MLJ Adoptions offers thriving international adoption programs in Bulgaria and Ukraine. We have brought home 31 children from Ukraine and are expecting to bring home our third child from Bulgaria this summer followed soon after by additional children. Any international adoption agency working in Bulgaria must partner with a local Hague approved Non Governmental Agency (NGO) registered with the Bulgarian government. Our partner NGO in Bulgaria is Vesta.
VESTA helps parents from USA, Spain, Italy, France and Norway navigate the international adoption process in Bulgara. VESTA is accredited under the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption and in accordance with authority granted by the Ministry of Justice of Bulgaria. For over twelve years, they have dedicated themselves to the mission of helping abandoned and orphaned children find families and have better and brighter futures.
Vesta representatives identify children that are eligible for international adoption and assist MLJ in matching those children to our families. They are instrumental in obtaining additional information about referred children for our parents particularly in the case of special needs children. They also provide in country support for all of our families while they are in country on both of the required visits. This includes transportation, accompanying parents on court visits and arranging trips to orphanages. MLJ is proud to sponsor the Crossroads of America Adoption Conference in September which will provide families with the opportunity to meet our Vesta partners in person.
In addition to facilitating adoptions, Vesta seeks to improve the lives of the children left behind. They are working in conjunction with MLJ staff members to plan the service trip taking place this spring to Bulgaria. Participants of this trip will complete a landscaping project and other orphanage support projects. Further information can be obtained from Info@mljadoptions.com.
Vesta also runs an innovative program in Bulgarian orphanages called A Grandmother’s Love Project. Retired women are matched to children and care for that child every day. Each child receives one-to-one attention and builds a relationship with their assigned Grandmother. This personal touch helps improve not just the emotional state of the child but it also stimulates physical development, fine motor skills and speech development. On an emotional level, children who have been deprived of a mother’s love, are able to begin learning how to attach.
In partnership with MLJ Adoptions, Vesta is making a difference in the lives of Bulgarian children who are being given the chance to have a family and to grow up in an atmosphere of love, tenderness and attention. For more information on adopting from Bulgaria, please contact Lydia Tarr, Program Director for Eastern European countries.
Sheri Molnar
Sheri Molnar is the Director of Operations and Finance at MLJ Adoptions. Visiting children living in institutions in Honduras and Congo has provided her with a tremendous motivation to come into work each day and work tirelessly on behalf of children in need of loving, permanent homes.
Sheri Molnar
Sheri Molnar is the Director of Operations and Finance at MLJ Adoptions. Visiting children living in institutions in Honduras and Congo has provided her with a tremendous motivation to come into work each day and work tirelessly on behalf of children in need of loving, permanent homes.