Adopted at birth, Ajé loved sharing her adoption story throughout her childhood. She always had a feeling that she had been wanted by her birth parents, and was a tad obsessed with discovering where, and who, she came from. Around age 9, good, old-fashioned snooping led her to a document with clues about her birth parents and the person she would have been if they had kept her. She had no way of knowing that document would later lead to an unexpected, serendipitous, [absolutely impossible] reunion, just in time for her 18th birthday.

A survivor of abuse in childhood and adolescence, Ajé has always had a strong conviction that anguish is not meant to be carried alone, and the events that draw us into darkness and despair are the stories that need the most light. She loves conversations about uncomfortable truths and the power that comes from finding one’s voice.

Ajé is a lifelong craftaholic with a squirrel’s attention span and spends a lot of her time making art fueled by sporadic bursts of dopamine, lots of hot glue, and just the right amount of glitter. Her long-term goal is to make her home a multi-media shadow box inspired by her favorite characters & quotes from books, music, and film, one random idea at a time.

She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, way too many craft supplies, and her tortoiseshell cat (who is the bestest cat ever).

To skip ahead to the interview go to timestamp: 12:55

The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler

September 7th in Kansas City, Missouri
Eventbrite: LIVE RECORDED PODCAST with Adoption: The Making of Me (ATMOM) & A PHOTO JOURNEY with Jeff Forney of The Innocent People Project

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RESOURCES for Adoptees
S12F Helping Adoptees
Gregory Luce and Adoptees Rights Law
Joe Soll & other adoptee resources
Fireside Adoptees Facebook Group
Reckoning with the Primal Wound Documentary
Dr. Liz Debetta: Migrating Toward Wholeness Movement
Hiraeth Hope & Healing
Moses Farrow
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – 1-800-273-8255 OR Dial or Text 988.

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