In this episode of Color Shift, we sit down with Abby, a Chinese adoptee who has recently begun the vulnerable process of “coming out of the fog.”

Abby was supposedly found as an infant at a train station in China and adopted to Alaska at about 14 months old. Growing up as an only child in a family that traveled and lived internationally, she always knew she was adopted—but for years, she distanced herself from her Asian identity and kept her story at arm’s length. It wasn’t until recently that Abby began unpacking what adoption truly means for her, and with that, all the emotions and realizations that come with it.

In our conversation, Abby reflects on her childhood, the complexities of denying and then reclaiming identity, and the tender, sometimes disorienting work of beginning to see adoption through a new lens. Her honesty reminds us that the adoptee journey is not linear—and that stepping into truth often happens in layers, at the right time.

This is a story about awakening, self-recognition, and the courage it takes to start asking deeper questions.

Find Abby on:

IG: @globalabby

Blog: https://www.justthisamateurwriter.com

Helpful Chinese adoptee based links

• Chinese Adoptee Collective Conference https://chineseadopteecollective.com/
• Nanchang project: https://www.nanchangproject.com/
• Chinese Children International: https://chinaschildreninternational.org/
• International Child Search Alliance: https://www.icsachina.org/

Book recs

• Messages From an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran
• One Child by Mei Fong
• The Primal Wound by Nancy Newton

Documenterie recs.

• Meet me at the bridge: Youtube
• Somewhere Between: Youtube
• Found: Netflix
• One Child Nation: Amazon Prime

Support the show

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5

TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1

Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

In this episode, we sit down with Rob, a Korean adoptee raised in Denver, Colorado. Rob shares his adoption story, from his early months in foster care to growing up in a family that embraced openness and love. He talks about starting his birth family search as a teenager, the relationships that have grown from that journey, and the powerful role Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families has played in his life — first as a camper for over a decade and now as a counselor. This conversation explores the importance of cultural connection, community, and staying rooted in both personal history and shared identity.

Link to the Heritage Camp: Heritage Camps For Adoptive Families | Colorado Family Camp

Rob's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robreese20?igsh=MXZuOHdlNHNkN3V0bw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Support the show

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5

TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1

Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

Today on Color Shift, I’m honored to be joined by Dewi—a powerful voice in the adoptee community whose story spans continents, generations, and identities.

Dewi was born in Indonesia in 1978 and adopted as an infant by white American parents. Renamed "Amy" and raised in white suburbia, she spent years navigating life in silence—until reclaiming her birth name and reconnecting with both birth parents as an adult. She now identifies as a displaced Indigenous person.

Dewi is a mother, a birth mother, and a vocal advocate for adoptee healing. She uplifts spaces like Adoption Mosaic and is the creator of MY NAME IS NOT AMY—a documentary about her boldly reclaiming her identity.

In this conversation, we talk about names, reunion, and what it means to mother yourself while mothering others. Dewi speaks through adoption with truth, depth, and dignity.

Links:

https://www.eight16creative.com/

https://www.mynameisnotamy.com/

Adoption Mosaic: https://adoptionmosaic.com/

Support the show

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5

TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1

Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

In this episode, I talk with Marcela, a Chilean adoptee who was adopted at one month old and raised in Massachusetts by a white American family. Without connection to her culture or heritage growing up, Marcela always felt something was missing. That changed in 2019 when she found and reunited with her birth mother in Chile. We talk about what reunion has meant to her, how it's shaped her understanding of identity, and how it's influenced the way she thinks about becoming a mother one day.

TikTok : https://www.tiktok.com/@marcellamaybe?_t=ZT-8y3q5mJm7D5&_r=1

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/littleholyspirits?igsh=MTNycmVnenNzdjYwaA==

Support the show

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5

TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1

Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

Kellan's Journey Through Adoption and Queer Identity

In this episode of Color Shift, Kellan shares their story of being adopted from China to the UK and raised in a white family and community. They reflect on the complexities of identity, silence, and survival that shaped their early years—and the deep healing work they’ve done since. Kellan speaks openly about what it means to reclaim space as a queer, transracial adoptee, and how building community with other adoptees and queer folks has been essential to their growth. This conversation is honest, grounding, and a powerful reminder of the importance of telling our own stories.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaimingholistics/?hl=en

Website: https://KaiMingHolistics.as.me/

Support the show

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5

TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1

Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

Hannah was born in Kansas City to a white birth mother and Black birth father, and adopted into a white family in Pennsylvania. Raised in a community where no one looked like her, Hannah’s early years were marked by isolation, a lack of racial mirrors, and a longing to understand where she came from. In this episode, she shares what it was like to grow up feeling disconnected from her Black identity, how her search for belonging led her through music, literature, and eventually into the embrace of her racial community.

We talk about the moment everything shifted—an unexpected meeting with her birth mother during a visit to Kansas City—and how that encounter cracked open deeper questions around origin, identity, and healing. Now an educator, mother, and advocate, Hannah supports transracial adoptees and adoptive parents through her coaching work, online course, and writing.

This conversation explores the complexity of being raised in a world that doesn’t reflect you, the layered grief that comes with reunion, and the power of reclaiming your story on your own terms.

Hannah's website: https://www.hannahjmatthews.com/ — where folks can find my course as well as products and services for adoptees and caregivers

Podcast with my adopted Brother https://rss.com/podcasts/fakesiblingspodcast/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahjacksonmatthews?igsh=MWNtY2JkMzZ2enZhNA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Workbook https://www.amazon.com/Standing-Gap-Unapologetic-Reflective-Transracial/dp/B0CVVD11DP

Support the show

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5

TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1

Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

In this episode, Nathan sits down with Saskia, a Chilean adoptee raised in a predominantly white town in New Jersey after being adopted at just two and a half months old. As the only girl and only adoptee in a family with three biological brothers, Saskia grew up surrounded by the narrative that adoption was something to be grateful for. But as she got older, questions about her origins led her to a years-long search, a surprising Facebook message, and an emotional reunion that would shift everything—including a pivotal moment you'll hear about later in the episode. Saskia shares her journey through identity, reconnection, and the upcoming return to Chile that marks a new chapter in reclaiming her story.

Tiktok: @spicychile

The poem she wrote in school:

Individual

I am from the mother who I don’t know anything about.
I am from the father who doesn’t know I exist.
I am from a family that is make-believe to me.

I am in a family where I am an outsider,
An outsider who looks different in every way possible.
I am from the place that is imaginary to me.

Dreams of being back in Chile being with my biological mother
Floating all through my head.
Wondering, wondering what she is like,
How we are similar,
Or if I could ever meet her again.

I am the one who sticks out like a big bright moon in the dark starry sky.
I am like the flower in the field that sticks out from everything else.

I am from the dreams of being with her
As if our lives were perfect side by side,
But those dreams will never come true
For I am the unknown individual.

Support the show

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5

TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1

Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

Nicky Hammond is a Korean Australian adoptee, coach, and breathworker who helps intercountry adoptees reconnect with identity and community. In this episode, she shares her journey from growing up in a white Australian family to rediscovering her heritage, living in Seoul, and creating healing spaces for fellow adoptees.

Links and info for Nicky:

Nicky@coachscoach.co

IG Handle: Coachscoach.co

Website: www.coachscoach.co

Support the show

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5

TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1

Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads

If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support

If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com