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The Anna Jinja Show
The Anna Jinja show focuses on the stories, issues, and questions connected to adoption and foster care experiences.
The host is an international adoptee with biological roots in Korea and adopted roots in the United States. As you can imagine, her journey and experiences as a transracial adoptee are multifaceted. Her experiences have been with the pain of discrimination and rejection as well as the joys of self-discovery and learning to embrace all aspects of her identity.
Along the way, she has discovered that she is not alone. We’re all – in some ways – adopted into or out of homes, cultures, communities, and relationships as we grow and evolve. This show illuminates the theme of adoption, in all ways, in our lives. And how those experiences create who we are and who we are yet to be.
Her hope is that through engaging with the guests and creative content, we are welcomed home in this world, cradled in the belief that we belong, that we are worthy, and that we are loved.
So stay tuned, and you may discover your own adoption story.
The Anna Jinja Show
Anna Sheffield & Kristin Cotterell Sheffield
In this deeply moving episode, host Anna Jinja sits down with Anna Sheffield, a young adoptee from Iowa City, and her mother, Kristin Cotterell Sheffield, to explore the layers of identity, belonging, and love that define adoption.
The conversation flows between mother and daughter perspectives—offering both honesty and tenderness—as they recount their family’s adoption journey, challenges of transracial adoption, and the resilience built through love, faith, and storytelling. Listeners will hear not just the story of adoption, but also universal reflections on attachment, identity, and what it means to be family.
Key Themes & Highlights A Mother’s Love and Vision: Kristin reflects on her lifelong openness to adoption, her struggles with miscarriage, and the powerful moment of meeting and holding Anna at birth.
Growing Up Adopted: Anna shares her childhood experiences, including moments of bullying, the “grateful adoptee” expectation, and navigating identity in a transracial family.
Attachment & Resilience: The mother-daughter duo candidly discusses Anna’s need for reassurance and how she would sometimes test her mother’s love, a dynamic familiar to many adoptive and foster families.
Creative Legacy: Kristin recites a poem, “Prayer” by Walter Dean Myers, which she read to Anna throughout her childhood—a powerful reminder of beauty, worth, and belonging.
Transformation & Hope: Together, they embrace the metaphor of the butterfly emerging from its cocoon, symbolizing the challenges and triumphs of growth, change, and self-discovery.
Why This Episode Matters For General Listeners: It’s a heartfelt story of resilience and the bonds that hold us together.
For Adoption/Foster Communities: It provides authentic voices and lived experiences that resonate with adoptive families, adoptees, and professionals.
For Broader Audiences: It’s about more than adoption—it’s about family, identity, and the universal search for belonging.
Creative Content: Poem selected and read by Kristin Cotterell Sheffield
Prayer
by Walter Dean Myers
Shout my name to the angels.
Sing my song to the skies.
Anoint my ears with wisdom.
Let beauty fill my eyes.
For I am dark and precious.
And have such gifts to give.
Sweet joy, sweet love,
Sweet laughter.
Sweet wondrous life to live.