Emma: The Truth Beneath "Chosen"

About this episode

Emma shares her journey of adoption and the complexities of her identity as she confronts her past.

Born in Tennessee in 1989 and flown home on Valentine’s Day, Emma grew up in rural Western Massachusetts in a loving, creative family, where her adoption once felt more like a fairytale than a lived experience — even as anxiety and depression quietly took root. Meeting her birth mother at twenty sparked a fifteen-year reckoning, unraveling the “chosen baby” narrative and leading her to confront the hard truths at the heart of her story.

People in this episode

Hosts: Louise Browne, Sarah Reinhardt

Guest: Emma

Topics covered

• adoption
• mental health
• birth family
• identity
• personal narrative

Keywords

• adoption
• mental health
• birth mother
• identity
• chosen baby
• personal story
• anxiety
• depression

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Tennessee, Western Massachusetts

More episodes of Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee Stories

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• Lynn: Not a Blank Slate · May 26, 2026 · 59 min
• Mary Lynn: From Hidden Story to Search Angel · May 19, 2026 · 54 min
• Diane: The Truth Beneath the Story · May 12, 2026 · 57 min
• Jae: Finding Voice, Claiming Self · May 5, 2026 · 1h 6m