My Adoption Story

What this episode is about

Hallie shares something she had never fully talked about on the show: her adoption story. She joined her family at three months old, the fourth of what became eight kids. None of them were biological siblings, none of them looked alike, and all of them were family.

She talks about growing up biracial in a mostly white Christian home, the questions strangers asked out loud, feeling like the other in every room, her brother with fetal alcohol syndrome, and the words her dad said to the caseworker that still mean everything to her. It is warm, funny in places, and deeply personal.

Chapters

1. 0:00Opening my closet
2. 0:40Adopted as a baby
3. 1:39Growing up in the church
4. 2:39How my parents found me
5. 3:08Growing up with a special needs sibling
6. 3:53Adoption day stories
7. 4:51Adoption is a gift
8. 5:59Eight kids, one family
9. 7:53A brother less than a year apart
10. 8:30Feeling disoriented and different
11. 10:35Not fitting in, and being okay with it
12. 11:42Life in a big multiracial family
13. 13:15Wanting to be a Cheetah Girl
14. 13:51Wrap up and a question for you

Takeaways

• Family is built, not just born
• Being different can be okay, even good
• The stories our parents tell us about ourselves stay with us

A question to sit with

• What does family mean to you, beyond biology?