TITLE: Adoptees & Our Relationship with Our Fathers

DESCRIPTION

With Father's Day right around the corner, we are focusing this month on the relationships we have in our lives with fathers. This portion of the adoptee experience often goes unacknowledged and rarely discussed. In this powerful panel, we will be diving into several different adoptee experiences with the fathers in our lives (birth fathers, adoptive fathers, foster fathers, men in our lives who have played the role of father). Join me as four male adoptees share their experiences as to how adoption and their relationship to fathers/fatherhood has shaped who they are today.

PANELISTS

Jake Taylor-Mosquera was born in Cali, Colombia and adopted at seven months to a family in Washington state. He has returned to Colombia seven times, having lived and worked there while searching for, and finding his biological mother. He is now in his 12th year of searching for his biological father, who does not know he exists. Jacob maintains a loving relationship with his adoptive father, but topics surrounding race, ethnicity and privilege do not arise.

Chris Carr was adopted from Seoul, South Korea through Korean Social Services in 1990 to a family near Columbus, Ohio. In 2008, he traveled to Korea with the Korean Ties Program and was able to meet his biological parents/family. Since then, he has kept in touch and visits when possible. His adoptive and biological fathers have not met yet, but Chris hopes one day they will be able to. In the fall of 2019, during a visit to Korea, Chris learned additional pieces of his adoption story and hopes the healing process for everyone can begin.

Danni (Mar) Riano was adopted transracially in Colombia and lived there with his adoptive parents and adoptive Colombian brother until the age of four. His family then moved to the US with his American father and Colombian mother in 1994 where he was raised in Minnesota and Nebraska. He’s been in reunion with his biological parents for the last two years. He has a complicated relationship with his adopted father but has found a new healing relationship with his biological father.

Blake Gibbins is a queer domestic Adoptee, and resident of Colorado. They are in a master's program studying child welfare history, policy, and trends in social values and beliefs. Blake is the curator of Not Your Orphan, a YouTube channel covering Adoptee-centric topics and discussions. In the past two years Blake met their first/birth father, and also lost their Adoptive father; “I am humbled to have the opportunity to discuss the concept of fatherhood with fellow adoptees.”