Fall 2008 Vol. 50 No. 4
I was hungry
and you gave me food
China Adoption
Child of Promise Option
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Dear Readers
Looking at the past year’s graduating adoptees in this issue of Holt International
magazine, it’s hard to imagine these accomplished and hopeful young people in
urgent need. Their photos and impressive lists of honors, plans and interests show
a confident and bright class of graduates who have set their sights beyond the next
horizon.
But for many of these grads, there was a time their lives perched on the edge of
potentially grave circumstances. Their futures teetered upon the choices and
actions of several key people. Some endured a time of deprivation—vulnerable,
perhaps hungry, needing someone to care for them. They were the little ones in the
child reports that Holt sends out to sponsors in return for their monthly support.
Years ago when these young people were in the care of Holt and its partner agencies overseas, food was a vital part of their care. Though it’s a simple and essential
substance for life, Holt’s founders discovered early on that food alone wasn’t saving
the weak and ill children. It needed to be given as part of physical and emotional
nurturing care. And this has become a central theme for Holt International.
In this issue Alice Evans’ feature on food explores Holt’s mission of nourishment for
children and some of the current-day problems Holt is encountering in providing it.
During these times of uncertainty, we are extremely grateful for the faithful support
of donors, sponsors and adoptive parents. Every month children have needs that
must be met, and your encouragement speaks volumes about your commitment to
the children.
Because of the worldwide financial downturn, we at Holt are making adjustments
and looking for ways to be more frugal and efficient as we strive to ensure that
children receive their daily essentials of food, shelter, clothing, medical treatment
and loving care. Holt is gratified to have your prayers for this work and blessed
to have you as one of our caring and faithful supporters. May God bless you and
grant you a very meaningful season of hope during the year-end holidays.
—John Aeby, Editor
contents
food crisis
Simple nutritious food given with love
continues to be one of Holt’s most important
ingredients for helping vulnerable children.
You Cannot Lose Sight of the Goal
Celebrating Our 2008 Graduates
departments
Update
Directions
Around the Globe
From the Family
Adoptees Today
Neighborhood Calendar
Waiting Child
Family Tree
4
5
11
12
28
30
30
31
In 1955 Harry and Bertha Holt responded to the conviction that God had called them to help
children left homeless by the Korean War. Though it took an act of the U.S. Congress, the
Holts adopted eight of those children. But they were moved by the desperate plight of other
orphaned children in Korea and other countries as well, so they founded Holt International
Children’s Services in order to unite homeless children with families who would love them as
their own. Today Holt International serves children and families in Bulgaria, Cambodia, China,
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Nepal,
the Philippines, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Romania, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, the
United States and Vietnam.
President & CEO Gary N. Gamer
Senior Vice-President of Marketing & Development Phillip A. Littleton
Vice-President of Public Policy & Advocacy Susan Soon-keum Cox
Vice-President of Finance & Administration Kevin Sweeney
Vice-President of Adoption Services Lisa Vertulfo
Vice-President of Program Development Robin Mauney
Board of Directors
Chair Kim S. Brown Vice-Chair Will C. Dantzler President Emeritus Dr. David H. Kim
Secretary Claire A. Noland Members Andrew R. Bailey, Julia K. Banta, James D. Barfoot,
Rebecca C. Brandt, Dean Bruns, Wilma R. Cheney, Cynthia G. Davis, A. Paul Disdier, Rosser B.
Edwards, William E. Fitzgerald, Kim A. Hanson, Karen A. Howze, Joseph P. Matturro, Jeffrey B.
Saddington, Richard J. Salko, Shirley M. Stewart, Steven G. Stirling, Francis W. Wankowicz
Holt International magazine is published quarterly by Holt International Children’s Services,
Inc., a nonprofit Christian child welfare organization. While Holt International is responsible
for the content of Holt International magazine, the viewpoints expressed in this publication are
not necessarily those of the organization.
