The Transnational Adoptee Support Group Meetings offer a safe space for transnational adoptees to explore the challenges and lifelong experiences shaped by adoption across borders. Led by transnational adoptees Sandi Morgan Caesar and Svetlana Sandoval, these group discussions aim to foster a sense of community, allowing us to share our stories and support one another in our unique experiences. Transnational adoptees face distinct challenges, including cultural and language loss, legal complexities related to citizenship and identity, and the unique challenges in birth family search and reunion transnationally. To ensure this space is centered on our shared yet nuanced experiences, we ask that only transnational adoptees attend.

About Sandi
Sandi began her career in 1992 as a case manager at a neighborhood mental health center in Cleveland, then followed a co-worker from that agency to Harambee: Services for Black Families as an adoption social worker. It was her supervisor at Harambee who suggested she get involved with Adoption Network Cleveland (ANC). So, Sandi was introduced to ANC as a professional but remained involved as an adoptee. Sandi worked in adoption for four years before becoming a full-time stay-at-home mom with her 2 sons. She returned to work outside of the home in 2006 with the Indiana Department of Child Services where she remained for almost 12 years, working in foster care licensing, and serving as the state’s Adoption Manager for her last 6 years. In August 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, Sandi moved to Virginia accepting a position as supervisor with a foster care agency for 2 years. In this role she really began to see this work was taking a toll on her and common practices conflicted with her own beliefs on what was best for children.

About Svetlana
Svetlana Sandoval is an international adoptee from Russia. She was adopted to the U.S. during the peak wave of international adoptions in the late 90s. Svetlana has shared her experience of growing up as an international adoptee, and how her understanding of adoption evolved throughout her teens and young adulthood. She is in reunion with her birth mother and family in Russia, and has navigated the complexities of a virtual reunion across language and cultural barriers. Misinformation from her adoption agency left her unaware of her native citizenship status, and dual citizenship has brought additional complexities to traveling to meet her family in person. Svetlana has spent the last two years reclaiming her immigrant identity and has shared about her immigrant community experiences and choice to reclaim her original name. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Social Work, and her adoptee and immigrant identities have informed her academic path to support international adoptees on their journeys.