Reviews

reviews

“I can’t thank you all enough for all you have done for us and continue to do for children and families around the world. In the day to day activities of your job you may not truly see the impact you make on a children’s life. I can verify for you that your are not only changing these children’s lives but often times saving them.  I want you to know how much your work is appreciated!”
   –  Congo Family

“I wanted to write and say thanks for the email, we really value the resources that you mentioned and appreciate the time that you took to review our referral.”
   – Bulgaria Family

“Thank you so very much for your responses to my questions. I truly appreciate it! It sets my heart at ease to know the answers to the questions that CAN be answered.  ”
   – Nicaragua Family

“Thanks for your great help, Karlene. We are so grateful for you!”
   – Bulgaria Family

“We wanted to tell you all how much we have enjoyed the color coded steps of the adoption process page.  We keep ours on the fridge with some sweet magnet poetry.  It’s a daily reminder how far we have come, how blessed we are and the little one we already love beyond measure waiting on us.  We can’t wait to put a heart over our next few steps!”
Nicaragua Family

“We really appreciate all that MLJ is doing and the stress you take away from us knowing we can trust you guys is huge. We are so blessed to have found such a supportive, organized and thoughtful agency. Thank you for helping us grow our family.”
   –  Congo Family

“It sets my heart at ease to know the answers to the questions that CAN be answered.”
   – Nicaragua Family

“We really appreciate all that MLJ is doing and the stress you take away from us knowing we can trust you guys is huge. We are so blessed to have found such a supportive, organized and thoughtful agency. Thank you for helping us grow our family.”
   – Congo Family

“Thank you for creating so many different ways for us to communicate with you. We feel very supported and welcomed to ask any questions!”
   –  International Family

“I have been very impressed with MLJ’s attention and responsiveness all the way around! Your outreach to Haiti is so commendable! And despite the deluge of interest and inquiries, your team has been so communicative and responsive! I sense that there is a lot of integrity and yet practical, intuitive understanding concerning this complicated and emotional process within your organization. I’ve worked with a few other agencies that we’re okay but you guys set a new standard.”
   – International FamilyIMG_3194

“I wanted to thank you again for your re-assurance in the way that you handle your adoption programs in the DRC and elsewhere in response to my email. Given the unknowns and the length of the process there is ample time for me to think and read and be nervous over all kinds of things. Your email was just what I needed to hear so thank you for the encouragement. I wanted to be sure I sent a little encouragement your way as well. Today at the gym I met a mother of two boys who were adopted from Ethiopia. As we were chatting she asked who my agency was and I said MLJ. Her face immediately lit up and she said she knew two families who had used MLJ and had NEVER heard a bad thing about the agency. She said they both had excellent experiences and the adjective she used to describe your agency was very ethical. There couldn’t have been a better adjective for me to hear at this time.”
   –  Congo Family

“Everyone has been and continues to be very helpful and kind. We are thankful that God led us to MLJ Adoptions to help bring our little girl home. Thank you!!!!”
   –  Bulgaria Family

“I really can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for us. From that first day when you called us on the weekend to talk to us about joining your agency and about [our referral] we’ve been completely overwhelmed at the level of professionalism and service you have provided. I am so filled with gratitude for all that you, Mandy, the staff in Congo, and the foster mummy have done/are doing for us and for him. It’s been an amazing experience. You’ve really made a very stressful time much less stressful because of knowing you guys have everything under control. (Well, as much under control as adoption can be!)”
   – Congo Family

@@ Funny boy Superman with glassesSonja Brown was wonderful. Every time that we reached out to her, I heard back within that day or the next. She communicated the news from Samoa as soon as she heard it sometimes very early in the morning or very late due to time differences. I could probably write a whole page on how great she is.”
–  Samoa Family

“Even though we live out of state from MLJ, we felt they connected with us, supported us, and truly cared for our child. We know how stressed out we could be and they would put us at ease, answer our millions of questions and also do so much more that we couldn’t see. We are grateful for the agency that helped bring our precious son home.”
   –  Congo Family

