When birth country travel includes the adoptive family, a team of supportive adoption specialists, and other adoptees (and their families), the ingredients are in place for a powerful experience filled with life changing messages. THE MESSAGES IN PICTURES Traveling with other adoptees and their families has given me a community where I feel like I belong in a way no other community ever has. Everyone just gets it.
VALIDATION
In a study by the Evan B. Donaldson Institute, Hollee McGinnis reports, “For international adoptees positive identity development is most effectively facilitated by lived experiences. Travel to the country of birth topped the list.” Indeed, adoptees embarking on heritage travel are having profoundly significant lived experiences that validate and provide a sought-after first hand knowledge. What most adoptees know about … Read More
Blending In and Standing Out
“I dreamed of going back to my birth country just to be able to fit in.” We hear that a lot. Given the opportunity on a birth country trip, many adoptees are anxious to walk a few steps ahead or a few steps behind whoever they are traveling with (sorry Mom and Dad!) to see what it feels like to … Read More
Language & Birth Country Travel
Language is a bridge, but not the bridge you think. For most adoptees on a homeland journey, language and the ability to communicate is an immediate piece of the journey and has a high impact on identity development. Very few adoptees are able to speak their birth language. As a result, their first interaction with people in their birth country … Read More