8000 Promises: Season 1 (Learn, Live, Launch) Episode 2 : Living into the Season You Are In
Lori Holden, author, blogger, podcaster and friend, joins me to talk about the work she's embracing in her newest season as well as to reflect on the journey that's led her here. (Please forgive the audio glitches - I think I've figured them out and all should be well by episode 3). Enjoy tuning in to Lori's wisdom around embracing BothAnd experiences, benefitting from the seeds planted that turn into a new fruitful season and learning from the voices of adoption not often lifted in mainstream adoption media: the adoptee and the birthparent voice.
Lori Holden aims to transform adoption through openness, which she defines as dealing with What Is. Lori begins with the premise that adoption creates a split in a person between their biology (nature) and their biography (nurture). Through her writing, workshops, webinars, and podcast, Lori takes people from an Either/Or mindset – prevalent in the closed adoption period – to the more connected and integrated BothAnd heartset.
Lori’s book The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption: Helping Your Child Grow Up Whole is on required reading lists at adoption agencies around the country, offering guidance on how parents can help their children heal the split between their biology and their biography. Her monthly podcast Adoption: The Long View, brings conversations with guests who speak from their lived experience on the marathon that is adoptive parenting, a "what I wish I'd known earlier" approach. Lori encourages us to parent with openness and intention.
Lori lives near Denver, CO. She and her husband are parents-by-adoption to two young adults. She has been listening to adoption perspectives during her 15 years of writing at the award-winning site, LavenderLuz.com. She has written for publications like Adoptive Families magazine and Parenting magazine. She has presented for audiences as diverse as the Bethany Christian Services, the National Council For Adoption, the University of Denver, Chinese Heritage Camps, and the American Adoption Congress. In 2018 Lori was named an Angel in Adoption by Senator Michael Bennet and honored by the Congressional Coalition for Adoption Institute.
Also check out Amara's Adoption Openness Assessmentand the video Lori talks about during the podcast.
