Welcome to Back from the Abyss. I'm Dr. Craig Hecock. I wanted to start with a thank you to the listeners who have decided to help pay for the out-of-pocket costs for the podcast.

I've been reaching out to the supporters, and it's been really wonderful to hear how the podcast has affected each of them.

So if you, too, would like to help support the show, click on the support the show link in the

show notes. I would love to reach out to you and hear what you have to say. In season three,

we did a two episode series on adoption, where we featured two adoptees sharing their complex

legacy of the adoptions. I learned so much from their wisdom, and I came to realize how completely naive I was prior to that

about the profound psychological and psychospiritual consequences of adoption,

even when the adoption, quote-unquote, goes well.

I've been looking for a story about adoption from the adoptive parents' perspective,

and here it finally is. Today, our storyteller Frank, he shares the joy, confusion, chaos,

utter fear, and deepest gratitude when he and his partner Brad adopted two boys, ages four and two, from the foster care system.

Twenty years ago, when Frank adopted the boys, trauma was not in the public awareness as it is today,

and he was told that these little boys who'd spent some time in a meth house might well have some challenges,

but he never could have expected what awaited.

Can love overcome trauma? Can stability and structure and patience and compassion

adequately compensate for profound early childhood neglect and abuse?

Frank's story is just one example, but it's a beautiful one, these two dads trying to find a

way to heal deep attachment wounds without a roadmap. Brad and I met like you're supposed to. We met in a

bar, and he was surrounded by hairdressers. I'm also the stylist. So it was

really easy to talk, you know, amongst this group of people. But in talking to Brad, we quickly

learned that we had this whole community in common, yet we had never met. So we proceeded to chat

that evening. He gave me his phone number. I thought he's never going to call. He was

...