Amanda Medina

The Weight of Confusion and the Struggle for Worth As the new year begins, many adoptees, like myself, find themselves reflecting on their journeys. For years, I carried the burden of confusion as I felt that my inner experience didn’t match my outer reality. I was striving to prove my worth to the world—and to

What is the Primal Wound? As adoptees, many of us carry an often-unseen wound that goes far beyond our visible lives. Additionally, many of us don’t even know that we carry this wound. I was 32 years old when I first heard about  the “primal wound,” as coined by Nancy Verrier. This primal wound is

After a long hiatus, I’m excited to return to This Adoptee Life—a platform for adoptees focused on rediscovering identity, healing, and overcoming adoption-related trauma. What started as a space to share my story has become a vibrant community where adoptees come together to share theirs. As we prepare to embark on a new chapter centered

This is the second article in a series I call “Connecting the dots”. I have said many times, a large part of my life growing up I felt so confused. The confusion lead to guilt, as I felt that because I could not understand my own behavior, there must be something wrong with me. Over

My definition of Adoptee Story: …the result of an adoptee exploring the story they have been told by adoptive parents, agencies and adoption documents, and instead of repeating this information as their story, start questioning the validity of said information and start adjusting the angle and terminology of the story, to develop a way to

Adoption and Awareness: A series of articles that dive into various concepts in relation to adoption.  This is the third article in a series I call Adoption and Awareness. I write about the abundance of adoption stories and point out the difference between adoption stories and adoptee stories. I offer a definition of what a