Editor John Aeby
Managing Editor Alice Evans
Graphics Brian Campbell, Alice Evans, Chloe Goldbloom
Subscription Orders/Inquiries and Address Changes
Send all editorial correspondence and changes of address to Holt International magazine,
Holt International, P.O. Box 2880, Eugene, OR 97402. We ask for an annual donation of $20 to
cover the cost of publication and mailing inside the United States and $40 outside the United
States. Holt welcomes the contribution of letters and articles for publication, but assumes no
responsibility for return of letters, manuscripts or photos.
California Office
1555 River Park Drive, Suite 100, Sacramento, CA 95815
Ph: 916/487.4658 Fax: 916/487.7068 california@holtinternational.org
12
20
Our Vision
Holt International is dedicated to carrying out God’s plan for every child to have a permanent,
loving family.
Arkansas Office
25 Whispering Drive, Edgemont, AR 72044
Ph/Fax: 501/723.4444 arkansas@holtinternational.org
“It’s worth the wait,” says an adoptive family
now in process for bringing home another
child from Haiti.
holt graduates
Holt International Children’s Services
P.O. Box 2880 (1195 City View) Eugene, OR 97402
Ph: 541/687.2202 Fax: 541/683.6175
Reprint Information
Permission from Holt International is required prior to reprinting any portion of Holt
International magazine. Please direct reprint requests to editor John Aeby at 541/687.2202 or
johna@holtinternational.org.
I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food 6
adopting from haiti
Fall 2008 vol. 50 no. 4
Midwest Office Serving Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota
10685 Bedford Ave., Suite 300, Omaha, NE 68134
Ph: 402/934.5031 Fax: 402/934.5034 midwestbranch@holtinternational.org
This young girl in China is being
cared for by a foster mother with
the support of Holt Sponsorship.
Missouri Office/Kansas Office
203 Huntington Rd., Kansas City, MO 64113
Ph: 816/822.2169 Fax: 816/523.8379
122 W. 5th St., Garnett, KS 66032 missouri@holtinternational.org
New Jersey Office
340 Scotch Rd. (2nd Floor), Trenton, NJ 08628
Ph: 609/882.4972 Fax: 609/883.2398 newjersey@holtinternational.org
Oregon/ SW Washington Office (serving Oregon and SW Washington)
Capitol Plaza 9320 SW Barbur Blvd., Suite 220, Portland, OR 97219
Ph: 503/244.2440 Fax: 503/245.2498 oregon@holtinternational.org
5721 SE Columbia Way, Suite 175, Vancouver, WA 98661, Ph: 360/448.2200
Copyright ©2008 by Holt International Children’s Services, Inc.
ISSN 1047-7640
ACCREDITED BY
COUNCIL ON
ACCREDITATION
www.holtinternational.org 3
update
15 year old and younger division. “It makes
me feel proud that a kid could run and help
other kids in Ethiopia,” she said.
Holt Ambassadors volunteer their efforts to
raise funds and find families for children in
Holt programs around the world. To find
out more about the Holt Ambassador program: holtinternational.org/ambassadors/
Molly Holt Award
The presentation of the Molly Holt Award to
George and Michele Smith offered a special
highlight at this year’s Holt Family Picnic in
New Jersey. The award is given each year
to one family or individual for selflessly volunteering their time and service with loving
care and concern to help homeless children
around the world. Adoptive parents of a
son, Colin, from Korea, the Smiths have
led the picnic planning committee in New
Jersey for the past 14 years. They are also
instrumental in planning the New Jersey
Annual Dinner, which raises funds for various Holt projects.
Hallie Thomas at her bake sale.
Holt Ambassadors
Bake Sale
Hallie Xiaolan Thomas, an 8-year-old
adoptee from China, raised more than
$200 at the bake sale she and her friend
Payton Vandergriff put together in Oxford,
Georgia—to help children affected by the
May earthquakes in China. Hallie was
adopted through Holt in August 2000. See
related story p. 11.
