625: Melissa Guida-Richards: What White Parents Should Know About Transracial Adoption

Melissa Guida-Richards is a Shameless Mom to two little boys and the author of WHAT WHITE PARENTS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION. Melissa uses her gift of writing to help other adoptees and adoptive families. Her work has been featured in The Independent, Zora, Insider, HuffPo, Level at Medium, Electric Literature, Hello Giggles. And she had a viral Huffpost Article, My Adoptive Parents Hid My Racial Identity For 19 Years. She is also a contributing writer for The Everymom.

I am in a Facebook group for writers and when Melissa shared a bit of her story in that group, I immediately reached out to ask her if she’d be willing to join me here on the podcast. I’m so grateful that she said yes.  

Listen in to hear Melissa share:

• Her adoption story of being adopted from an orphanage in Colombia, being raised in New York, and not being told she was adopted until age 19
• The process of discovering she was Latina, not Portuguese Italian, as her family had led her to believe
• The process of having her article, My Adoptive Parents Hid My Racial Identity For 19 Years, go viral
• The evolution of her relationship with her parents in the years after discovering she was adopted
• What inspired her to write her first book, What White Parents Should Know About Transracial Adoption
• Important notes for white adoptive parents or prospective white adoptive parents
• Her experience of finding her biological sisters and mom
• How having her own children created an entire process of grieving around her adoption
• How she’s connected to her Colombian culture as an adult and as a mom raising Colombian sons

Links mentioned:

• Join me in Jen Lumanlan’s 10-week Taming Your Triggers workshop: shamelessmom.com/taming
• Connect with Melissa: AdopteeThoughts.com 
• Melissa’s Book, What White Parents Should Know About Transracial Adoption
• Melissa on IG

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