The past year that I’ve been able to work with the families in the Bulgaria program have been nothing short of magnificent! To give you an idea of all that was accomplished in 2018, here is a recap of the number of children that were brought home, the referrals received, and new families that joined our program here at MLJ.
Children Home in 2018
This past year has been one of MLJ’s most successful years in bringing children home from Bulgaria! We had a total of 18 children come home to the U.S. to be with their forever families. Of the 18 children home, there were 7 boys and 11 girls, ranging in ages from 1 to 14 years old. There was a wide scope of special needs and diagnosis among the children, including the following: premature birth (born before 36 weeks) low birth weight, respiratory distress, congenital anomalies of the heart, kidney, and digestive system, mild/moderate/severe developmental delays.
The Damdar family brought home their 2-year-old son!
The Edora family brought home their three daughters, ages 14, 10, and 6!
Referrals in 2018
There was a total of 20 accepted referrals in 2018. This includes some sibling groups, so a total of 13 families received referrals. Of these 20 children, there were 11 boys and 9 girls, ranging in ages from 1-14 years old with varying special needs, including but not limited to down syndrome, orthopedic deformity, developmental delays, and heart defects. A few of these children were from the waiting children list and most were traditional referrals.
New Families in the Bulgaria Program
In 2018 we welcomed 19 families into the Bulgaria program! The majority of these families joined the program as clients for the traditional route, which is waiting for a referral, however a few families identified a waiting child from Bulgaria and decided to move forward with that adoption process. Waiting children can be found on our MLJ website as well as the site Adoption Bridge. If you’re interested in learning more about the Bulgaria program or other international programs that MLJ offers, please contact Karson email karson@mljadoptions.com or phone (317) 875-0058.