A Letter From the Executive Director
Hi!
My name is Bambi Wineland and I am the Executive Director of Motherland Travel. I have been in the travel industry for more than twenty years — as an administrator, a trip coordinator, a tour leader, a customer service liaison, a travel manager and now, I run my own company. I am also a wife, the mother of two adopted children (Jo Jo, from China and Jac, from Guatemala) and a traveler. I have spent more than half my life traveling, adventuring, and immersing myself in other cultures. Travel is my greatest passion in life, other than my family.
In 2011 I took my daughter to China for her first trip back to her birth country, which I call a Heritage Journey. That trip was a huge wake-up call for me. I was well aware of the concepts of experiential and therapeutic travel but I had never applied the principles to my personal travels, let alone my children’s birth country trips. Even though I was in the travel industry at the time, I did what everyone else did and joined a group trip. What I realized during our China trip was that a Heritage Journey could be used for family and individual transformation. The depth of emotion in a Heritage Journey lends itself to transformation and allows the trip to be a tool for personal growth, deepening family bonds, building self-esteem and enriching a family’s cultural connections – IF those concepts are fully embraced. It is was through the experiences my daughter and I shared (both good and not so good) during our trip to China, that I was inspired to consider the benefits of experiential and transformative travel when applied to birth country travel.
Since 2013 my team and I have spent a considerable amount of time researching and understanding the issues and needs of adoptive families. We have consulted with psychologists, therapists, travel gurus and adoption professionals to create trips that can be truly transformative. Combining our research and personal experiences with the principles of transformative, therapeutic and experiential travel, we gave birth to Motherland Travel in 2014.
In 2014 and 2015 we designed Heritage Journeys for many families. The results and testimonials have been overwhelming. We are proud of our product and feel like it is unique to the adoption travel market. We’d love the opportunity to share our philosophies with you about our fully Guided Heritage Journeys.
New to us in 2016 is the concept of Self-Guided Heritage Journeys. During several conferences, speaking engagements and client calls, I discovered that many of our clients prefer to plan their own trips. They have charged us however, with helping them design their family’s Heritage Journey to fulfill our three basic tenets: strengthen family bonds, build self-esteem and a positive self-identity, and cultivate their rich multi-cultural heritage. We have been working diligently to help our community accomplish this and we are now introducing Self-Guided Heritage Journeys.
At Motherland Travel, we are committed to helping you design a Heritage Journey for your family (guided or self-guided) that can be a catalyst for positive transformation and years of inspiring memories. Our team has first-hand knowledge of the needs of families with internationally adopted children, years of experience running trips that meet specific experiential goals and a fresh perspective on the transformative and therapeutic power of travel.
Our commitment to facilitate positive, inspiring and transformative Heritage Journeys for adoptive families is unwavering. Customer satisfaction and our passion for creating unique and individualized travel experiences are the hallmarks of Motherland Travel.
To find out how we can help your family, please contact us.