Name: Macy Putka
Social Justice Group: 2021-2022, Child Welfare, Foster Care and Adoption
Date of Fieldwork: February 10, 2022
Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Jenny and Kevin Samuelson
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :
After learning that one of our fellow classmates, Allie Samuelson, was adopted we asked if we could reach out to her parents to ask about her adoption. Then on Thursday, February 10, 2022, our social justice group met with Jenny and Kevin Samuelson. Jenny and Kevin adopted Allie and her sister, Zoe, at birth, and they shared their story about adopting two girls at birth.
Like many other women, Jenny had trouble getting pregnant and she and her husband wanted to start a family. At the time they were living in Atlanta, Georgia, at the time. In Atlanta, Jenny and Kevin lived on a block with 13 adopted children. When they thought they were interested in adopting, they asked some of their neighbors for some guidance on starting the adoption process. Soon after Jenny and Kevin reached out to an agency and created a family profile, so parents that were thinking about giving their child up for adoption could look at their information and decide if they wanted the family to care for their baby. A mother who lived in Virginia, choose Jenny and Kevin. When the mother was in labor, the day before Allie was born, they got a call that Allie’s birth mother was in labor so they had quickly flown out to Virginia. When they arrived at the hospital, Jenny and Kevin were able to be in the same room as the mother when Allie was born. Since Jenny and Kevin got such short notice before the birth of Allie, they did not have all the baby supplies they needed, and they were unprepared. Something that Jenny and Kevin mentioned was that they even had to borrow a car seat from an agency in Virginia to take Allie back from the hospital because they did not have one themselves.
Since Allie was adopted in a different state from the Jenny and Kevin they lived in, they had to follow a protacall called The Interstate Compact. The Interstate Compact is basically is a proticall that ensures that after the child is adopted, they are safe and well cared for all across states. After Allie was born, Jenny and Kevin had to stay in a hotel for a couple of days instead of going home after she was born while they awaited the Interstate compact to be approved. They discribed it as really hard to take care for a newborn baby in a hotel, then when they finally get approved they had to travel on a plane witha a new-born baby. Jenny quoted that, “everyone judges you when you bring your new-born baby on the plane and they want to tell you what and what not to do with your child, but they really don’t know your full story.” Which I thought was really interesting beucase I didn’t really think about that part of their experience as foverever parents.
After getting home safely, Allie settled in very well with Jenny and Kevin. Jenny and Kevin clearly imformed Allie about her birth parents and answered any questions she would have around the topic. Later, Jenny and Kevin adopted Zoe, Allies sister through the same process. Jenny and Kevin are still in contact with family members from Allie’s and Zoe’s biological families. Allie even has seven biological siblings, one of them is her sister who Jenny and Kevin are in close contact with and they visit and see quite often. After hearing about these amazing experiences about Jenny and Kevin adopting Allie, we were all fascinated beucase it really gave us insight on how the adoption system work.
