We the Experts

Adoptee & Non-Adoptee
Online Speaker Series

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!)

Annual Subscription

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.

Adoptees, Reunion & Death

November 14th, 2026
10:00 am-12:00 pm PT Zoom

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?

Register

Adoptee Community Support

2026 Schedule

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