ABCs of Adoption with Linda Cutting

In today’s episode of the “Helping Families Be Happy” podcast, host Dr. Carla Marie Manly, a practicing Clinical Psychologist, Wellness Advocate, and Author based in Sonoma County, California talks with Author Linda Cutting who talks about Adoption and her book – ‘A is for Always’. 

Episode Highlights

• 01:21 – Linda was professionally a Concert Pianist for many years and wrote a memoir in 1997, which was published by HarperCollins.
• 03:10 – Dr. Carla asks that in terms of adoption and how it impacted Linda and her children's lives, what are some of the biggest gifts for her and her children?
• 05:40 – Linda says that she tried to address some of the harder and more challenging aspects of adoption in this book – ‘A is for Adoption’.
• 07:05 - There are many issues with exploring adoption, it's been a wonderful way for Linda to have her family, especially after she had two pregnancies and miscarried. She then adopted as she knew kids in the world needed families. 
• 09:30 - Whether it's an adoptive family or, a DNA family, nobody wants to be left out. We all want to feel safe, loved, and secure.
• 11:40 - One of the things that I was very serious about addressing was the difficulties that each of my kids had about adoption in school.
• 13:20 – Linda mentions that America has one of the most mixed race, mixed ethnic groups, cultures, and populations of any country on Earth which gives the message of inclusiveness.
• 16:00 -  Linda refers to one of the scenes from a Chinese film where the father explains to her adopted daughter through a metaphor of a tree that has two families and they're both very important families and both are real.
• 17:50 - The other important aspect of adoption Linda thinks is to talk to your kids about and it can be painful but they need to hear it from you is the identical letter K.
• 21:10 - Fortunately, we now live in a world where we are far more inclusive and we are far more willing to talk about things that we didn't talk about 20 years ago.
• 22:10 – Linda tells where listeners can reach her, they can find the book on the Familius Publishing Website or the Workman Website or Amazon, and your local independent bookstores.

Key Points

1. Linda says she is very grateful to her children’s birth parents because they gave them life but she thinks the truth is that every adoption begins with loss. So eventually she realized that the bringing up of birth parents brought up the loss, and that's probably why they didn't want to hear it quite as much because they don't want to be reminded of that. Linda thinks one of the reasons she has brought this topic up so much is because one of the problems with adoption has been the secrecy around it and a sense of shame. She didn't want that to be part of her kids’ story or their lives. So in this book – ‘A is for Always’, Linda is trying to promote openness and conversations with adoptive parents and their kids.
2. Dr. Carla says that the reason you need to pick up this book is that the illustrations are so beautiful, as well as the energy of the text, which is very loving and welcoming. Whether you're reading it to a newborn, an infant, a five-year-old, to a 10-year-old it would really carry a lot of love and meaning.

Tweetable Quotes

• “We adopted him as a newborn in the States and our daughter's 17 and we adopted her as a one-year-old in China.” - Linda Cutting
• “I didn't want my kids to feel ashamed about questions they might have. So, Q was for questions you may want to shout.” - Linda Cutting
• “Transparency and curiosity, those sound like very good places to be in any parenting but particularly in adoptive parenting.” - Dr. Carla Marie Manly
• “My daughter really wants animal illustrations so any child can relate.” - Linda Cutting
• “Makes sense that your book is doing so well because ‘A is for Always’ will resonate with the family that wants to really say we are inclusive.” - Dr. Carla Marie Manly
• “Inclusivity is so important in an overall way not just for adoptive families, but for all of us. Invite and include others in our lives.” - Linda Cutting
• “It is about connection and it's about growing together.” - Dr. Carla Marie Manly

Resources Mentioned

• Helping Families be Happy Podcast:  Apple
• Familius Publishing: Website Workman Website LinkedIn Instagram Facebook
• Linda Cutting: Website Twitter Instagram

• Podcast Editing