We the Experts: Adoptee and Non-Adoptee Panel Series
Panelists will share what it means to navigate grief alongside the emotions and complexities of making contact with birth/first family, including the loss of time, unanswered questions, emerging relationships, and the opportunity to know someone only briefly, or not at all. Together, they will explore the deeply personal experience of holding connection and loss at the same time, and the ways adoptees make meaning of relationships, identity, grief, and remembrance.
Points to Ponder:
How can contact with birth family and grief exist at the same time, especially when a relationship is newly forming or never had the chance to begin?
What kinds of grief can arise when an adoptee loses a birth family member soon after making contact, or learns that person died before they could ever meet?
How might death affect an adoptee’s sense of identity, belonging, family connection, and the questions they hoped contact might help answer?
What do adoptees need from family members, professionals, and their communities when navigating the layered experiences of contact, reunion, death, and unresolved loss?
We the Experts: Adoptee Series
Date: The 2nd Saturday of January, February, March, October, November,
& December
Time: 10 AM - 12 PM PT on Zoom
We the Experts: Non-Adoptee & Mixed Panel Series
Date: The 2nd Saturday of April September
Time: 10 AM - 12 PM PT on Zoom
About We the Experts
We the Experts (WTE) is an adoptee-centered space where adoptees and others are invited to sit in community to listen to a myriad of lived experiences. Non-adoptees are invited to attend as listeners and learners only.
Each panel is recorded and made available to registrants with a list of resources after each event. Topics have included: LGBTQ+ and Adoptee Identity, Adoptees and Reunion, Transracial Adoptee Identity, Adoptees & Substance Use, Birth/First Parents, Adoptees and Religion.
We hold WTE once a month.
Purchase access to all WTE events for a year (this includes access to the entire WTE Recording Library!)
We the Experts: Non-Adoptee Panel Series
WTE non-adoptee events feature non-adoptees from birth parents to adoptive parents, adult children of adoptees to partners of adoptees. We hold WTE Non-adoptee events quarterly.
Bringing a non-adopted support person?
AWESOME!!! Please note we request non-adoptees agree to our “Non-Adoptee Understanding” that means their primary intention is to listen and learn and non-adoptee attendees agree that they will NOT engage in the chat or submit questions to the panelists.
Tickets
Attendance fee is $10 for adoptees, $15 for non-adoptees. No adoptee is turned away due to financial hardship.
Contact hello@adoptionmosaic.com to learn more about how donations are used.
To attend using community funded support, click here:
Donations help make it possible for adoptees experiencing financial hardship to attend.
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Non-Adoptee Panelist Interest Form
Click here if you’re interested in being featured on one!
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Adoptee Panelist Interest Form
Willing to be featured on a panel? Fill out our interest form!
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Library of Panel Recordings
Over 50 panel recordings available for personal purchase.
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Access Your Panel Recordings
View your panel recordings in your account.
Hear from our community!
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"Adoption Mosaic is a solid rock, in the midst of a sea of information [and] misinformation. When I want information, resources, and learning opportunities I can trust, I turn to Adoption Mosaic."
~Rachel Ginnochio, adoptive parent
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"Astrid brought together my bio mom and me after I learned I was adopted for the first time at age 44... and was a wonderful successful reunion because of Astrid’s guidance. Cannot recommend her enough."
~ Debbie Earl, adoptee
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"[Adoption Mosaic's] offerings are varied, thoughtful, provocative and powerful in the way they put adoptees first...We are relieved, as parents of young adult adoptees, to have found this resource."
Sue Unkenholz, adoptive parent
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"The way that Adoption Mosaic’s Team run ‘We The Experts’ creates an immensely safe space with healthy boundaries and a place to focus on the rich content... Being a panelist was a wonderful opportunity to share and be connected to other adoptees."
Suzanne Bachner, adoptee
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"Adoption Mosaic has been a huge support for us in navigating issues around transracial adoption and reunion with birth family. Adoption Mosaic helps me be a more compassionate parent."
Karen Orth, adoptive parent
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"I'm a Late Discovery Adoptee...I wish I had discovered Adoption Mosaic at the beginning of my journey. This is a stellar organization, headed by phenomenal people who care greatly, and offer a safe place to seek out unique paths towards healing."
Carlyn Montes de Oca, adoptee
