What happens when telling your adoption story becomes a way to challenge the secrecy that shaped it?

Patricia Knight Meyer returns to Family Twist ahead of the release of WONDERLAND: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption. She joins Corey and Kendall to discuss sharing her story with readers, hearing from people who never considered adoption from an adoptee’s perspective, and turning her book launch into an event focused on truth, community and adoptee rights.

Patricia also shares why recording the audiobook brought unexpected tears, how her daughter helped bring a chapter of her life to the stage, and why being surrounded by other adoptees gives her a sense of belonging she struggles to explain to anyone outside the community. There is also a little Taylor Swift, some Dateline and a conversation about helping the next wave of adoptee authors tell their stories.

In this episode:

• How readers outside the adoption community are responding to WONDERLAND.
• Patricia’s perspective on the connection between sealed records, secrecy and black-market adoption.
• Why narrating her own memoir became an emotional experience.
• Bringing the chapter “Roses and Thorns” to life through a stage adaptation directed by her daughter.
• How sharing her story through I’m Adopted revealed how many people still need search resources and support.
• Why finding an adoptee community can change what belonging feels like.

Attend or stream Down the Rabbit Hole: The Fight for Texas Adoptee Rights Then and Now on Friday, November 6, 2026, at the Bullock Texas State History Museum’s Texas Spirit Theater in Austin. The event includes a chapter performance and a panel moderated by Emily Ramshaw, co-founder and CEO of The 19th. Attendance and the livestream are free, with registration available below.

Net proceeds from the event will benefit Saving Our Sisters, Adoption Knowledge Affiliates and the National Association of Adoptees and Parents.

WONDERLAND: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption releases November 3, 2026.

Family Twist is an in-kind sponsor of the event.

Register for the free event or livestream

WONDERLAND: Book details and purchase links

Book extras, soundtrack and discussion questions

Patricia’s website: My Adopted Life

Read Patricia’s story on I’m Adopted

National Association of Adoptees and Parents

Saving Our Sisters

Adoption Knowledge Affiliates

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