I attended one of Joe Soll's Healing Weekends
that he facilitates for first mothers and adoptees. What an EXTRAORDINARY healing
experience this has been for me as a mother! We have no support groups
here where I live in the rural Midwest area and I think that I have read every
volume of book on adoption and reunion that is available in our local library.
I also have ordered and read numerous adoption, reunion books that have been
recommended by this wonderful site of the RBM and Joe Soll's site on the Internet,
since my own wonderful reunion with my daughter some 18 months ago. (She was
placed for adoption on August 23, 1968.)
I just want to tell
ALL of you that if you ever get the opportunity to attend one of his very affordable
healing weekends/sessions in the New York City area or other occasional areas
that he has: PLEASE DO IT! For me, each session was like peeling
back the layers of an onion to get to the core. This has been the best
gift that I have given to myself since I placed my baby for adoption so many
years ago. (I had A LOT of unresolved grief and guilt issues and I have also
been plagued with low self-esteem since that time.) Also, if any of you have
not read his book "Adoption Healing....a path to recovery," I highly recommend
this book! It is just as much about a birthmother's emotional pain, anger and
sadness as it is about adoptees. I cannot extol enough praises for Joe's
gentle compassion and genuine caring when he was leading us through the intense
healing sessions!
We all (2 moms &
5 adoptees) became a very a very close-knit group sharing our meals and waking
hours together. (By the way, Joe is a very gracious host and a very good cook!)
We ALL shed lots of tears and shared lots of hugs when we all said our good-byes
to each other when we departed for our homes. I miss them all so much
as I am emailing this message to you wonderful ladies. So I urge you or your
children to attend any of his healing sessions. If you want to read more about
Joe Soll and his Healing Weekends just go to his site www.adoptioncrossroads.org
and click on the "Healing Weekends"...and don't hesitate. I will be forever
grateful to Joe Soll (and his commitment to the healing the deep wounds that
placing a child for adoption inflicts on all of us). And I mean this with EVERY
BEAT OF MY HEART AND EVERY BREATH THAT I HAVE WITHIN ME! THANK YOU JOE!
Sincerely,
Jeanne from WI