Our new Media Specialist Lesa Ferguson asks for Adoption Stories
In my senior year of high school, the drama department put on a mime show. Our drama teacher hired a professional mime to teach us and to direct the show. After watching me do a bit of mime, the director put his hand on my back and said kindly and quietly, “Perhaps, you should be the emcee.” And that was the end of my mime career. I was the only performer who stood still and talked during the show.
So here I am again—this time I am sitting still and using my voice through the written word and images. Officially I am the new media specialist at Adoption STAR but in this case, I like to think of myself as an emcee. Instead of introducing teen-agers miming video games, I hope to emcee adoption stories. Most of us who come to Adoption STAR’s website, blog or social media platforms (i.e. our Facebook or Twitter page) have been “touched by adoption.” Some of us are an adoptee, part of a birth or adoptive family, an adoption or health care professional, or a friend of someone involved in an adoption.
A year ago, my husband Dave and I adopted our beautiful son, Cal, through Adoption STAR. The process surprised me. I started out casually acquainted with adoption (everyone knows someone who has been adopted). I became thoroughly immersed and then transformed. I know I am not alone. Whether you are placing, adopting or supporting someone through the process, adoption is the stuff of life. As in any community we share a common thread that binds us together: here, at the agency, we are all interested in adoption but each of us comes to it uniquely. Adoption is transformative. It is my experience that the stories are dynamic, bittersweet, heartrendingly honest and true to life.
I ask that you share your adoption story with me and then on the pages of this blog. I promise to be a good emcee. I will encourage you to share. I will prompt you when you aren’t sure what to say. I will protect your privacy if that is your wish. “Anonymous” works for me.
You can write out your story or I will email you questions and you can answer them.
What matters most is that you find the words to share your journey. Perhaps it’s the story of how you paged through profile books to choose a family to raise your baby. How did you make that decision? Or the first time you met your adopted child’s birthmother. Maybe you are a nurse who watched a birthmother leave the maternity ward as an adoptive family walked in. Are you an adult adoptee in search of your biological family? We would love to hear from adoption professionals: share stats, tell us your story. No two stories will be the same but each of us will be able to relate in some way to all of them.
On occasion, I will join the act. Before I became the media specialist, I wrote a few essays for the Adoption STAR blog (see the links below). You will hear about my husband Dave, my sons Sam and Cal, and my large extended family. I will write about our continuing quest to get it right as a transracial family; or perhaps, Cal’s birthmom (if/when that is comfortable and right for her). I like to write about my gal pals who have been “touched by adoption” (one of them has already written the entry The More the Merrier ). I will share as openly and honestly as I can. I don’t feel right asking others to be candid if I am not.
Incidentally, I didn’t stand perfectly still during the mime show. The director let me pretend to pull the invisible rope that opened the invisible curtain for the audience to see the next act. I hope I can do the same for you.
Email me at [email protected] . I look forward to hearing from you.
Read More Adoption Stories: Dana and Waynes’ Story, An Adoptee’s Journey: Christian’s Story, Waiting by Lesa Ferguson, The Adoption Posse by Lesa Ferguson, A Sister’s Surrogate Pregnancy, Placing Your Child for Adoption: C’s Story