When I see racially motivated hate crimes on the news — like the recent spa shooting in Atlanta — I fast forward the life of the murderer in my head — Mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer in May of 2020. …

Growing up, describing the time before they brought me home, Mom had said things like, “A couple took care of you for us.” I imagined myself in a wooden cradle somewhere, with a satin-ribboned sign at the foot that read: “Going to Darrell & Virginia Skaggs.” I knew I’d been…

Like many of you, we canceled our summer vacation, one that would’ve required getting on an airplane, back in April, when it became clear that quarantine wasn’t ending any time soon. In May, after two months of not leaving the house other than for grocery shopping (and sanitizing those groceries…

I was adopted via closed adoption in 1972, and forty years later, my husband and I adopted our son via open adoption. While I would search for, and find, my own biological mom shortly after bringing our son home, I grew up knowing nothing of why I was placed for…