Omaha Marathon
Nearly 20 people ran in the 10K and halfmarathon as the “Holt International Team”
in the September 28 Omaha Marathon—
and raised over $7,300 for children in the
care of Holt’s Ethiopia program.
“Our son Nigel came home this year with
the help of Holt,” said runner Jennifer
Chapman, a Holt adoptive parent. “We are
thankful that during the beginning of his
life Holt was there to help our son with all
that he needed. I wanted to raise money
for the Ethiopia program for Holt because,
after going through the adoption process,
I realize how much Holt does for children;
they really do put the children first.”
Holt adoptee Emma Frerichs, 11, ran the
10K route and received second place in the
4
Fall 2008
Angels in Adoption
Four women with a Holt International
connection were selected as “Angels in
Adoption” and honored mid-September
at a gala in Washington, D.C., by the
Congressional Coalition on Adoption
Institute (CCAI). They are Cindy Bigelow,
Sandy McLaughlin, Mary Masterson and
Dana Gresh.
Portland, Oregon, is a Korean adoptee as
well as an adoptive mother of two girls
from China. She was successful at establishing the OHSU Adoption Health Services
Program in early 2006.
Dana Gresh, a Christian book author and
the co-founder of Grace Prep High School,
adopted a 13-year-old girl from China
through Holt along with her husband, Bob,
and advocates for homeless children.
Holt Artists
Winter Jam—the largest Christian music
event of the year, features NewSong and
many other Christian artists. If you would
like to volunteer at a 2009 Winter Jam concert, go to: holtinternational.org/artists.
To keep up on the latest information for
2009 Winter Jam events, go to: jamtour.
com
For NewSong’s Christmas Tour Celebration
performance dates, go to: newsongonline.
com
Several artists promote Holt International
child sponsorship at their concerts.
In Memory
Comprised of members of the U.S.
Congress, the CCAI selects Angels to recognize extraordinary commitment and
accomplishments on behalf of adoption.
This year marked the 10th anniversary of
the Angels in Adoption program.
Cynthia Bigelow, a Holt adoptive parent,
is the founder and executive director of
Chosen International, an Oregon-based,
nondenominational ministry that provides
educational, emotional and spiritual support to teen adoptees and their parents.
Sandra McLaughlin, the executive director
of Bethany Christian Services of Western
Pennsylvania, was adopted from Korea in
1961 through Holt International. She has
more than 25 years of extensive professional expertise in adoption.
Mary Masterson, a faculty member in the
Department of Family Medicine at Oregon
Health and Science University (OHSU) in
Daniel Paul Sloan, 24, passed away August
11, 2008, from complications of acute leukemia. Son of Wayne and Terree Sloan,
Daniel was adopted from Korea in March
1987 at age 3. In addition to his parents,
he leaves behind six siblings, several of
them also adopted through Holt. Daniel
was majoring in math at the University of
California, Berkeley, and was eight units
shy of graduating. He was active in Korean
Campus Crusade for Christ while attending
UCB and had a strong faith in Christ. “He
will be remembered for his kind heart, his
desire for truth, his mischievous spirit and
his intelligence,” said family members. ■
directions
Momentum In Times
Like These
Now is not the
time to pare back
on supporting
the most
vulnerable in our
midst
by Gary N. Gamer
President and CEO
President and CEO Gary Gamer visited Holt children in care in Ethiopia last February. Below: Holt sends nutritional supplies to
orphaned children at this baby home in North Korea (see more about Holt’s work in North Korea on p. 10).
T
These are indeed difficult and confusing times.
The recent economic crisis has affected Holt International just
as it has touched families all across the United States. The fallout
also has links to and was preceded by growing costs of basic
needs around the world, making it difficult to provide shelter, food,
nutrition and medical treatment for children, particularly in Haiti,
Ethiopia and North Korea. In fact, all of the countries Holt works
in are affected.
