We were lucky to catch up with Katie Burns recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Katie, thanks for joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.
Katie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Have you ever had to pivot?
For the first 16 years of my life as a birth parent, for the most part, I stayed silent. I felt completely alone in that aspect of my life and no one seemed interested in my feelings around being a birth parent and living separated from my daughter on a day-to-day basis. I held a lot of things in that would occasionally surface in some self-destructive behavior- binge drinking, eating disorders, intentionally choosing doomed relationships, etc. I lived in a world where I had no one else to mirror or validate my feelings around the separation. I also believed in my open adoption arrangement, that the agency was right in that my daughter was living a “better” life and would never miss me. I had to pivot everything I had lived when at 16 years old, my daughter shared a lot of her struggles with me. She had indeed missed me and would never “thank me” for separating her from myself and her extended family. None of this was ever supposed to hurt my child. I had been told the pain of separation would only be my burden to bear. From that point forward, I became unapologetically vocal about my lived experience and the need for better support services to prevent family separations.
If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?
If I could go back in time, I would have never become a birth mom and my daughter would never have been separated from me. I would have been more determined and unapologetic in finding people who would encourage me in my motherhood and help me find temporary assistance to get on my feet as a single mom. That is what I hope my advocacy can do for other expectant parents today.
Contact Info:
- Website: Thefamilypreservationproject.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefamilypreservationproject/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheFamilyPreservationProject/
- Other: TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@family_preservation?_t=8WQS5Xto64U&_r=1