S11, Ep. 18: Kim

Award-winning author and journalist Kim Orendor was adopted at three months old. Her parents told her about the day she joined their family, along with other stories at bedtime. Kim continues to share her own story with others and has authored an adoption-themed young adult novel. She lives in Northern California.

Kim's YA fiction story "To Whom It May Concern" with an adoption theme, won the NextGen INDIE gold medal.

S11, Ep. 17: Tim

Tim Perdion was born in 1969 and relinquished for adoption at birth. Around two months later, he was adopted into a loving family in Ohio. Though surrounded by care and support, he carried a quiet ache beneath the surface—a longing to understand his identity and a sense of not fully belonging. These hidden wounds, rooted in adoption, shame, and early emotional neglect, followed him into adulthood.

At 46, Tim reunited with both of his biological parents. While the experience offered long-awaited answers, it also opened the door to secondary rejection and a deeper unraveling of his story. This turning point led to a season of intense self-reflection, healing, and transformation—moving from a life driven by performance and self-protection into one anchored in vulnerability, purpose, and connection.

Today, Tim is a senior leader in a private equity-backed professional services firm. Outside of work, he serves as a life coach, speaker, and mentor, walking alongside high-achieving men who look successful on the outside but feel lost or empty on the inside. He facilitates men’s groups focused on accountability, emotional honesty, and growth—creating spaces where men can be fully seen, supported, and known.

Tim’s journey is a story of healing, hope, and rediscovery. He’s passionate about helping others break generational cycles, find clarity in who they are, and live with greater intention, freedom, and wholeness.

S11, Ep. 16: Abby

Dr. Abigail Hasberry is an author, speaker, and educator. She is also a certified executive leadership coach, licensed clinical marriage and family therapist, and holds a school superintendent certification. With a background in education as a former teacher and founding school principal, she has experience in private, traditional public, and charter schools.

Dr. Hasberry holds a Bachelor of Science degree in African American studies and sociology, a Master of Arts in teaching, K-12, a Master of Education in counseling and development, a
Master of Science degree in industrial/organizational psychology, and a Ph.D. in curriculum & instruction.

She is the author of The R3 Framework, a workbook for healing difficult relationships, Living Life on Purpose, for a Purpose, and with a Purpose: 15 Identity Affirming Lessons, and her memoir, Adopting Privilege. She has also authored research on identity development.

Abby is currently serving as a board member for Adoption Knowledge Affiliates and as an Ad Hoc Reviewer for the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy’s Minority Fellowship Program.

Dr. Hasberry's research and publications focus on identity development, diversity, and the experiences of black teachers in private, affluent, and predominantly white schools. As a therapist, her practice predominantly serves adoptees and birth parents. She is also actively involved in training therapists on adoption-informed practices and has been a speaker on adoption, identity development, parenting, and trauma in various keynotes, panels, podcasts, workshops, conferences, and webinars.

In addition to working as a therapist, Abby has a thriving executive leadership coaching and consulting practice. Her clients are primarily BIPOC founders and leaders of startup organizations. She pairs her experiences as a coach and a therapist when presenting on workplace wellness, founder challenges and solutions, finding and aligning to your purpose, and more.

Beyond her professional achievements, Dr. Hasberry is married and has raised three children. Her personal journey as a transracial adoptee and birth mom fuels her dedication to support adult adoptees and birth mothers in their own paths of healing and growth.

To find Dr. Hasberry: https://adoptingprivilege.com/

S11, Ep. 15: Susie

 Susie DeTitta was born in California in 1965 and adopted at three months old by a family unable to have children due to infertility. Her parents had previously adopted two other children. Shortly after her adoption, the family relocated to Arizona, where Susie spent her childhood and later attended university.

While in college, a spontaneous call with a friend to the adoption agency proved to be a dead end in her search for her biological roots. Years later, after moving to Portland, Oregon, a letter from the same agency reignited her curiosity—this time, it seemed someone might be looking for her. That intuition proved true: within months, Susie was reunited with her biological family. This marked the beginning of a 35-year journey of connection, discovery, and relationship-building. Throughout it all, Susie has maintained strong ties with both her adoptive and biological families, weaving together a rich and meaningful tapestry of identity—while continuing her personal search for belonging between two separate worlds and within herself.

S11, Ep. 14: Dave

Born in Long Island in 1966, Dave Verrone’s life began with separation — just five days after birth, he was placed with a foster family. For the next 14 months, he bonded deeply with his foster parents and three siblings. In October 1967, he joined the Verrone family, adjusting to his third mother, his father, and a new sister, also adopted.

Childhood brought both love and challenge. Though his adoptive parents cared for him deeply, their “clean slate” approach left Dave hesitant to ask about his origins, shaping him into a quiet “pleaser” who avoided rocking the boat. Separation anxiety, shyness, and self-doubt followed him, but so did perseverance.

