adoptees. As a twice-adopted person, Julian Washio-Collette is certainly no stranger to starting over, whether in his childhood or in his life as an adult. With Julian, we explore how the impacts of choicelessly starting over twice through relinquishment and adoption linger into adulthood; how a mysterious intuition to visit a monastery while bicycle touring transformed the adoption script and fostered a life-changing renewal of faith; and how to navigate at the intersections of spirituality and healing, contemplation and a life of service in community.

Julian Washio-Collette is a domestic, Baby Scoop Era double-adoptee, relinquished and adopted as an infant and again at age nine. He took temporary vows as a Benedictine monk at New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California, and currently resides with his wife, Lisa, at Dandelion House, a Catholic Worker house of hospitality near Portland, Oregon.

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Julian Washio-Collette: Blog | Dandelion House

Faith Collective for Truth and Healing in Adoption: Website | Instagram

Meet the members of the Faith Collective for Truth and Healing in Adoption in this special Christmas episode, as we explore what "Emmanuel, God with us" means to each us as adoptees and first mothers, and how Emmanuel motivates us toward service and growth.

Connect with us: Website | Instagram

Watch Patrice Martin on TLC's Long Lost Family

Today we talk to adoptee and founder of the Faith Collective for Truth and Healing in Adoption, Sara Easterly, about who among the adoption constellation is given a seat at the table in conversations about adoption, especially in communities of faith. Are the voices of adult adoptees and first mothers welcomed, or are our voices stifled by those who claim to speak for us? Is there room at the table for uncomfortable truths and the painful impacts of relinquishment and adoption to be heard? What can we do to foster greater inclusion?

Sara Easterly is an award-winning author of essays and books that include Adoption Unfiltered: Revelations from Adoptees, Birth Parents, Adoptive Parents, and Allies (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024) and her memoir, Searching for Mom (Heart Voices, 2019). She is the founder of Adoptee Voices, a writing group for adoptees, and is a trained course facilitator with the Neufeld Institute.

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Sara Easterly: Website

Faith Collective for Truth and Healing in Adoption: Website | Instagram

OTHER RESOURCES

Rachel Wilson - At The Kid Table

Adoptee Consciousness Model

Hulu - Black Cake

Adoptee Voices

Meet your hosts, Patrice Martin and Natasha Tripplett, learn about the work of the Faith Collective for Truth and Healing in Adoption, and hear about the exciting content we have in store for you. We are committed to lifting up the voices and perspectives of Christian adoptees and birth mothers in order to foster healing, reclaim our stories, offer support and resources, and advocate for adoption reform in and beyond communities of faith.

Connect with us: Website | Instagram