Aspects of Life – Thoughts and Conversations
I have the honor of being asked to speak for the Utah’s Annual ICWA Conference. I will be giving a virtual presentation. American Indian children who have been removed from their home and are being considered for placement in foster care or adoption require stability. The removal itself is traumatizing, with effects that last late […]
American Indian children who are adopted into white families are accompanied by the supernova that occurs when race, history, and policy collide. We don’t fit anywhere because of cultural structures that are so deeply inbedded in the U.S. as to be nearly invisible. The theories of ethnic group belonging, social hierarchy and capitals, and social […]
Last month, I participated in a podcast with the Archibald Project, an organization that uses storytelling to address the orphan and child vulnerability crisis in creative and educated ways. I loved talking with them because they asked the hard questions, those questions that reveal the complexity and depth of tough issues, the ones that make […]
Addictions run in my family, so when I told my sister I have a social media addiction issue, she just laughed. My son and daughter-in-law said (and I thought initially that they were joking), “We knew that. We’ve known that for a long time.” How long? And why didn’t anyone tell me? Why am I […]
Ok, I just gotta say this: being a speaker at TEDxMileHigh is a (terrifying) rush! And for me, a relative introvert, it overwhelmed my senses. After preparing for this moment for almost 2 months, complete with several intense and interesting trainings, Rick and I walked down the hall and toward the dressing room. One of […]
Just before I left for London last week, I was notified that Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption had been chosen as one of four finalists in the Creative Nonfiction category of the Colorado Book Awards. I am thrilled and I am so very honored to be among this list of great writers with […]
A live interview is far more difficult to carry off than a taped and edited interview. Questions are asked that may not be what was expected, so there are pauses and “ums” as words are searched for in a room filled with tons of information. Even so, listening to this podcast still makes my throat […]