The Open Adoption Project

0:12This is the Open Adoption Project, a podcast where we listen and learn from voices all across the adoption constellation. We're really glad that you found us. I'm Lynette Nelson. And I'm Sean Nelson. And we live in the Mountain West here in the United States and are the adoptive parents of four children. As a family, we really love hiking and road trips and beach days, especially beach days, movie nights. And we also probably have too much ice cream in our freezer. And we

0:43have really open adoptions in our family. They consist of regular in -home visits with each of our kids' birth families. And we have been so blessed by this. All four of our adoptions have included involvement from both of our kids' birth parents. And we have contact with so many extended family members of each of our kids, too. Yeah, in fact, our kids would claim that they have more than 16 grandparents who love them and support them. It's so much fun to see

1:13them interact with them and to receive this extra love and support from so many people. Yeah I would say that some of these family members have really adopted our family too which is just a huge blessing. So we are huge advocates for open adoption because we see it bless our family and our kids. Yeah we created this podcast originally to share our own experience with adoption. because we were getting a lot of questions from friends and you know we were meeting with people in our living room and on the phone and over zoom and

1:44we just wanted a place where we could share some of the things that we've learned that were not perfect at being adoptive parents. Yeah we're definitely yeah still learning but specifically open adoption is what we get a lot of questions about because it's a somewhat newer way of approaching adoption and a lot of people get really intimidated by this idea of openness. And so we love openness, we practice pre -liberal openness and we love

2:14it. And so that's really why we're here and why this all started. Yeah, so we started with our own story, but over time it really took on its own life and we found a lot of fulfillment and joy in connecting with others in the adoption sphere and sharing from their experiences and perspectives. So our podcast library includes interviews with adoptees, with birth parents, adoptive parents, you know, adopt adoption scholars, authors, professionals, lawyers. I mean, the

2:44list goes on and on. We have a lot of episodes here from so many different individuals that we hope will help educate you wherever you are in your adoption journey. Or if you're connected to someone who is or was adopted, this is the place for you. We've had some really incredible guests on our show. It's been really amazing to connect with all of these people. And I feel like it's really become a valuable, incredible resource. And that's not really because of us. It's because of the people who share and are

3:17so generous with their time. with sharing something so personal. It has really blessed us and helped us and we are so grateful to be a part of this resource. As a couple, we don't profit from doing this podcast, but to keep the podcast going, Lynette did write an adoption openness guide. The guide is tailored toward adoptive parents. If you're interested in purchasing that, you can go to our website at openadoptionproject .org. You can find a couple of links there. You can also find it on Amazon if you search Lynette's

3:47name. And either way, all proceeds from the adoption guide. go right back into the podcast. This really is just a passion project. We love doing it, but it does help us keep the lights on and keep things going here. So we really appreciate support with that. And we hope that the guide is a valuable resource for people too. So if you're an adoptee or a birth parent and you'd like to share your own experience. on the show, please reach out to us. The reason this podcast is still going is so that we can share more adoptee and parent

4:18experiences. Yeah, we have listeners worldwide, and we really love hearing how the show is helping others in the adoption community around the world. It's incredible to see. And all perspectives are welcome here. Our goal is to listen with an open heart. We really want to avoid creating an echo chamber. We want adoptive parents especially. to be practicing this kind of open -hearted listening. We believe really firmly that that better prepares adopted parents to hear and help adopted children.

4:50with their own adoption experiences. Yeah, and we believe that listening to birth parents and their experiences will help adoptive parents forge stronger connections in open adoptions. If you decide to listen to the podcast in chronological order, I think it's interesting to note that our own hearts have maybe opened and changed as we've been able to listen to more perspectives by doing this show. And so maybe the early days of the show will have a different feel than the later days of the show. I think you can like literally see the power of listening as our own

5:21perspectives expand throughout the show, which is kind of a fun thing to see. But yeah, there's just a huge library and a lot of different experiences. Those first few episodes, there are maybe more of us sharing our own adoption story than what people might want to hear. But there are some great interviews with others in the community and I highly recommend all of those. Yeah, and so as you listen to more people, we'd encourage you to reflect on your own experiences. and how listening to those may challenge your own beliefs.

5:52I think that that's a really important thing that we do to intentionally grow and become more empathetic and understanding. You're welcome, obviously, to scroll through all the episodes and just listen to ones that stand out to you based on their title. We really just want to encourage you to listen and to become more educated and understand more people's experiences. We've had some incredible guests on the show. We look forward to sharing many more future guests. You can follow us on Instagram or on Facebook at

6:24Open Adoption Project. We're so grateful for the great community that we get to be part of and that you're joining us. Yeah, thank you so much for being here with us, for listening and learning with us. It's such a rewarding journey. Thanks.

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