My wife and I adopted Leah from the Philippines just over 30 years ago. It’s been many years of love and joy matched by anger, depression and fear. Adoption Unplugged is a (soon-to-be-published) memoir dedicated to that story.
The truth is, at times adoption can be gut-wrenching and utterly devastating, and writing about particular incidents can help to clarify the larger import of what is often quite confusing when it happens. That’s exactly what transpired when I wrote my first serious adoption story for the writing group my wife and I were attending at the time. I found that I had to dive deep into both the literature and into my own thoughts and emotions in order to make sense of certain events that had happened. It was cathartic.
A few months later, after a few more adoption stories were written and read to the group, the idea was born to connect the pieces into a larger work. Over time I managed to create enough chapters that a possible structure to the stories emerged, and the idea of completing a memoir morphed from being a vague notion in my mind to being a real possibility. And yet, years later when I finally reached this stage, I find myself amazed to have finished the manuscript and immersed myself in the editing and publishing phases.
Our daughter, in case you were wondering, has followed the progress of the work and is fully behind the project. She (and the rest of our family) hope that it will be helpful to other adoptees and adopters who are facing the same challenges, or at least will let them know that they are not alone. Personally, I also would be thrilled if others having no direct connection to adoption find the narrative compelling.
This particular website started many years ago as a blog for my wife, our daughter and me to write about our adoption experiences as a family but, after a bumpy start, we let other priorities capture our time and stopped posting. Now, as part of the process of bringing the memoir to fruition, I’ve resurrected the site to talk about the book and track progress towards getting it published.
Thanks for visiting. Please have a look around and feel free to leave a comment.
Jay
