Friday, November 27, 2015

Rooted to Resiliency: Resources & Wish List for the Global Adoption Community



Today’s Prompt: What are your go-to resources for information on and support of adoptee concerns? Share the websites, magazines, books, movies, songs, artists, etc. that are most meaningful to you and that you feel would benefit fellow adoptees on their journeys. Is there something you wish someone would make that just isn’t out there? 

'ROOTED TO RESILIENCY' RESOURCES: Of the hundreds I could share, these are some of my all-time favourites! [For a more complete list of resources, please visit our ONE WORLD: Chinese Adoptee Links blog at www.chineseadoptee.com.]


 Adopted, a doc by Barb Lee (one of my favourite adoption docs!)

Adoption Today Magazine
Adoptees United - The Netherlands
Chinese Adoptee Links (CAL) International
China’s Children International (CCI)
Deann Borshay Liem's films
I'm Legit (song by Zara Phillips, with DMC)

Land of Gazillion Adoptees (Online Magazine)
Ruthanne Lum McCunn's Thousand Pieces of Gold
The Music of Jared Rehberg
TheLostDaughters.com
Transracial Adoptee Group (Facebook Group led by Mark Hagland)

PART II: (WHAT I’D LIKE TO SEE/JENNIFER'S WISH LIST) 
"ADOPTION AWARENESS, EDUCATION & HISTORY" 

 (PLEASE NOTE: this list was compiled for THE LOST DAUGHTERS #flipthescript #NAM2015 with the help of my fabulous "big sister, "Martha Siddeley - Thank you, Martha, for brainstorming with me for hours about the needs of the adoption community! Martha was adopted domestically, and I was adopted internationally & transracially, so it was fascinating to compare notes and brainstorm about community needs together coming from our very different backgrounds, countries and adoption experiences.)

  • More Adoption History, Awareness & Education
  • More opportunities to interact with global adoption communities
  • More Organised Support for Child Bereavement (in general) on a Global Level
  • Opportunities for Global Adoption Leadership Conferences around the world for all members of the adoption community
  • Exchanging our stories in more intimate and interactive ways (across race, class, country & generations)
  • More post-adoption support for all triad members
  • More sophisticated language for the adoption experience, including a more nuanced language for "adoption loss"
  • Groups created by adopted individuals that not only gaze inwardly (focusing on adoption concerns), but also gaze outwardly, using adoption experiences as a platform for helping other communities around the world
  • MENTORSHIP Networks for the global adoption community
  • Search & Reunion Support Networks, Mentorship, and Coaching
  • Life Coaching...when you don't have access to your own roots!
  • Universal acknowledgement that adopted individuals have the RIGHT TO CHANGE THEIR MINDS -- even, and especially about, their own adoptions & adoption stories (several times if necessary) -- over the course of their lives! Universal acknowledgement that TOLERANCE & RESPECT is necessary to grow and foster a fantastic legacy for future generations of orphaned, fostered and adopted children.
  • Global Adoption 24/7 Hotline
  • GLOBAL DISCUSSIONS ABOUT WHAT OUR LEGACY WILL BE FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS -- ADOPTION LEADERS AROUND THE WORLD, YOU ARE KINDLY SUMMONED FOR CONVERSATIONS THAT COULD CHANGE THE WORLD...
  • THE LOST DAUGHTERS "ONE WORLD ORAL HISTORY LEGACY PROJECT" (concept created by Jennifer Jue-Steuck & Martha Siddeley) -- Why wait for historians to write about our lives? Why not record our own histories for a global archive, one interview at a time?  By interviewing one fellow adopted individual (or adoptive parent), you are depositing archives and records into our own global history bank. (More details to come.)


Jennifer's adoptive grandmother, LUCY JUE, 1911-1995, was also a Chinese adoptee. 

THE LOST DAUGHTERS "ONE WORLD ORAL HISTORY LEGACY PROJECT" 

(FIRST ORAL INTERVIEW CONTRIBUTED)


Interviewer: Jennifer Jue-Steuck

Name of Interviewee: Lucy Jue

 Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California

Orphaned: at age 7 (when both parents tragically died in the international influenza epidemic)

Date of Oral Interview: 1989 

Location of Interview: Laguna Beach, Orange County, California

Despite growing up in various foster families in Los Angeles before her later adoption, Lucy Jue became the first woman and the first person of colour to attend university in her Los Angeles community during the late 1920s. She graduated with a major in French from UCLA (on a full scholarship), and then boarded a steamship to teach English in Shanghai during the glamorous 1930s, when Shanghai was considered the "Paris of Asia."
[More details to come.]
******


QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Now I understand that I was grieving in the same way someone who lost a loved one grieves around the anniversary of the event every year. Except my grief is not the death of a loved one, it is the absence of a loved one – the absence of the mother who carried me in her womb for nine months. The absence of a mother who kept me for the first two weeks of my life, and suddenly decided that she could not keep me, and left me alone. I am grieving for a biological maternal bond, I am grieving for my grandparents and lost genetics, I am grieving for the roots of my personality and intellect. I am grieving for the life I never had...."


Native Province: Taipei & Jiangsu (mainland China) Hometown: Laguna Beach (OC), California Arrived in the USA: Dec 1979 / Jan 1980 Education: NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts & Harvard Generation: G2, “A Global Generation” Proud Big Sister of: Chris (from Seoul, South Korea) Why This Blog: “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” —Helen Keller

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