MLJ Adoptions’ foreign staff will be traveling to Indianapolis on September 13-16th for staff training and the Crossroads of American Adoption Conference hosted by MLJ Adoptions. MLJ’s entire domestic staff and clients have a unique opportunity to connect in-person with our foreign staff. This is an opportunity that we hope is a great benefit to our prospective adoptive families and current adoptive families. Since our foreign staff will be quite busy during their stay, we do have specific presentation times and appointment times for prospective and current adoptive parents to meet the staff. Please discuss these opportunities with your program directors.
MLJ Adoptions’ foreign staff are such an important part of the
international adoption process, and developing and keeping a good working relationship with them creates several benefits in the adoption process. These benefits include building trust, understanding the process, obtaining “on the ground” information about a country’s process, sometimes obtaining information prior to release by government officials, and creating stability in the program. While our foreign staff do not control the process, we trust them to provide us with expertise regarding the in-country process details. We know the challenges of working across boarders not only with various government entities but also with our staff. We continually work on communicating effectively and efficiently with our staff. This can be a challenge because of language and cultural barriers. We know that cultural norms often permeate the communication in the process. While these are challenges during our personal visits, continued training and communication and brining the foreign staff to the U.S. help us to navigate these challenges and barriers that are created by our different cultures and languages.
As the Executive Director of MLJ Adoptions, it has been extremely important for me to personally meet our foreign staff. While many others at MLJ also meet with our foreign staff, it is imperative for me to meet them and for several of us to have a close connection with our staff in foreign countries. We are so grateful to them for their efforts. They are amazing and generous individuals that have a commitment to adoption and completing the process for children.
We are excited once again to bring our foreign staff to Indianapolis to celebrate adoption, keep educating, and keep on connecting. This year we will have representatives and staff from
Democratic Republic of Congo,
Bulgaria,
Nicaragua,
Samoa, and Mexico. We hope that you can join us in welcoming them and you can also take the time to also connect with them!
For more information about MLJ Adoptions’ international adoption programs, please click here.
MLJ Adoptions is a Non-Profit, Hague-Accredited adoption service provider located in Indianapolis, Indiana, working in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Pacific Isles. We are passionate about serving children in need.
