Someone Else’s Child: A Co-Constructed, Performance Autoethnography of Adoption from Three Perspectives

Through a framework of reconciling the other, this collaborative autoethnographic performance co-constructs adoption experience from three perspectives in different families: mother struggling with ethical and emotional implications transnational her daughter; an adult reflecting on childhood as adoptee feeling loved, but different; woman who met biological sister at age 28 after parents revealed lifelong secret. To develop individual narratives, we applied tools interactive interviews family members, reflective writing, document review (Ellis, 2004) photos, letters, emails, calendars. During one school year, monthly to discuss relevant literature, share critique each other’s methods identify common themes our three, diverse experiences. The result iteration group processes is script that weaves together stories, discoveries ourselves, how, negotiating feelings identities, reconciled other through positive, loving relationships.