A series of interviews with foster/adoptive families, adult adoptees, and adoption-support professionals in Windham County, VT – created by artist and educator Jo Dery and clinical social worker and psychotherapist Tamara Evanson, both foster/adoptive parents.
Children in foster care should be of concern to every Vermonter. In the past decade, our state’s child welfare system has been, and remains, under great stress. The themes touched on in these interviews include trauma, grief, resilience, celebration, and community – as well as the role that race, class, gender, and the opioid and housing crises play in why children end up in foster care in Vermont. Through centering foster/adoptive children’s and family’s memories of the past and dreams for the future, Adoption Stories paints a picture of the complex experience of these kids and families – full of love, loss, beauty, and pain.
Adoption Stories was funded in part by a Brattleboro Town Arts Fund grant.
Listen here for a sampling of Adoption Stories interviews.
For more, listen below or on our website!
12 Oct 2024
Welcome
Welcome to Adoption Stories - a series of audio interviews with foster/adoptive families, adult adoptees, and adoption support professionals in Windham County, Vermont.
Begin listening here to learn more about our project!
12 Oct 2024
Lorni Cochran
Lorni Cochran is a registered Somatic Movement Therapist. She practices a developmental form of Movement Therapy that works with the body, movement, and sensation to release restrictive habits and patterns that often have their roots in early experiences. Through both therapy and consulting, she has helped a wide variety of children, adults, and families. Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen OT, Daniel Hughes PhD, Bruce Perry MD, Bessel van der Kolk MD, Daniel Siegel MD, and Pat Ogden PhD have strongly influenced her work. Lorni is the mother of three children, one of whom is adopted.
In this interview, we talk with Lorni about the neurobiology of attachment, the inherent trauma of adoption itself, the behavioral and emotional regulation challenges faced by adopted children, why holidays, birthdays, and school can be triggering, and how parents and teachers can help kids find a "window of tolerance" for living and learning.
Content warning: Family separation.
12 Oct 2024
Sarah Crozier
Sarah Crozier is a Case Manager with Northeast Family Institute. She works with children, their families, and community partners using the ARC framework to help build a family’s capacity to integrate trauma experience. ARC stands for attachment, regulation, and competency. This framework is used as a guide when working with children and families to help them better understand what impact trauma has had on their lives, and to build skills to be successful within all environments by learning how to better regulate emotions and make quality personal and professional connections. In addition to her work with NFI, Sarah’s experience includes over 20 years of teaching in both public and private educational environments.
In this interview, we talk with Sarah about her background and training, NFI's wraparound program and model of "therapeutic relationships," the needs of biological and adoptive families in Windham County, trauma integration, and the road to self-acceptance.
Content warning: Abuse, neglect, poverty, the opioid epidemic.
12 Oct 2024
Lissa Schneckenburger and Corey DiMario
Lissa Schneckenburger is a singer, fiddler, composer, and activist based in Brattleboro. Thunder in my Arms was Lissa’s first release of all-original music, and a song-cycle about attachment, parenting, and developmental trauma – copies of which are donated to foster/adoptive families.
Corey DiMario is a double-bassist and proprietor of Patio Coffee in Brattleboro. Corey is a founding member of the string band Crooked Still, and has performed at major festivals and concert venues across North America, Europe and Australia.
Lissa and Corey are parents to Hunter, who was adopted as a toddler and is now 15 years old.
In this interview, we talk with Lissa and Corey about their brief consideration of private adoption, foster parent training, piecing together their child's personal history, the nature of memory, why babysitters and playdates can be tricky, and Lissa's policy advocacy work with Vermont Foster/Adoptive Family Alliance.
12 Oct 2024
Alex Fischer
Alex Fischer is a queer non-binary Sicilian Jew and a single adoptive parent living in Brattleboro, VT. They are a member of A Bookkeeper Cooperative, a unionized worker-owned cooperative that focuses on financial management for the solidarity economy & social movements. When not making spreadsheets & budgets, they can be found laughing outside in a garden, lake or the ocean; organizing around prison abolition and racial justice; and making art & food for loved ones. After years of working to support queer and trans youth, they were given the opportunity to adopt and be adopted by their amazing kid, made possible by the depth of support from their queer family.
In this interview, we talk to Alex Fischer about creating chosen family through adoption and community building, the importance of queer family, the needs of queer, trans, and BIPOC youth and teens in the foster care system, what it's like to be a solo parent in a multi-racial family, and the perks of getting "a free name change" when adopted.
Content warning: Transphobia, racism, classism, ageism, sibling separation, death of a family member.
12 Oct 2024
The Cavanaugh Family
Lise Cavanaugh is a public librarian in Westminster West, Vermont. Originally from Denmark, Lise moved to Vermont in 2000. Twelve years ago, she became the foster parent to siblings Jasmine and Sklyer, and six years later, to Grayson – all of whom are now adopted. Lise and the kids share their home with a collection of cats, dogs, chickens, and horses.
In this interview, we talk with Lise, Jasmine, Skyler, and Grayson about continuing to welcome foster kids into their home, what it's like to be adopted biological siblings, homeschooling and family activism, embracing Danish holiday traditions, memories of Judge Pu, and their Adoption Day paddling adventures.
12 Oct 2024
The Mercer Family
Donna and Maxine (Max) Mercer live in Brattleboro, with their cat Lily. Donna was born in Colebrook, NH, where she graduated high school in 1977. After hitchhiking across the US, she settled in Washington, became a mother, and worked as a surgical technician. After returning to New England, Donna was involved in a horrible head-on collision that left her disabled. Donna was 54 years old when her granddaughter, Max, was born. Max is now an eighth grader and has lived with Donna since she was an infant.
In this interview, we talk with Donna and Max about their kinship adoption story, what it's like to parent again as a grandmother, how to share a child's story in an age-appropriate way, the housing requirements that foster care and kinships placements must meet, and Max's love of ice cream and swimming. We even talk about how she was tricked into eating rabbit on Adoption Day!
12 Oct 2024
The McLaughlin Family
Liz Dimick and Zach McLaughlin met while teaching at Marshwood High School in South Berwick, Maine. Liz was a special educator and Zach taught Social Studies. After living on the Cape for a year, Liz and Zach relocated to Liz's hometown of Brattleboro, Vermont. After facing challenges with fertility, Liz and Zach became foster parents to 6 year old Mary in 2015. A few years later, Ginger joined their home as a foster placement. Both girls have since been adopted. Liz and Zach are now working as school administrators and the family has relocated to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
In this interview, we talk with the McLaughlin's about the girls' first impressions of Liz and Zach, their family traditions, and Mary's dream of going to Egypt – as well as the uncertainty of foster care, the importance of honesty and transparency, what it's like to parent adopted non-biological siblings, and when offering permanency isn't possible.
12 Oct 2024
Abby Jacobson
Abby Jacobson is a professional Adoptee Counselor, bringing over 20 years of experience from her previous career as a psychotherapist and substance abuse counselor. As a result of Abby’s familiarity with being a foster child, an adoptee, and a clinician, she is able to offer support, mentoring, and coaching to individuals who have experienced the process of adoption, both adults and youth alike. Coming from a family with 4 generations of adoptions, this is an issue she is very familiar with and which originally led her into the field of counseling.
In this interview, we talk to Abby about her kinship adoption story, how generations of adoption created gaps in her family history, her deep connection to her grandmother, giving her two sons the stability she didn't have in early childhood, her cancer diagnosis and recovery, the healing power of animals, and reconnecting with her biological brother after 15 years.
Content warning: Family separation, cancer.
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