“Our baby girls have been home just shy of a month now. We see every day the benefits of them having been in a loving foster care environment. They eat well, sleep well, and are cuddly, responsive to hugs and playtime and even understand the normal level (at their development) of the word “no”. All signs that they were loved and cared for, and had appropriate boundaries. We are so incredibly thankful to the foster care providers for all that they did for our girls and for others that are possibly with them now. It was totally worth the months of waiting and money invested to see the incredible gift that this foster home gave now to our family. It has made these tiny, girls’ transition into a busy household of 4 male siblings beautiful. If you have a moment, thank MLJ for all of the sacrifice, time, development and upkeep, that it takes for them to locate and provide good foster homes for all of the children waiting, in the DRC. This is truly what makes MLJ unique from other agencies and we are so grateful!”
   – Congo Family

“I appreciate ALL that you do for us clients. We, my husband and I, appreciate all that MLJ does for us. This being our first adoption, I was very leery about what company to work with. I now know that we definitely made the right choice. MLJ is a great company, you all go above and beyond for us. So I just wanted to take a moment to say, THANK YOU, and I hope you know how much you are appreciated!!”
– Congo Family

“Hands down, what we appreciate most about MLJ is the use of Foster Care. Our son was very well taken care of, and most importantly loved in his foster home. Being in country for 3 weeks I hGirl Happy Fallad the opportunity to meet a lot of adoptive families and children and the children being adopted through MLJ were clearly healthier, better adjusted and cared for than the children who were in orphanages. Foster care definitely makes a huge difference in our children’s lives. I also very much appreciated the responsiveness of MLJ staff. With all of our questions and concerns we were always responded to in a promptly manner. Sonja was extremely helpful in guiding us through every single step and we never felt confused. Again being in country for 3 weeks, I heard about and witnessed the way other agencies work and I very much appreciate the efficiency, dedication, and knowledge of MLJ. It is obvious that MLJ has a strong, positive presence in DRC.”
   -Congo Family

“Great staff and easy to communicate with. Never had to worry about paperwork not getting where it needed to be or not having the right paperwork. Staff know their adoption facts. I would highly recommend MLJ Adoptions to a friend.”
   – Congo Family

“Wanted to let you know that we just got done with our first pediatric visit and our doctor was so happy with the babies’ overall health! He was really thankful for the foster parents and so are we! MLJ is definitely a leader in this area!”
   – Congo Family

“We adopted from the Congo program and we were very impressed with all of the staff they had in country. This really helped everything go smoothly. They also have great foster homes in Congo. Our daughter came home well loved, happy, and healthy.”
   –  Congo Family

“From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU! for all the work you do for us! Whether he gets here sooner or later than expected all of the staff from MLJ goes above and beyond what we had ever expected from an adoption agency!”
   –  International Family

“I don’t think we could have had a more positive experience, and we have worked with several agencies in prior experience to have a comparison. Keep doing the great work you are doing. You are changing so many lives!”
   – International Family

“A close friend is looking into adoption and invited me this past weekend to an adoption retreat in Michigan with 11 other women who have either adopted or are in the process of adopting – most internationally. A few different agencies were mentioned over the course of the weekend, and every time MLJ was mentioned, it was with positive words (mine included). People were impressed by MLJ’s willingness to talk at length on the phone to prospective adoptive parents, and also liked that they communicated directly with the program directors while in process. 🙂
 – Congo Family

“I am incredibly grateful for the interim care MLJ set up for my girls in the DRC. My girls were 10 months and 21 months old when arriving “home” and I was overjoyed with how healthy they seemed to be – both physically and emotionally. The doctor’s visit confirmed this – they were both in the 80th percentile in height and the 40th percentile in weight; they also were parasite-free! Even more importantly, the girls were obviously well loved and nurtured. They trusted the new adults in their lives and attached quickly to me and their new family. I have sung praises of MLJ and the program they have put together in the DRC. Thank you, Sonja, and everyone else involved for giving my girls the best possible home in which to live while they waited to come and join my family!”
–  Congo Family

