Adopted the Comic

I am an adoptee from Vietnam, one of those children evacuated during Operation Babylift in 1975. I grew up in the United States, living in Georgia, Alabama, Utah, Arizona, and mostly Colorado. In addition, I am an adoption researcher. I study adoptee identity and adoptive family communication. I recently edited Pieces of Me: Who do I Want to Be? with EMK Press (www.emkpress.com/teenbook.html). In my life, I have helped form two adoptee-led organizations, the Vietnamese Adoptee Network and the International Adoptee Congress. I have been published in Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox, Building Connections and Adoption Today magazine and have spoken across the U.S. and Canada to numerous adoptive parents and adoption professionals sharing his experiences as an adoptive person. I have a PhD in communication and am an assistant professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada where I teach courses in interpersonal communication, family communication, communication ethics, and organizational communication. I am married with two daughters and will be traveling to Vietnam to pick up my new son in the next few months (yes, we are adopting!). I am passionate about providing adoptees a space where they can share their stories and experiences. This comic is part of that - I think to truly grow as people we also need to laugh at ourselves every once in a while. Just ask my students . . . laughing helps us to take what we do seriously, but not ourselves seriously. I am so thankful for Jessica Emmett's work on this - did you know we still haven't met in person! Enjoy "Adopted, The Comic"!