Episodes
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Phoebe's Search for Her Birth Mother and the Siblings She Never Knew
From An Adoption Story. You can now watch the full documentary on Alex Gilbert's YouTube channel. Phoebe Smith was adopted in Wellington, New Zealand, at just two weeks old, growing up alongside four siblings. Her parents had always been open with her about her adoption and what they knew of her...
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See You in 2027! An Update From Us!
Thank you for tuning into our Podcast for 2026. We are wrapping up this Season but we are going to be back with more Episodes right after the New Year which we can't wait to share with all of you. Thank you for your ongoing support, everything with the Podcast. We will be back very soon!
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Leah’s Story | Adopted from China, Growing Up in Canada and Life in the USA
Leah Sutterlin was adopted from China as a baby and raised in rural Canada alongside two younger sisters who were also adopted from China. In this episode of I’m Adopted: The Podcast, Leah reflects on growing up in a family where adoption was openly talked about, that relationship with her…
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Ethan’s Story | Adopted from China to the USA
Ethan Cesena was adopted from China at four and a half years old and raised in America. For much of his life, adoption was a word others used to describe him, but for Ethan it also brought questions about identity, family, culture, and where he came from. In April 2026, he returned to China with…
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Mike's Story | Finding Family Connections 60 Years Later
Mike Kueny was adopted in 1965 and grew up knowing he was adopted, while continuing to wonder about his biological family. Decades later, after the deaths of his adoptive parents and two of his siblings, he decided to take an DNA test. When the results arrived, everything moved quickly. Within...
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Isaac's Story | From Ethiopia to the United States
Born in Ethiopia, Isaac spent the first five years of his life there before the deaths of both his birth parents led him to an orphanage. At five years old, he was adopted by a family in the United States, leaving behind his homeland, language, and culture to begin a new life. As he grew older,...
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Jame's Story | Giving Adoptees a Voice. Adopted from Swansea to Cardiff in Wales
Born in Swansea, Wales, James entered foster care at just two and a half months old before being adopted into a family in Cardiff. Adoption has shaped James's life in many ways, and he speaks openly about the lasting impact of his early experiences on identity, attachment, and the absence of...
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Dan’s Connection with His Birth Mother and The Search for His Birth Father
Podcast Episode from the An Adoption Story series. Dan was adopted from Manchester, UK, when he was just six months old. He has always known he was adopted and grew up alongside four siblings.In his 20s, Dan met his birth mother for the first time. While that connection answered some questions...
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Charlotte's Story | Finding Those Missing Pieces of Her Story
Adopted at less than a month old from Pittsburgh, United States, Charlotte Schramm grew up questioning what adoption meant and why she had been placed for adoption. As she got older, those unanswered questions left her searching for a deeper understanding of her story and identity.Supported by…
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Wilson Munsterman’s Story of Adoption and Identity | Marked by Adoption
Wilson Munsterman was born in China and adopted to America at ten months old. In this episode of the I’m Adopted Podcast, Wilson talks honestly about growing up adopted and the questions he carried about identity, family, and where he fit in. He shares what led him to write Marked by Adoption, a...
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Kelly’s Lifelong Search for Her Māori Roots
From our An Adoption Story series. You can watch her documentary on Alex Gilbert’s YouTube channel. Kelly Stringer was adopted at just two weeks old in Christchurch, New Zealand, and grew up in a family with three older brothers. Although she had always been curious about her biological roots, it...
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Jay Barbanel’s Story from Costa Rica | Finding Tico: Those Fragments of Memory
Jay Barbanel was born in Costa Rica and spent his early years surrounded by instability and uncertainty. After being taken from his birth mother, he and his brother were placed in an orphanage and later adopted by a family in the United States. For a short time, it felt like a new beginning…
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Arna’s Search to Understand Where She Came From
From our An Adoption Story series. You can watch her documentary on Alex Gilbert’s YouTube channel. Adopted as a baby in Auckland, New Zealand, Arna (Anna Francesca) Intra grew up always knowing she was adopted. It was never a secret, but understanding what it truly meant came much later. While…
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Adopted from Russia: Kian's Story of Identity, Loss, and Learning About His Roots
Kian Lafford was adopted from Omsk, Russia in September 2007. He later received the name Kian after being adopted into an Irish family. Growing up in a small town in Ireland with a large Eastern European community made it easier for Kian to be open about his adoption and his background growing…
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Oksana’s Search for the Sister She Never Knew in Russia
From our An Adoption Story series. You can watch her documentary story on Alex Gilbert's YouTube channel. Oksana Rennie was born in 1991 in a small village in the western part of Russia’s Smolensk region. In 1996, at five and a half years old, she was adopted from the Smolensk District Children’s...