“My husband and I wanted to say a big, huge THANK YOU for the phone conference you had with us a couple weeks ago. You were so patient, enthusiastic and passionate about what you do and about adoption, that it is easy to see this career is a great fit for you! We really enjoyed your honesty and all of the up-to-date information you presented us–information that people just don’t get unless they speak to somebody actually involved in the process, as you are. You helped guide us toward options that would best fit our family, and you helped us clarify thoughts we had about many things. We took notes, and we are carefully considering all you shared and discussed with us. You made us feel as though adopting again is a real possibility for us! The other adoption agency we worked with for our first adoption did not offer this incredibly valuable phone consultation service. Sometimes things in life just come together at the right time, with help from the right people! ”
– Prospective Family

“Several years ago, while singing at a church and speaking of the plight of the orphans I was seeing in other countries, I met a woman who shared my burden for the Fatherless. She was passionateSummer Playground Boy about her adoption pursuit and a couple of years later, I learned that she had been successful in adopting from Ukraine. Fast-forward several years and my path once again crossed with Lydia Tarr. She was asking if we would host a boy from Ukraine… here we are, ten days from stepping on that plane to go make him our own. God, in his perfect timing, has allowed my own adoption desires to be fulfilled. God also pre-ordained who it was to help facilitate that adoption. He knew my nature, that I am very personable and relationships are very important to me. He knew my fears. He knew our financialsituation and needs better than we did. That is why he placed us in the care of MLJ Adoptions, Inc. He knew if I were going to work with people on something so delicate in nature, I would have to really trust them – I would even want to like them! Well, I have trusted and have thoroughly enjoyed making new friends with each of you. Thank you for your hearts, for your burden, for hearing answering endless questions, for being professional, and for being real.  I have been through much in my life and have come to this conclusion…God always does what is most loving for us…so that we will desire him above all other things and so that he will be glorified. I pray that our adoption journey has glorified God. I certainly am seeing his hand in the last couple of days, with the trickling in of money that we need. I hope that we have represented MLJ well. With all this sappy talk I really do want to encourage each of you to continue representing the Fatherless and more importantly, representing Christ —you do it well.”
   -Ukraine Family

“Lydia was our primary contact and liaison regarding adoption. We have worked with Lydia very closely through the process of adopting our two newest children from Ukraine. We have also had the privilege of observing her interactions with 20 or more additional families moving through similar adoption processes. In all of our interactions with Lydia, we have found her to be very knowledgeable, honest, and compassionate. From the very beginning, Lydia was able to articulate the nuances of our process both here and abroad. She patiently addressed all our concerns and questions, and worked tirelessly on our behalf. She has a deep understanding and appreciation of Ukrainian culture, and maintains strong relationships within the country. Her insights and professional perspective facilitated a much smoother adoption than we had expected. Even when unforeseen complications did arise along the way, Lydia proved patient and resourceful in pointing us toward solutions. Most importantly, in observing Lydia, we have been encouraged by her love for each individual child and the responsibility she demonstrates toward every case. Her own experiences as a adoptive mom provide her with a unique level of empathy and wisdom. Lydia’s willingness to serve us with her expertise in all aspects of our process; from legal insights, to travel tips, to encouragement in relating to our new children, was an invaluable key to the success of our adoption. Her own compassion and experiences led us to consider her as a partner in our process rather than simply a facilitator. We know Lydia has served many others in the same way. She has a long, proud legacy of connecting children to the families they need.”
   – Ukraine Family

“I wanted to say a special thank you to you for all the support and encouragement you provided to us early on. I have not forgotten those early calls. Your kindness and openness meant so much to me.”
   – International Family

“Our family would like to thank everyone involved in trying to get the problems resolved in the DRC adoption process… we are early in the process but we are praying about your efforts and for all DRC adoptions to proceed! Thank you, MLJ, for all your work and personal sacrifices!”
   – Congo Family