First and foremost, I want to take a moment to acknowledge what an emotional month May was for me and so many others. On a national level we have all experienced the heaviness of the two mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas and the draft opinion of the Supreme Court to overturn abortion rights.
Our community is going through a LOT. I have found myself waking up in the morning with a heaviness in my chest that I have been nursing by talking to my close friends and family, meditating, going running, and having a really good cry. I encourage everyone to have a “go to” practice to release tension and support your mental health needs and personal well-being because it is times like these that our spirits need to be connected with self.
For the last three We the Experts panels you might have noticed we have started to implement a meditation practice to wrap up our time together. Many of you have thanked us for holding this space. For those of you who would like to learn more about implementing a daily practice I want to encourage you to reach out to our resident meditation teacher, Carmen Hinckley, Certified Meditation and Mindfulness Teacher. You can contact her at carmen.hinckley@gmail.com.
May was a month full of incredible programming with two powerful panels: Transgender Adoptees and Birth/First Parents, in addition to launching our six-session Conscious Adoption course: Seasoned Parents. A big thank you to our ten panelists and Maureen McCauley (co-creator and trainer for Seasoned Parents) for their time and dedication.
As we gear up for the summer, we are so excited to be invited to present three panels at the KAAN Conference in Denver, CO. More details below. We will also be hosting a unique We the Experts panel which will feature four adoptees sharing their experiences and views with pro-choice, estrangement from adoptive parents, adoption abolition and genetic sexual attraction (GSA). We believe each of these topics deserve their own panel AND we also recognize that these topics are not often discussed. This is our way of being intentional with sensitivity about bringing these subjects into the adoption conversation with our community
