- My father put our family through a lot,
but it's my mother who I can't forgive
for allowing him to do it.
- My fear of rejection is the reason my life is where it is,
and not where I want it to be.
- I'm positive I'm making the same mistakes
with men my mother made.
- I'm adopted, and I had...
three different mothers in the course of six months.
- My parents had a pretty gnarly divorce
and it made me really tentative
when it comes to the whole idea of marriage.
- When I was 10,
my stepdad,
who is the father to my siblings
who are 10 and seven years younger than me,
he comes out with literal knapsacks on,
just like something out of a cartoon,
and left.
- I was six when my parents first separated,
and their divorce was about six or seven years long,
so, kind of all throughout my childhood,
that was happening.
- Part of the adoption, for me,
part of having this experience,
for me has been really about internalizing the idea
that I'm not enough, even though I believe my parents
and my family that they love me
and that they care about me deeply and unconditionally.
I feel like, if they do love me, as they say they do,
then I've tricked them into loving someone
who shouldn't be loved.
- From that day on, I had the distinct pleasure
of essentially raising my siblings, as my own kids,
and I didn't go to things in high school
and I didn't do the middle school dance
because I was raising two kids,
and for a very long time, I hated my mother.
- Sadly enough, most of my friends,
eventually their parents got divorced as well,
but I think I was very early on
with the whole divorce process
and, as a young kid, feeling like you're somewhat different
and it's totally not your fault, is like so hard to fathom.
- My instant belief that everyone's going to leave
or everyone's going to abandon me,
has affected me a lot in my adult life.
I still enter a lot of social situations thinking,
why does this person want to talk to you?
- You can invest so much time and life and money
into a couple and then, it breaks either in a nice way
or an awful way and either way, there's just, like,
shrapnel of your life everywhere.
- When I was about 20, I had some time to myself
and she moved away and I was in college and I was alone,
and I looked around and I didn't have this life,
and I didn't have my kids and I didn't have my mom,
and I called her and I said, I forgive you.
- My parents have given me a really stable life.
They try to really make clear that...
Adoptive parent, is parent to them.
- Even though you think your parents are super humans,
they're really humans, and, they have flaws
just as much as you, so don't blame yourself
but also don't blame them, because...
They're probably kicking themselves
as much as you are.
- You deserve to be loved,
and you deserve to be loved unconditionally,
and you have nothing to prove.
You have nothing to justify.
You are wonderful and beautiful and so worthy of love.
- We say, well, this person hurt me and they're bad,
or I hurt this person and now I'm a bad friend,
when in reality, I think our emotions
can sort of get the better of us sometimes
and maybe stunt us from forgiveness.
But I think you have to sort of look in the mirror
and evaluate what your stuff is
before you can get to that place.