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James Axiotis: A Mother Named Georgia
James Axiotis was born in Athens, Greece, to an unwed mother named Georgia Korakis. With no support for single mothers at the time, he was handed over to the authorities after a week in the hospital. Between the late 1950s and 1960s, thousands of Greek children were sent abroad, many to the…
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Daniela’s Return to Romania and the Song for Her Birth Mother
From our An Adoption Story series. You can watch her documentary story on Alex Gilbert's YouTube channel. Daniela Brown was adopted from Romania when she was just three years old, during a period of great change in the country’s history. She was born in the Jilava Prison in Romania and spent the...
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Jon Farley's Story: Finding Those Answers Later in Life
Jon was adopted in the UK at the age of four and later returned to care as a teenager. For decades, he believed his birth father had died. A DNA test in his mid-50s led to an unexpected discovery that changed everything. In this episode, Jon reflects on adoption, loss, reunion, and what it means…
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Tracy’s Search for Her Birth Family She Never Knew About
From our An Adoption Story series. Adopted as a baby in Auckland, New Zealand, Tracy grew up with very little information about where she came from. Questions about her identity followed her quietly into adulthood. Adoption was always there, but rarely spoken about, leaving many parts of her…
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An Adoption Story — Where Are They Now: Marina’s Birth Family Discovery in Crimea
Marina was born in Staryi Krym, Crimea, and later adopted from an orphanage in Simferopol by her Italian parents. She grew up in Italy, gradually learning more about her roots in Crimea — but it wasn’t until later that she began to connect more deeply with her birth family.We caught up with her…
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Victor’s Lifelong Search for His Birth Mother
Simulcast from our An Adoption Story series. Victor was adopted as a young boy and came to Auckland, New Zealand, when he was just four years old. Born in the town of Velikiye Luki in western Russia, his journey began with many unknowns.Now a science teacher and photographer in Christchurch…
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Valentina’s Heartbreaking Discovery and Reunion with Long-Lost Sibling
Simulcast from our An Adoption Story series. Valentina always knew she was adopted but never knew her history. When motherhood takes her on an unexpected journey into discovering her past. What follows is a remarkable story of heartbreak, forgiveness and an incredible reunion with a long lost...
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Ian’s Long Kept Family Secret and Surprise Heritage
Simulcast from our An Adoption Story series. Ian was born in Waihi, New Zealand, and adopted as an infant. He didn’t discover his adoption until he was 48 years old, at which point he slowly started to find those connections with his birth mother. With the help of his daughter Yolande, Ian then...
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Ekaterina's Emotional Journey and the Search for those Birth Family Links
Ekaterina Clark's journey began in Syktyvkar, Russia, where she was adopted at the age of three. Raised in New Zealand, she shares her experiences from childhood to discovering her roots and birth family, connecting her past with her present. This is her story. Taken from the An Adoption Story...
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Felicita's Adoption Journey from Odesa, Ukraine to Southern Italy
Simulcast from an Adoption story. Made with the support from our friends at MyHeritage. Felicita was born in the city of Odesa, Ukraine to then being adopted at the age of 7 months by her Italian parents.She was raised in the small village town of Ascea. A village that overlooks the Mediterranean...
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Marina's Adoption Journey from Crimea to Italy - The Search For Her Birth Family
Simulcast from an Adoption story. Made with the support from our friends at MyHeritage. Marina was born in Staryi Krym, Crimea to then being adopted out from an orphanage in Simferopol by her Italian parents.With her life in Italy, she has grown up learning more about her roots within Crimea but…
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Iván's Discovery of His Birth Family Links in Russia and Armenia
Simulcast from an Adoption story. Made with the support from our friends at MyHeritage. Iván was adopted at the age of 13 months from Moscow, Russia by his Spanish parents. He was raised on the north coast of Spain, in the city of Santander. He had always known that he had birth family links in...
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Nina's Journey - Adopted from Saint Petersburg, Russia to Rochester, New York
Simulcast from an Adoption story. Made with the support from our friends at MyHeritage. Nina was born from a small village called Bolshaya Vruda which is located just below Saint Petersburg in Russia. She was adopted at the age of three and a half years old by her American parents who then raised...
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Adopted from Krasnodar, Russia to New York - Zachary-Victor's Journey
Simulcast from an Adoption story. Made with the support from our friends at MyHeritage. Zachary-Victor was adopted at the age of 8 months from Krasnodar, Russia by his American parents. He was raised in Long Island, New York to moving to Brooklyn to pursue a career in music.Zachary-Victor shares...
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Ukranian-American Adoptee Katya Reach Shares Her Emotional Journey
Simulcast from an Adoption story. Made with the support from our friends at MyHeritage. Katya Reach was adopted from an orphanage in Donetsk, Ukraine at the age of four years old by her American parents. She was raised in Kansas to then studying psychology in Oklahoma. She now lives her life in...
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Alexei's Adoption, The Links with His Birth Family and Life with Spina bifida
Simulcast from an Adoption story. Made with the support from our friends at MyHeritage. Alexei was born in Velikiye Luki, Russia to then being placed in an orphanage in Pechory. At the age of two and a half, he was then adopted by his New Zealand family. Alexei was born with a birth defect called...