Uncertainty, vulnerability, fear, loss of hope… this is new for
many in our society. But these emotions are precisely those experienced by children who have lost their parents, live outside of
family care or who are at serious risk of losing family and care.
needs “Child of Promise” from China or a child from our newest
programs in Nepal or Bulgaria.
Additionally, Holt has developed programs with access to assist
children through other permanency services, including services
that prevent children from falling out of family care during tough
times. And, if they do lose their families, Holt offers hope through
temporary foster care until a permanent family is ready.
I want to thank you, our many friends and supporters who are
standing with Holt in your prayers and with your support. Your
giving as we race toward the end of this year is helping children
in profoundly important ways… so that we do not lose momentum
in times like these. ■
On top of all this, intercountry adoption is undergoing a
great deal of transition, which deeply affects the world of Holt
International. In Vietnam, for example, children’s referrals for
adoption to U.S. families have halted until the U.S. and Vietnamese
governments work out a bilateral agreement to safeguard children’s
best interests through intercountry adoption.
Fortunately, the most important ingredients for Holt to give
children permanent, loving families are in good supply. The first
is faith… knowing that it is God’s will that children be in families
and have their basic needs met. The second is compassion… a
commitment to the idea that now is not the time to pare back on
supporting the most vulnerable in our midst.
We cannot lose sight of, or back away from, our forward
momentum on a number of important fronts in our mission.
Scores of families around the world have great capacity in their
hearts and in their homes to adopt, and Holt has many children
who need families… whether it is a child from Ethiopia, a special
www.holtinternational.org 5
I Was
Hungry
and you gave me food
by Alice Evans
Managing Editor
Photos, clockwise from left:
Founder Harry Holt holds a
malnourished girl in South
Korea, in the aftermath of the
Korean War • A 9-year-old
boy as he appeared in early
July 2006, near the time he
arrived at Ilsan, South Korea.
• In October 2008, he sits
happily in the lap of a caregiver. • Holt President and
CEO Gary Gamer holds a malnourished baby in Ethiopia,
2008 • A child in Holtsupported care in China.
• Grace* was severely
malnourished and underweight when she came to
Holt Fontana Village in Haiti.
Within weeks, care and food
improved her health dramatically. Grace is now home with
her adoptive family in the
United States.
H
He was 9 years old but looked about 4, and he
weighed barely 15 pounds when he was brought to
Ilsan three weeks earlier. Severe cerebral palsy was a
complicating factor. Molly Holt calmly and purposefully was nursing the little boy back to life through a
combination of food and love, building his health and
strength and bringing a spark of hope into his heart.
She was feeding him all that he wanted to eat,
which was a great deal of food. He responded to
Molly’s voice—a smile flitted across his face as she
moved his chair and spoke to him. When she walked
away, he cried out feebly.
The little boy made dramatic progress—from listless and unresponsive to happy good health in a short
time under Molly’s care. Even during the one week I
stayed at Ilsan, the change was astonishing.
Since Holt’s earliest beginnings, food and nutrition
have been vital components in its efforts to save weak
and malnourished children and to help them toward
healthy development. Through the years Holt and its
partner agencies have brought countless children back
from the brink of death simply by feeding them basic,
healthy food while coaxing them with affectionate
holding and words of encouragement. Recent events,
however, are making it more and more difficult to
provide this simple but vital component of Holt’s care
for vulnerable children.
A Worldwide Food Crisis
Beginning early in 2008, food issues rose to the forefront in many countries served by Holt. In China, the
6
Fall 2008
(Matthew 25:35)
costs of food were already on the rise when severe
winter storms spiked prices even more, and lowered
supplies. A few months later, a major earthquake hit
southwestern China, bringing more stress to those
least able to manage it—the poor, and children of the
poor. And then came the tainted milk crisis.
In Haiti, four hurricanes struck in less than a month,
bringing floods and landslides that destroyed houses
and wiped out crops. While children at Holt Fontana
Village were safe, Holt stepped up efforts to double
the number of cottages, doubling its capacity to care
for children. Holt also stepped up efforts to increase
its family preservation program, and quickly began
delivering food vouchers to help ward off starvation.
