For more than 30 years, adoptees and their families have been setting off on global adventures with the goal of learning more about their birth countries, and ultimately themselves. At the heart of every journey, adoptees are making unique and important connections as they strive to answer, “Who am I?” You might be inclined to think the only important connections … Read More
Journey to Acceptance
Lia, 16, a China Ties participant, reflects on what led her from heartache to healing. Summer, 2001. An elderly couple hobbles up to a promising gate guarding a quiet orphanage with a baby swaddled in a soccer blanket. A girl, who wouldn’t carry on the family name or have the responsibility of taking care of her parents in their senior … Read More
Community in its Most Authentic Version
Community in adoptive family travel-it is a huge part of a Ties travel experience. Maybe even THE biggest part. There is really no way to overstate the importance of adoptees and their families traveling with other adoptees and their families on this particular journey. It’s not just that we all have this big life experience-international adoption-in common. It’s that when … Read More
Questions of Identity, International Adoptees
A thought provoking statement… “Visiting one’s birth country is a series of directed questions at one’s own identity, whether an adoptee is aware of their own questions or not.” Janelle Bentley, an international adoptee, is the author of those profound words. Janelle traveled on a Ties trip to her birth country when she was 17. Janelle is 27 now and … Read More