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Three decades ago, The Ties Program was created by two women touched by the adoption constellation.

Today we are adoptee-owned. Tanya Kaanta is a Korean adoptee who has lived in and explored her country of birth. Her Ph.D. focused on intercountry adoption, identity formation, emotion work, and advocacy.

With 100+ years of combined experience and knowledge, we understand how transformative this trip can be for adoptees and their families.

In addition to being professionals in post-adoption and homeland journey services, we are adult adoptees, parents, partners, spouses, and siblings.

Find Your Country

We provide adoptees and those who love them with a well-thought-out and supportive way of connecting to their country of birth.

We humbly serve adoptive families from the United States, Canada, the UK, Europe, and Australia. We travel with adoptive family groups to Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Africa.

Here's Why It Works...

IT STARTS WITH A DREAM

Maybe you’ve dreamed about a heritage journey for years, or perhaps have recently begun thinking about one. We are available to answer your questions, discuss your dreams, and provide information for you to consider as the journey takes shape.

ORGANIZED & FLEXIBLE

You can relax and focus on the beautiful experiences you are having, along with a wide range of emotions. You can trust us to be on top of all the details! Plus, we’ll build in free time and flexibility, so you can do the things YOU want to do.

IT CONTINUES AS A PLAN

Adoptive Family Travel works with adoptees and families to design trips that see the sights and allows you to interact with daily life. Families often connect with people and places important to them like orphanages, foster homes, caregivers & birth family. We’ll help with all the plans.

STRONG SUPPORT 24/7

You will have our full team of adoption specialists at your disposal, each with a unique connection to adoption and a strong passion to serve adoptees and families. We offer optional Connect & Chat for adoptees and Talk Time for parents. Ties offers THE most supportive way to experience your birth country.

A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Adoptees and their families often tell us they feel like the trip was planned just for their family even when traveling with one of our Flagship Ties or Ties Lite groups. That is our goal for each traveler on this journey of identity and discovery.

Find Your Country

YOU’LL CREATE COMMUNITY

It is impossible to overstate the importance of adoptees traveling with other adoptees, or adoptive families traveling with other adoptive families. It provides community, resources, friendships, and STRONG bonds through shared experiences that last a lifetime.

Features You'll Appreciate

  • Preparation Ties heritage journeys are expertly planned and tailored. We will help you prepare logistically as well as emotionally for this trip of a lifetime. Participants have access to our staff before, during and after the trip to help with concerns as they arise.

  • Ties Adoption Specialists
    A team of  adoption specialists will travel with you to support your family while you discover the messages of the journey, and explore how to best weave the experiences into your life story.

  • Meaningful & Fun In-Country Activities Ties itineraries offer meaningful and fun activities. However, if your family wishes to opt out of a scheduled activity, that's okay. We're flexible!
  • English Speaking Guide/Translator English speaking in-country guides will share culture, customs, life stories, and humor. These amazing people will add tremendous depth to your experience.
  • Reconnection Opportunities We provide you with opportunities to visit people and places important to your family--like orphanages, birth hospitals, places of finding, foster families, caregivers, and birth family--all in a supportive environment.
  • Opportunities for Reflection Ties programs include our signature Connect & Chat for adoptees and Talk Times for parents.  These informal gatherings are optional and give you a chance to reflect on the journey as you are traveling.
  • Ties Group Leader Our programs are staffed by a Ties group leader who creates community, builds bridges, and deals with details so you can focus on your family and the profound meaning of the journey. Relax, enjoy, savor.
  • Customized Transportation From the time you arrive, until the time you leave, we have you covered. We are used to special arrangements, making things convenient and comfortable when you are with the group and when you are doing individual visits.
  • Excellent Hotels We strive to stay in moderate, family friendly hotels that are centrally located and have a pool whenever possible. All hotels have private western bathrooms.
  • Project Kindness We invite your participation in Project Kindness providing humanitarian aid where needed. Project Kindness is totally optional.
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Find Your Country
Request More Info
Find Your Country

About Individual Travel

While we strongly believe in adoptees and their families traveling with a group, we know it isn't always possible. Should you prefer to travel as an individual family, or with another family you know, we are here to help. We will be happy to arrange hotels, transportation, guides/translators, sightseeing, and adoption related visits.

Request Individual Travel Info

About International Birth Family Search & Reunion

In many of the countries we serve, it is possible to do a birth family search. Frankly, there have been many more reunions for international adoptees than we ever thought possible when we started a quarter of a century ago.

We are happy to help you locate a searcher and explain the process. Equally important, we have a deep understanding of the emotions that accompany search, finding and not finding. We also understand that not all adoptees want to search. We neither encourage or discourage birth family search, but rather help you understand the process and complexities so you make a decision you are comfortable with.

When or if birth family is located, we can also help by setting up the logistics of a meeting, transportation and translation.

For more information about birth family search and reunion, please visit your country page, and click on "Possibilities for Adoption Visits" three quarters of the way down the page.

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