Holt International is an adoption and child welfare
agency—not a disaster relief organization. But when
disaster strikes a Holt project or program area, Holt
must find a way to continue meeting the needs.
Haiti: Poorest Country in the Western
Hemisphere
When Peter and Shay Fontana, the founders of Holt
Fontana Village, first went to Haiti in 1994, they
began working at a school with 200 children, many of
whom, they soon realized, “were so starving that they
really couldn’t learn.” Recognizing the need to feed
them, the Fontanas started a hot meal program. “The
children didn’t have the energy to walk to school,”
Peter said, “and for some of them that was going to be
their only meal. It was also a draw for getting them to
come in. We realized that it has to be body, mind and
spirit, in that order, otherwise it’s not going to work.”
Simple, nutritious food given with love continues to be one of Holt’s most
important ingredients for helping vulnerable children. But recent cost
increases and disasters are threatening Holt’s ability to meet the need.
It wasn’t long before the Fontanas became interested in the
orphans they saw in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere: “You look at
the orphans in that kind of society, they literally live in the streets,
and they eat garbage or whatever they find or steal. Many girls
become prostitutes, and there is a kind of slavery component
called ‘rester avec’ in French, which means ‘to stay with.’ These
kids are taken in by better-to-do families, sometimes not very
much better... and they literally become slaves. They have no way
to go anywhere.”
The Fontanas built a childcare facility, and Holt International
joined the work. In 2004 Holt Fontana Village began accepting
children into care, adapting Holt policies to protect children’s
rights, promote healthy development, and place children with
permanent families.
Holt staffers make trips to markets at nearby villages to bring
back meats, vegetables and other staples to
feed children at Holt Fontana Village. They
buy big sacks of rice in Port-au-Prince. But
prices in Haiti are on the rise. The price of
50 kg of rice went up more than 60 percent
between March and September of this year.
Corn prices rose a like amount. The costs of
other staples such as flour, sugar and cooking
oil also increased.
At the Village, a staff nurse follows the
children’s progress from day-to-day, and a
doctor stops by often to check on any health
issues they may have. Mansour Masse, the
director of Holt Fontana Village, keeps tabs
on growth indicators.
“Children are well fed,” said Mike Noah,
* name has been changed
Holt director of social services for Philippines, Haiti and Guatemala,
“and the good staff-to-child ratio allows for a great deal of interaction. Whenever I visit I see the staff very involved with children
and holding them. Older kids like to play with younger ones.
All the kids coming home so far have adapted well, and it shows
they’ve seen good attention, which helps with their ability to form
healthy attachments with adoptive family members.”
Holt International senior executive Dan Lauer visited Haiti
in mid-September, just after the fourth hurricane. “The houses
in Holt Fontana Village weathered the storm well,” Lauer said.
“However, Holt currently must transport water in tanker trucks
from Port-au-Prince at $100 per load.”
At Montrouis, about a half hour from the Holt Fontana Village,
Holt operates a family preservation program (Fanmi Ansanm) in
conjunction with Rotary International and local Rotary Clubs in
Haiti and Florida. Lauer said all 60 families
who receive help from Holt have been heavily affected by the storms.
“Nobody was killed that we know of,”
Lauer said, reporting from the scene. “But
we are still struggling to get to them and have
contracted with motorcycle drivers who can
transport our staff. People are running out
of food. We’re seeing a lot of human tragedy.
The infrastructure is really busted up from the
flooding off the mountains, with flash floods
through towns. Many people were killed in
one nearby town.” Lauer noted the presence
of United Nations helicopters as well as Red
Cross trucks. “The greater aid response from
the world is happening,” he said. “We want
www.holtinternational.org 7
A Heritage of Nurturing Care
In a classic 1955 photo from Holt’s historic collection, Harry Holt is lying on a
wood floor in Korea; his eight adopted
children are crawling over and around
him. Though the floor looks uncomfortable for Harry, he and the children share
a cozy, intimate world created simply
with his body.
