Living Adoption: the Conversation
Lifelong, Open-Ended, and Connection-Driven Exploration of Adoption with Our Children (payment plan available)
This is a 6 class series designed for adoptive parents of children ages 0-10. During these six classes we will explore how to create beauty, meaning, and moments of connection in our homes with adopted children. We will challenge ourselves to drop our anxieties and expectations while fostering an open ended, lifelong conversation about adoption and its impacts. This will be done through self-reflection, community interaction, and hands-on creative exercises.
Tuition includes all six classes and lifetime membership in our interactive closed group for participants and graduates of the class.
Class One (Explore vs. Explain): Why a conversation?, stop explaining and framing, the vantage point of the child, child development, imagination, “how do I’s”, relationship
Class Two (Rhythm vs. Schedule): senses of the young child, internal and external motivation, ritual, rhythm, beauty, reverence, elevation of the mundane
Class Three (Imagination vs. Information): the 4 temperaments, introduction to container stories, bedtime and importance of bedtime ritual
Class Four (Quest vs. Answers): creating the world of the container story, hard feelings and circumstances, emotions and events
Class Five (Wholeness vs. Duality): sharing our container stories, splintering in adoptees, getting rid of duality, importance of being whole
Class Six (Engagement vs. Education): ongoing self check of motivations, nightly reflection, responsibility for engagement with other adoptive parents, extended family/world at large, issues with Positive Adoption Language, the gift of “angry adoptees”, turning statements into questions
**we will be collectively working on container stories for three of these weeks.
***This class is also suitable for foster parents, kinship adoptive parents/placements, and parents of Donor Conceived/Surrogate Conceived Children. If you are a foster parent, or in a kinship adoption, please contact us for a 20 percent reduced rate in tuition. [email protected]
Your Instructor
Becca Dragon is a 7th generation Washingtonian born and adopted in Washington DC at the tail end of the Baby Scoop Era. She was raised on Capitol Hill the oldest in her adoptive family. She is now an urban expat living in Vermont with Mr. Dragon (married 21 years) and is a Mother of Dragons (2 teens and a burgeoning tween). Until recently, Becca homeschooled all three of her children. For over a decade, she was the creator and director of a large CSE (Community Supported Education) program rooted in explorative and creative learning, nature immersion, and inspired by principles of Waldorf Education. She created curriculum and was a classroom and experiential teacher for multiple ages/grades. Prior to motherhood, she worked as a Special Education teacher in a residential school for children with a diversity of psychiatric and behavioral diagnosis; where she created unique individual curriculum to meet her students’ specific needs. She has also taught acting to children and teens since graduating with a BA in Theater from UMASS Amherst. Becca reunited with her biological family (parents, three full siblings, and a large and welcoming extended family) in 2016. She is now writing a book aiming to elevate the adoptee voice called Adoption: Myths, Misgivings, and Mayhem. Her work in the adult adoptee community can be seen on FB and IG on @mythsmisgivings. Living Adoption is her labor of love for little adoptees as they exist right now. Come follow Living Adoption on Instagram and LinkedIn @LivingAdoption. She hopes to walk alongside adoptive parents in a supportive and relational way; helping them to connect more deeply with and understand their adopted children through natural parenting and the art of allowing.
"I just finished listening to the first course and it blew me away. Your information was direct and honest while presented with pure heart and emotion. I am so looking forward to learning and sharing in this community! Thank you so much for your openness!"
- Suzanne
"It was open, honest, and real, while not being brutally so. There were hard truths to glean and learn from. It was poignant and left me energized to keep learning.
Becca shares intimate details of her story that are pertinent to telling the story of an adoptee. The class will be a huge blessing to APs and their adoptees. I'm super excited to continue!"
- Erin