María Fernanda is an Afro Ecuadorian, interracial, intercountry adoptee who lives in Texas with her husband, two children aquatic animals and fur babies. She was born in Quito, Ecuador, South America. She lived in an orphanage for awhile before she was adopted & brought to the US. Her separation from her birth country affected many areas of her life growing up. As an adult, she became very curious about learning her story & connecting the dots to her identity. Because of the lack of information upon adoption, María was left with a lot of questions. In 2007, María began the quest to search for answers. In 2020, during a global pandemic, she found her first family. In 2021, she traveled to upstate to meet her birth father & to Ecuador to meet her first mama & siblings.

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It was during the initial finding of her family, that she longed for connection with other adoptees- to share stories, thoughts, feelings, experiences & offer support. Her personal experience inspired her to co-create ASA+ Extended Latin Americas, a community & space for adult adoptees who have ties to a Latin Country. María understands the unique challenges that come with being an interracial, intercountry adoptee disconnected from birth country & birth family & the importance of having a soft place to land. Post reunion, María has began to deconstruct her adoption story and find ways to heal individually and collectively with the community. She recently launched Guía Nova Mentoring: an adoptee resource for those who are in active reunion, not in reunion, but curious about it, traveling back to birth country, post reunion support and more.

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Megan is an international, transracial adoptee born in Quito, Ecuador in 1996. As an infant, she was adopted & brought to the US. She grew up in Massachusetts in a small, predominantly white town with her adoptive family, where she currently resides. Since her closed adoption, Megan longed to complete the story of her life, meet her birth family & learn about her roots. In fact, as she got older, she made this her mission. This mission was & still is so important to her because her adoption has affected many aspects of her life including her mental health, self-esteem & navigation in a white world. After years of searching, she has been navigating reunion with her biological family in Ecuador & its complexities since 2018.

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While she thought that finding her biological family would complete her life story, it did not. Instead, she has learned the adoptee life is a continuous journey but connecting with the adoptee community has finally provided her with a space to be heard, validated & empowered. Co-creating this space has been such a blessing for her as she longed for this community growing up. Megan has her Masters in Social Work, is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker & works as an outpatient mental health clinician.