That photo, along with many others
where Harry is holding children, have
come to exemplify a philosophical characteristic of Holt International Children’s
Services—that children need loving attention as much as they need food, shelter
and other basics of life.
When Harry returned to Korea a few
months later and launched the Holt organization, he took in many children who
were weak and malnourished. For those
children who were struggling to survive,
Harry would hold them on his chest during the night. He was sharing, not only
the warmth of his body, but also an intimate and fundamental message of love,
encouraging the child to live.
Out of this philosophy of nurturing
children with physical and verbal attention, Holt mandated the practice that
infants should be held when they’re
fed. This practice has become a Holt
hallmark spread around the world with
evangelistic passion ever since Harry
first visited orphanages in
postwar Korea—where he
witnessed silent crowds of
children cared for by a few
overworked caregivers.
Those children no longer
expected or even hoped
that their cries would be
answered. They simply
accepted whatever hunger and discomfort they
felt.
“Daddy noticed what a difference it
meant to have the babies in his arms,”
said Molly Holt recently, “especially
babies that had been separated from
their mothers. Barbara [Molly’s sister]
and I did, too, especially because the
babies were used to sleeping with their
mothers at night, so we often took babies
to bed with us. Things were sometimes
crowded when we shared a single bed,
head to foot.”
Throughout its history, Holt has employed
various strategies to raise the level of
caring touch children receive. But even
the best of institutions can’t provide
truly individual attention. As a result,
in the mid 1960s Holt developed its first
foster care program. Within this familylike environment with a full-time mother,
children thrived.
By the time Holt was opening its partner program in Thailand in 1975, the
importance of foster care had been well
established. A little child named Sanoh
dramatically demonstrated the healing power of a foster mother’s intensive
parenting. Sanoh was desperately malnourished, barely skin and bones, when
he came into care. But within two weeks
he had become a new child—plump and
bright-eyed.
Even today, Holt program staff still
come across orphanages that cannot
provide the level of caring that children
need. And that is often Holt’s entrée—an
opportunity to provide training, additional caregivers and supplies to help more
and more children to survive and develop
as they should.
—by John Aeby
Director of Communications
I Was Hungry and you gave me food
to concentrate on the children and families in our program and help get them through this crisis.” Holt’s goal
is to enable children to stay with their parents.
Immediate plans to help include:
• Holt staff will physically visit and assess effects on all Holtassisted families.
• Holt will provide emergency kits that include a blanket, rice
and beans, cooking oil and butter.
• Holt will increase the number of families served by Fanmi
Ansanm to 90, bringing the number of vulnerable children
under Holt’s family preservation umbrella in Haiti to about
270.
Ethiopia: Stabilizing Children’s Health
When Holt President and CEO Gary Gamer visited Holt’s Durame
Center in southern Ethiopia in February, he met an infant girl who
had been brought in several weeks earlier. “She faced a very difficult situation in that her mother died in childbirth,” Gamer said.
“Her father was destitute and just felt hopeless about what to do
with her. Luckily, we found this child. This child was brought into
care. And obviously she was very underweight, undernourished,
8
Fall 2008
malnourished… and staff faced a very challenging time trying to
get her into a positive weight-gaining mode.”
Recorded on video seen by many people on the Holt website,
Gamer held the tiny but attentive girl in his arms—and marveled:
“You can tell that she’s responsive to some degree, she’s curious…
it’s just a joy that we can see her smile, when she does that occasionally. Bit by bit she’s being nursed back into health, through
the loving care of the childcare givers—very attentive—and the
doctors. We just pray that she makes it, and we can find just the
perfect family for her, because she deserves nothing less than that.
This is what this place is all about, is a transitional center to get
children’s health stabilized, to learn more about them, and to get
them on a path where we can find a family for them.”
