Color Shift: Sara (Vanessa)

What happens when DNA uncovers a story that feels almost too incredible to be real?

In this episode of Color Shift: Transracial Adoptees, Sara shares her journey as a mixed-race adoptee raised in a white family, navigating questions of identity, belonging, and race that followed her throughout her life. Her path to discovering her biological father through DNA testing led to what can only be described as a Cinderella moment—an emotional reunion that gave her a glimpse of the connection she had always wondered about.

As this episode is released nearly one year after her father's passing, Sara reflects on the joy of finding him, the grief of losing him, and the lasting impact that relationship continues to have on her life.

Sara also opens up about the moment that brought her out of the adoption fog. Following the murder of George Floyd, she experienced grief and pain that she expected those closest to her to understand. Instead, her adoptive family's response forced her to confront difficult truths about race, identity, and what it meant to be a mixed-race adoptee in a family that could not fully see or understand her experience.

This conversation explores racial identity, late discovery, reunion, profound loss, and the complicated reality of loving the family that raised you while acknowledging the ways they may have fallen short. Sara's story is one of heartbreak, healing, and ultimately finding pieces of herself that had been missing for far too long. 

Sara's Instagram

Her tiktok is down but hopefully up soon!