Out of the Fog: Mothers Speak About Adoption

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Articulate women bring their thoughts on adoption to the Web

In the mid-20th century, women whose children were adopted by others had no voice. It was silenced by societal taboos, family pressures, and even the lack of a vocabulary to adequately describe the process and the emotional impact of their experiences. Since that time, women have struggled to find the words and the fora to express what they felt and feel, what they've learned, and what they can offer to the rest of the adoption community.

Independent filmmaker Suzie Kidnap's throught-provoking 32-minute educational video, "Out of the Fog: Mothers Speak About Adoption," provides a forum for several of today's clearest voices. The video addresses major issues surrounding adoption in film clips of three women and the printed words of four others, women from the United States, Canada, and Australia, and it's available on the Web for free viewing. The film is not a recital of "how I lost my child," but rather a socio-political critique of adoption practices, from women who thoughtfully and eloquently bring us their perspectives on topics like choice, sealed records, and adoption language.

Kidnap says, "My intention is to create a document containing the thoughts, faces, and voices of these women which preserves and distills their experiences with adoption into a readily accessible medium. The women included in this piece are all survivors of a failed social experiment that occurred between 1945 and 1980 - the aptly named 'baby-scoop era.' The preservation of their well considered, articulate critique of the contemporary adoption industry is of value to anyone currently considering adoption, to anyone who is a veteran of child loss through adoption, to families who have lost a member through adoption, and to those engaged in the fight for open records and reform in adoption. It is my hope that this bit of tape will someday be of value to social historians as they sift through the emotional, psychological, and legal wreckage of that late twentieth century phenomenon that we called 'closed adoption.'"

Kidnap and her husband-producer Drake Lemming funded and produced the video themselves in order to avoid the influence of outside interests. Their direction to the women who participated was, "just tell the truth." The result is a document Kidnap believes will bring important issues out into the open - issues she says many are unwilling to acknowledge. "The voices of mothers who have lost their children to adoption have historically been ignored within the adoption community in order to preserve the institution itself. These women have been rendered invisible by the machinery of adoption for reasons of survival - survival of the industry. Clearly, the industry and the adoption community at large have a vested interest in avoiding this most explosive piece of history, as well as the issues which have arisen in its wake."

Film participants are:

Film clips:

Beki Brindle - Musician, Author
Laura Watkins Lewis - Registered Nurse
Sandra Falconer Pace - Educator

Textual contributions:

Elisa M. Barton - Teacher, Writer
Karen Wilson Buterbaugh - Author, Activist
Sandra Jarvie - Social Researcher, Author
Dian Wellfare - Adoption Reformer

Suzie Kidnap is an artist interested in social issues and women's lives.

The video is freely available on the Web in streaming format, and in hard copy for use in open records legislation hearings and educating lawmakers. For those with older computers, an audio file is also available, however it includes only the vocal parts. You can read the textual components on the audio page of the "Out of the Fog" site.

To view the video or listen to the audio, visit Out of the Fog and click on the film title (for video) or the audio link. If you do not have RealOne Player installed on your computer and want it, the page contains a link to a free download.

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