On this week’s episode of the Step Stories Podcast, Host Robin Breuner welcomes PR specialist, writer, and advocate Diana Daniele to talk about her blended family and health journey. Diana describes secondary infertility, choosing adoption, and how social workers coached her on respectful adoption language and on not owing strangers personal details; she recounts being asked “Where’s the real mom?” and later apologizing to her daughter for sharing her adoption status. She explains raising a biological son and adopted daughter seven years apart, fearing sibling rivalry (“I’m the real child”) that never materialized, and discusses open adoption, ongoing contact with her daughter’s birth mother via an agency, and reunion at 18 framed as “more love.” Diana also shares five years of chronic migraines, depression and a suicide attempt, and being cured in 2014 by hirudotherapy (leeches), which helped her reconnect with her children; she concludes that love is the answer for parenting.
Diana Daniele:
Email: dianadaniele@me.com
Website: https://dianadanielepr.com/
Substack: @musingtimewithdianadaniele
Linkedin: in/diana-foutz-daniele
Youtube: @Diana-Daniele
Robin Breuner
Email: robinbreuner@gmail.com
Website: www.robinbreuner.com
Instagram: stepstoriespodcastIG
Facebook: stepstoriespodcastFB
Linkedin: RobinBreunerLinkIN
Podcast: StepStories Podcast
Threads: @robinbreuner
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