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Dozens of Greek adoptees and their families from across the USA and Greece gathered in Louisville, Kentucky, June 20-22 for the Third Annual Greek Adoptee Reunion, hosted by The Eftychia Project. After the first two Reunions in Nashville, Tennessee, and Athens, Greece, the event rotated back to the U.S. for the fifth anniversary of The Eftychia Project, the only official adoptee-led organization in the U.S. that supports Greek adoptees.

She was adopted in America and spent six decades of her life believing her mother died in childbirth, one of the thousands of children born in Greece in the 1950s who, through murky – and often illegal – circumstances, were given up for adoption in America.

Growing up in Texas, I always knew I was adopted from Greece. I didn't know I'd find a home there. From today.com

Builing upon the amazing success of The First Annual Greek Adoptee Reunion, held in August 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee, the Second Annual Greek Adoptee Reunion 2023, held in our homeland of Greece, not only gave Greek adoptees from America the chance to visit their home country, but also gave those Greek adoptees and families in Greece, all of Europe and elsewhere the opportunity to attend and connect with each other. The Reunion, held October 14-19, 2023 was the first time this many Greek adoptees gathered together in Greece since they were babies and young children in their orphanages in Greece. It was truly a magical time of bonding, sharing and support, with several adoptees visiting Greece for the first time since being adopted some six decades ago and others meeting Greek biological family for the very first time.

Thanks to the invitation of Lynelle Long, President of Intercountry Adoptee Voices (ICAV), an organization that brings together intercountry adoptees from across the globe, Greek adoptees were given a voice for the first time at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on September 20. Linda Carol Trotter, a Greek adoptee and President of The Eftychia Project, a nonprofit that assists Greek adoptees searching for their roots and Greek families searching for their children lost to adoption, was invited by Ms. Long to give her testimony before the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances on the first anniversary of the Joint Statement on Illegal Intercountry Adoption.

It all started when, on a whim, Eftychia answered a casting call on Facebook for superfans of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. She never expected to hear anything back — after all, thousands of people responded to the call. But, suddenly, she was cast in a joint production of Focus Features and Rotten Tomatoes in conjunction with the release of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3”, which was filmed just 4 days before she left for Greece yet again. Click on READ MORE to watch the video - watch until the very end to see a special little clip filmed in Nafpaktos, Greece. This was an amazing opportunity to bring the mission of The Eftychia Project to the attention of a much larger audience and we cannot thank the producers of this video enough. Thank you, Focus Fea!tures and Rotten Tomatoes!

Greek adoptee Teresa Scharf never dreamed that she'd find a sister and a new identity when she embarked on her journey to discover her roots in Greece. From today.com