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Vanya's Lost Connection with his Birth Mother and Siblings in Russia
Simulcast from an Adoption story. Made with the support from our friends at MyHeritage. Vanya Syron was adopted from a regional orphanage in Arkhangelsk, Russia in the late 1990s by his New Zealand parents. With information that his parents held onto about his birth family, he managed to get a...
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Alex's Early Life from a Romanian Orphanage into his Adopted German Family
Simulcast from an Adoption story. Made with the support from our friends at MyHeritage. Romanian adoptee Alex (Alexander) Kuch was adopted from Cluj-Napoca, Romania at the age of two by his German parents. His family then moved to New Zealand in 2006. Alex shares his journey of his reconnections...
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Anya’s Journey Searching Through Those Birth Family Links
Simulcast from an Adoption story. Made with the help from our friends at MyHeritage. Mother of three Anya Gibson, lives right down in the far south of New Zealand. She was adopted at the age of four from a regional orphanage (Number 12) inside of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Prior to her adoption…
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Viktoria's Search and Discovery of Her Birth Mother in Russia
Simulcast from an Adoption story. Viktoria was born in the North of Russia, in a city called Severodvinsk. She was adopted at the age five by her New Zealand parents who also adopted another child from the neighbourhood city and my birth city, Arkhangelsk. She connected with her birth mother in...
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Alexei's Journey from Ukraine and Russia to New Zealand
Alexei was born in Eastern Ukraine to then moving with his biological family to Velikiye Luki, Pskov, Russia. He was adopted into a New Zealand family at the age of eight. At an early age he was diagnosed with a rare heart condition, Eisenmenger Syndrome. He shares with me his journey, his…
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Burning Questions for Adoptees
In this podcast episode, we bring to you the cast from our live Facebook video stream. This week on the I'm Adopted - Talk live cast we talk with Alex Kuch, Katie Zucker, Kristine Freark and Robert Clifford to talk about those burning questions for adoptees. Connecting with more of you around the...
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Relationships Between Adoptive Siblings - Alex Kuch
In this Episode of I'm Adopted, Adoptee Alex Kuch is hosting and he talks about the relationships between adoptive siblings.
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Welcome 2020 - 7 Years Since Contacting my Birth Family. Whats Changed?
Welcome to our first Podcast of I'm Adopted for 2020. In this episode, Russian - New Zealand Adoptee Alex Gilbert talks about the current relationship with his birth family in Russia after being in contact for 7 years.
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A Huge Thank You!
This is our final episode of I'm Adopted for the 2019 season. We will be right back with our new season in the New Year! Thank you so much!
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Romanian Adoptee Alex Kuch shares his views on the global state of International Adoptions
In this Episode of I'm Adopted, Romanian Adoptee Alex Kuch is still hosting with us and this week he shares with us his views on the global state of International Adoptions.
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Romanian Adoptee Alex Kuch Talks about his own personal views on Adoption
This week on I'm Adopted, Romanian-German-Kiwi Adoptee Alexander Kuch is hosting while Alex Gilbert is away. This week Alex talks about his own views on adoption.
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National Adoption Awareness Month - Those Stories From Other Adoptees
In this Episode of I'm Adopted, we take a look at some of the incredible stories that were told on our podcast. We revisit Janna Lambs story, Alex Kuch's story, Daria Rottenberk's story and Allyson Duranceau's story.
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Adoptee Alexander Kuch Talks Romania
In this Episode of I'm Adopted, Romanian Adoptee Alexander Kuch joins us to talk about his views on his birth country, Romania.
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Celebrating National Adoption Awareness Month
In this Episode of I'm Adopted, Adoptees Alex Gilbert and Alex Kuch talk about what National Adoption Awareness Month means to them.
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Remembering Our First Memories
In this Episode of I'm Adopted, we are joined with Romanian-German Adoptee Alex Kuch to talk about our first and earliest memories growing up as an adoptee.
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From Moscow to North Carolina, American-Russian Adoptee Allyson Duranceau Shares Her Story
This in this Episode of I'm Adopted, American-Russian Adoptee Allyson Duranceau shares with us her story, about the relationship with her family who raised her in the United States as well as the contact and meet up with her birth family in Moscow, Russia.
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Being In The Shoes of your Birth Family or Birth Parents
In this Episode of I'm Adopted, Alex Gilbert talks about how his birth parents might have been feeling before meeting him in Russia for the first time in 2013.
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Tajikistani-New Zealand Adoptee Sarah Berghan Shares her Story and Incredible Journey
In this Episode of I'm Adopted, Tajikistani-New Zealand Adoptee Sarah Berghan joins us to talk about her story. Sarah was adopted at the age of only one month old from the city of Dushanbe in Tajikistan. She lived there until the age of two years old while her New Zealand parents did missionary...
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Every Experience is Different
In this weeks episode of I'm Adopted, Romanian-German-Kiwi Adoptee Alexander Kuch speaks with Alex Gilbert about the personal and emotional challenges that every adoptee may face across their journey. Every experience is Different.