Kristina Denbow & Mather Family

Send us Fan MailAn Adoptee’s Story of Courage, Connection, and Coming Full Circle Kristina's journey isn't just about going back to Kazakhstan – it's about the universal human need to understand where we come from and how that shapes who we become. Her story begins in a baby house in Taldikorgan, moves through multiple placements, and eventually lands in Ohio, where she was adopted by Signe Denbow at age eight.  The Weight of Multiple Abandonment What makes Kristina's story particularly poignant is her experience of multiple abandonment. As she shared with host Anna Jinja, "I couldn't really believe that she was going to keep me because I had been abandoned twice before." This vulnerability – the fear that love might be temporary – is something many adoptees carry but rarely discuss so openly.  The Power of True Friendship & Love One of the most beautiful aspects of this episode is hearing from Kristina's longtime friends Emily and Pete Mather, who selected and read a poem about childhood friendship.  Her adoptive mother's support for this journey exemplifies what love looks like in action. Rather than feeling threatened by Kristina's need to explore her origins, Signe Denbow has helped make the trip possible, understanding that wholeness sometimes requires facing difficult truths.   The Courage to Face Fear "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared to go back," Kristina admits. But as host Anna Jinja points out, that's exactly what courage looks like – facing fear and moving forward anyway. This episode of the Anna Jinja Show offers hope to adoptees and their families, reminding us that seeking answers about our origins doesn't diminish our love for those who raised us. Instead, it can deepen our appreciation for the abundance of love that surrounds us. Creative Content: Naïve by Tim Seibles / selected and read by Emily MatherWhen I was seven, I walked homewith Dereck DeLarge, my arm slung over his skinny shoulders,after-school sun buffing our lunch boxes. So easy, that gesture, so light— the kind of love that lands like a leaf. It was 1963.  We were two black boys whose snaggle-toothed grins held a thousand giggles. Remember? Rememberwanting to play every minute, as if that was why we were born? Those hands that bring usshouting into this life must open like a fanfare of big band horns. Though this world is nothing like where we’d been, we come anyway, astonished as if to Mardi Gras in full swing.There must be a time when a child’s heart builds a chocolate sunflower while katydids burnish the daywith their busy wings. This itching fury that holds me now—this knowing the early welcomethat once lived inside me was somehow sent away:how I talk myself back into all the regular disguisesbut still walk these streets believing in the weatherof the unruined heart. My friends, with crow’s feetedging their eyes, keep looking for a kindercity, though they don’t want to seem naïve.When was the last time you wrapped your armaround someone’s shoulder and walked him home?Support the show