The feeling is mutual, @thesusanito.bsky.social! Thank you for the repost. 💙🥚

Thank you for reading it!

I Was 3 When I Watched My Father Kill My Mother And Himself. Years Later, I Uncovered The Truth Of What Happened. "The explanation complicated the narrative that I had come to understand throughout my upbringing — the one that had kept me from wanting to know more."

This story is about how we hold complexity for difficult truths and learn to see beyond pain and cultural stereotypes.

By far, my most vulnerable and challenging piece yet.

#writing #ptsd #adoption

www.huffpost.com/entry/father...

Wonderful conversation with Stephen Robinson, aka
@playtyperguy.com, about cross-cultural adoption, identity, and the memoir that I am querying. Thanks again for having me on, Stephen.

I want what you’re having!

1000%.

I caught a few minutes. It was quite lovely!

I think there’s good wisdom to be found in letting yourself do what feels good.

Dream big and while it shouldn’t have had to be your responsibility, find a way in adulthood to give yourself what the child you needed.

It depends on what your definition of healing is. As a therapist myself, I consider healing a lifelong journey. So, coming out of the fog, you will heal, yes. Many times. Over and over again.

A clean kind of pain. I hope that in the end that has only mitigated any additional harm and allowed for more healing for you. ❤️‍🩹

Mine is definitely too loud to ignore. 😂

Edit: In the end, this only hurts me.

That doesn't mean I'm not angry. This doesn't mean I'm not sad. It just means that I am trying to focus on what I can control, and that I don't want to give them more power than they've taken over how I move forward.

in the same way I choose to forgive to minimize the power others' actions have over how I move forward, I choose to love. On a very practical level, I do this so I don't spend my life wishing my family to be different than they are (because in the end, this only me).

@glenncurry.bsky.social and @guswatanabe.bsky.social, a big part of my abuse occurred through denial of my identity, including my ethnic and cultural identity. Healing involved reclaiming myself. It's not an uncomplicated love, but...

To which I say (to all colorblind adoptive parents), if you don't see color, how can you truly see me?

I was adopted as a child by an American family. They still can't pronounce my name correctly. I was adopted when I was 5, and my parents Americanized my name. I've been trying to correct my family for 18 years.

I’ve been asking my family to pronounce my name correctly for 18 years, which is over half of my life. They still can’t do it. This essay is about how we honor who we are and where we come from when the people who we love can’t (or won’t).

www.businessinsider.com/my-family-ca...

That’s me! 😍

Big thank you, Cammie! ❤️

Are you open for memoirs?

Thank you!

Loss, Side Effects May Include — Write or Die Magazine In Bulgaria, where I am born and live until the age of five, I lose my life. You never hear it referred to in such a melodramatic way, but that is what it feels like to be adopted at an age you remem...

Biggest thank you to Kailey Brennan DelloRusso and Ashleah Gonzalez for selecting my essay to be featured in this month’s issue of Write or Die Magazine.

writeordiemag.com/elliptical-l...

I have to believe something good can come of this. I have to believe, because the minute I stop believing is the minute I lose my ability to do anything about it.
#inauguration

This. All of this. But make it memoir. It’s in your inbox.

Two smiling women in glasses overlooking the water and an island in the distance

Two smiling women one in graying chin length hair and glasses and the other with long curly dark hair, standing next to a white curtain

Loved having two adoptee meetups this week! 🥚@saraeasterlyauthor.bsky.social @mirellastoyanova.bsky.social

I credit the amazing and talented @smashfizzle.bsky.social.

One week later and it still hasn't set in. After 3+ years, my manuscript of my debut memoir is finally query ready. #writingcommunity #amwriting #amquerying

Review | Adoption Unfiltered: Revelations from Adoptees, Birth Parents, Adoptive Parents and Allies "By flattening the adoption experience and upholding principles of patriarchy, capitalism, racism, and classism, these tropes do real damage to everyone in the adoption constellation."

Thank you to @raisingmothers.bsky.social for publishing my review of ADOPTION UNFILTERED, a much needed, first-of-its-kind resource on adoption's complexities for everyone in the constellation.

raisingmothers.substack.com/p/review-ado...