In our Staff Spotlight Series, we catch up with the talented, dedicated and compassionate individuals who help make everything our organization does possible. This month we are featuring Marlowe Waldron, post adoption worker. Read more about Marlowe’s work and life below!
When did you join CH/LSS, what is your current role, and what are some of your primary responsibilities?
I joined CH/LSS a little over three years ago. I have been in post adoption for the entirety of my career with the agency. My role consists of a variety of responsibilities including our general postadoption services, traveling with adoptees and their families on our Tour Korea, handling our Ethiopia post-adoption services, travel and birth family visits, facilitating the parents of adopted adults support group, our kid’s support group and our W.I.S.E. Up!® seminars.
What originally drew you to the field of foster care and adoption?
As an adoptive mother and former foster parent, I have always had a special place in my heart for adoptees and their birth and adoptive families. When I re-entered the workforce after staying home with my children, I knew I wanted a career that I felt passionate about and that was somehow involved with serving this population.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Searching for and connecting adoptees and their birth families – both internationally and domestically – is immensely rewarding. The ability to assist our clients in putting the pieces of their own life together in such a tangible way and helping them learn about, and possibly meet, their birth family is rewarding beyond words. I am so thankful that my work allows me to help so many people in this way.
Based on your experience working in the field of foster care and adoption, what is something everyone should know about foster care and/or adoption that they might not?
Many people believe that if a child is adopted into a loving home, then that’s the end of the story, a happy ending. What I wish everyone understood is that that is just the beginning of a lifelong journey.
What advice would you give to families thinking of beginning their adoption journey?
Talk to other adoptive parents about their experience. Educate yourself thoroughly. Enlist people you trust to be a support team for your family and give yourself grace all along the way.
Switching gears to life outside of work – what does an ideal weekend look like for you?
My ideal weekend would consist of family time at our cabin. Coffee by the lake, boating, the kids wakeboarding and tubing, and ending the evening with a bonfire.
If you could travel anywhere in the world in the next year, where would you go and what would you do?
I hope to travel to Ethiopia this year as so much of my work is connected to this country. I would love to have firsthand experience with the land, see historical sites, and visit some of our birth families to best guide our adoptees and adoptive families when assisting them with their own travel and birth family visits in Ethiopia.
What is the last book, movie, or TV series you loved?
Recent books I’ve enjoyed have been, The Silent Patient and Don’t believe everything you think.
What is something that always brings a smile to your face?
My family! There is nothing that makes me happier than spending time with my partner and our children.
