First Children Home From Samoa

5
Mar

We are happy to announce our first three children have arrived home from Samoa with their adoptive families to the U.S.!

Samoa is considered a pilot program and children arriving home in a pilot program is the last important milestone that makes a program successful. We at MLJ Adoptions, are thrilled for these families that they have completed their international adoption process from Samoa! Additionally, we thank these families for blazing the trail in the Samoa adoption process for the families following in their footsteps. We are excited about this important milestone and look forward to opening the program in the coming months to everyone. Additionally, we have more families waiting on visa approvals and several more families who have received referrals and are now moving through their court process in Samoa.

Our Samoa adoption program opened in 2011 as a pilot program. This program has seen many changes since it opened and we continue to review the process for families wishing to adopt from Samoa. We are excited to announce that MLJ Adoptions has opened the Samoa program as another option for Canadian families wishing to adopt internationally. Samoa is also a great alternative for families looking to adopt from countries in Asia such as Vietnam, which is currently not a viable option.

Inherent in all pilot programs the adoption process from start to finish will see changes to the process, possible delays or added, unforeseen procedures. Families adopting from a pilot program must be prepared for and anticipate these possible changes due to the fact that the process is new to the host country and everyone involved in the adoption process state side.

Samoa is a small island nation located in the South Pacific close to New Zealand. Its location provides beautiful weather year round and the island is a quiet paradise for its residents and tourists offering beautiful beaches and crystal clear waters. While the landscape is beautiful and the population is small in Samoa, there is still a need for adoptive families to adopt children in need of forever families. Each country is unique and reasons vary for why children are orphaned. Whether children are in need of a family due to poverty, death or separation from biological birth parents or war, there are children in need of adoptive families worldwide. Pilot programs offer solutions to provide homes for these children in need and in desperate circumstances.

MLJ Adoptions is traveling in March to Samoa to review and implement any needed changes to the program and to make improvements to the process for our adoptive families and staff. During travel we will meet with our foreign staff, visit with children, tour the shelter and meet with Samoan government officials as well as U.S. embassy officials to review the process and implement any needed changes.

Again, congratulations to these families for completing their adoption processes and bringing their children home from Samoa!

Photo Credit: Elizabeth Gartley

For more information about MLJ Adoptions’ Samoan adoption programs, please click here.

Sonja Brown works as the International Program Director for MLJ Adoptions’ programs in Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti and Samoa. Sonja is also proud to work directly with our Individualized Country Program families who are adopting from countries where no adoption service providers currently operate.

Sonja Brown works as the International Program Director for MLJ Adoptions’ programs in Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti and Samoa. Sonja is also proud to work directly with our Individualized Country Program families who are adopting from countries where no adoption service providers currently operate.