Through life’s ups and downs - successes, losses, and moments of self-discovery - Dave built his own family and, in time, reconnected with his biological relatives. His journey is one of resilience, acceptance, and the enduring search for identity.

S11, Ep. 13: Karen

Karen was adopted domestically at birth, and found by her birth family at 29, and entered reunion soon after. The experience of merging her past and present was both transformational and complex, bringing up emotions and questions she hadn’t fully confronted before. During this time, Karen sought therapy but struggled to find someone who truly understood the adoptee experience. Many available therapists were adoptive parents—well-intentioned, but not individuals she felt safe opening up to. This gap in adoptee-centered care inspired Karen to return to graduate school in her 40s to become the kind of therapist she needed: someone with lived experience, deep empathy, and the tools to support others navigating the lifelong journey of adoption. Now, as an adoptee-competent therapist, Karen is committed to holding space for fellow adoptees as they explore identity, grief, belonging, and connection on their own terms.

S11, Ep. 12: Pete

Pete Droge is a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter based in Seattle, WA who rocketed to early stardom on the strength of his 1994 debut Necktie Second. The Los Angeles Times compared his songwriting to Bob Dylan and Neil Young while also earning similar praise from Rolling Stone and Boston Globe among many others, and within a year he was on the road supporting Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He has since released a series of well-received solo albums, composed a variety of works for film and television, and even appeared in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous.

Sixteen years ago, Pete Droge went looking for his birth mother; instead, he found her obituary. But rather than marking the end of the story, the discovery ultimately led him to reconnect with his surviving relatives and started a journey that would forever change his life and career. He explores it all with poetic grace on Fade Away Blue, a rich, revelatory sonic memoir that faces down doubt and despair with love, resilience, and commitment at every turn. The songs are bittersweet, balancing longing and gratitude in equal measure, and the arrangements are warm and inviting to match, with Droge's tender, comforting lyrics and easygoing, understated delivery.

Pete Droge

S11, Ep. 11: Bob

Bob Wilson an adoptee born in the early 1970s at the end of the Baby Scoop Era. During his childhood and young adulthood, he thought little about the fact that he was adopted. But after reading Ann Fessler’s groundbreaking book The Girls Who Went Away (2007) about adoption in mid-twentieth century America, he began the legal process of unsealing his adoption records and attempting to find his birthmother. He located and contacted his birthmother nearly two decades ago and has had a close relationship with her since then. In 2020, GeoHumanities published his essay “Relinquished,” a narrative of his birthmother’s fraught journey to surrender him for adoption and the legacy of that decision. “Relinquished” is a story of a birthmother and adoptee, but it also illuminates the history of adoption, abortion, and unplanned pregnancies in the decades before Roe v. Wade. He is currently associate professor of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, where he teaches courses in historical geography, environmental history, and the environmental humanities.

S11, Ep. 10: Mee Ok

Mee Ok Icaro (pronounced “Mee Oak Ee-car-oh”), is a unique and powerful voice in the world of visionary medicine and personal growth. As a Sacred Medicine Advisor and Integration Specialist, Life Purpose Coach and Guide, Writer and Book Doula Mee Ok is dedicated to helping individuals heal and find their path in life. She integrates many teachings from a variety of traditions, from ancient to modern.

With a passion for writing and a talent for prose, Mee Ok is an award-winning stylist and poet. Her work has appeared in notable publications like the LA Times, Boston Globe Magazine, and Michael Pollan’s Trips Worth Telling anthology. She was even featured in Gabor Maté’s New York Times bestseller The Myth of Normal and the Netflix docuseries [Un]Well. With over a decade of experience working with ayahuasca and dieting seven master plants, Mee Ok is curing a near-fatal autoimmune disease, scleroderma, and is dedicated to helping others heal and recover their birthright of authenticity and truth.

Mee Ok holds a BA in Philosophy from Boston University and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction, and has studied the history of sexuality and medicine at Harvard. She currently partners with Shipibo healers to offer ayahuasca retreats in Peru. With a diverse set of passions, including racial and disability equity, adoptee advocacy, social justice, film, literature, doggies, and drag, Mee Ok is a curious soul with a wealth of knowledge and experience she loves to share. HoldingCompassionate.space

Mee Ok (pronounced "Mee Oak") 

Stay Current: Substack Newsletter

Professional Offerings: HoldingCompassionate.space

Personal Writing: Mee-ok.com

S11, Ep. 9: Simon

Simon Njoroge is an adopted person from Kenya. He has been involved in the child care reform agenda in Kenya in various capacities for more than a decade, including coordinating an adopted persons support group.