An Adoption Memoir with Susan Ito

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Join us for a wonderful discussion with author and performer Susan Kiyo Ito about her new memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere. This is a book adoptive parents should read!

In this episode, we cover:

• It felt like much of the tension between you and your birth mother was due to her desire to keep you a secret and your desire to be seen. And also her desire to be in control of this relationship.
• The harsh reality that adoption reunions between adoptees and birth families can be fraught with lots of conflicting emotions. In the book I Would Meet You Anywhere, you describe this tension. “Once again, I was the secret held by our mother. I was wilting under the weight of all the not telling. Still, I couldn't resist Yumi’s siren call. I would crash on the rocks of her.” 
• It’s not about us—the adoptive parents. It was your quest to be whole. Talk with us about your relationship with your parents—your adoptive parents –and yet still feeling a longing to understand and connect with your biological parents and roots. 
• Did reunion change your concept of what family is?
• Primal wound.
• Why is the phrase “You’re so lucky” so off the mark, even for someone like you who had what seems like a loving, not idyllic, but fine upbringing?
• Japanese American parents raised you, but you sometimes felt not Japanese enough because of your white biological father. How have you made meaning out of your “biracialness”? 
• The importance of being in a community with other adopted people.
• Has your birth mother read the book, and if so, has it impacted your relationship?

This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

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Support the show

Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.

Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building