Teresa* was brought back to health and is now plump, happy
and living with her new family in the United States. Says her mom:
“I would love for people to know how she is doing as I know
many saw the video. In truth, if not for me seeing that video, she
wouldn’t be with us now.”
Bruce Dahl, Holt International program advisor for Africa, visited Ethiopia in July and reported increasing indicators of famine.
He witnessed the medical treatment of malnourished children and
infants at a nearby facility being used by the international
relief organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders). He was taken inside a building where about
80 mothers had brought one or two of their youngest children, the ones who were suffering most. One young child
was so malnourished that a medical worker had inserted
an IV into the child’s forehead to supply nutrition—because
there was no other viable vein. More mothers with children were being cared for in tents outside the building.
feeding children are different from the standard
Holt uses. Some families
still follow traditional ways
of feeding children sugar
water with rice and congee
after the age of 3 months.
“When we buy the formula, we have better
quality control,” Jian said.
“Sometimes an orphanage tries to negotiate with
us to see if they can
lower the amount used
to buy formula so that
the money can be used
for some other things—
clothes, for example. We
are firm about buying
the formula.”
“Farmers lost their sweet potato crop, and they were late
getting their next crops planted because of the drought.
The harvest is expected to be less than what is needed,”
Dahl said. Holt plans to begin family preservation efforts
in the Shinshicho area by the end of the year in order to
provide food to families who are in danger of relinquishing
young children due to poverty and lack of food.
In September, Holt brought in $34,000 worth of building
materials to renovate the Shinshicho Health Center. Holt
also will pay the salary of one doctor and several nurses to
provide broader care to children coming to the clinic.
Although Holt’s work is just beginning in Ethiopia, there
is already a point of comparison in shifting food prices. For
items purchased for care centers over a six-month period,
particularly food items, prices jumped 5 to 16 percent.
China: Nutrition and a Hand to Feed Them
“Children’s faces won’t lie,” said Holt China Director Jian
Chen. She knows by sight a baby who has been receiving
adequate protein and one who has not. “Children in Holt
projects don’t get sick as much, they’re more alert. You
look at skin color. A baby who is being fed congee and
rice milk may be getting fat, but that child is not as healthy
as a baby who is getting proper formula.”
Above: Teresa*, adopted from Ethiopia, is thriving at
home with her new family. • Below: A boy in Holt
care in China with foster mother.
Nutrition is key to Holt’s work in China, but so is nurture. In the early stages, Jian said, she used to go into
an orphanage and see babies lying on their sides with a bottle
propped up against their mouth. There were so many babies that
nobody had the time to hold and feed the baby. “Foster care is so
much better—somebody has the hand to take care of the children.
In an orphanage, even if you have nutrition, there is no hand to
put it in. In an orphanage, somebody might not even know if the
food is good food or not. Early on in our work in China, I saw an
orphanage feeding children from a big pot of noodles, to which
they had added only two raw eggs for protein. The children would
get sick all the time. They fed them until they were full, but it was
not enough protein.”
To help children get the individual attention they need, and to
emphasize their nutrition, Holt moves them into foster families.
“In our joint projects with orphanages,” Jian said, “we used to
split the costs for children to go into foster care—paying half the
cost of formula and half the foster parents’ stipend. Now we pay
nearly twice what we did before, because we focus on nutrition
and the orphanage pays the stipend to the foster family. This way
we can guarantee that nutrition goes to the children and is not
compromised.”
Jian explained that families receive training when they first
apply to be foster parents because Chinese traditional ways of
over a child’s nutrition.”
Holt staff either deliver
the formula to foster families or distribute it when
a foster family comes in
to get paid. The foster
family keeps a chart on
the wall that tells them
how to mix the formula,
according to the child’s
age. Foster parents bring
in their child for a checkup every month or every
other month—if weight is
not up to standard, the
family will lose its bonus,
Jian said. “This gives us
additional quality control
Holt managed to sidestep most of the effects of the recent tainted milk crisis because of the high quality standard it maintains for
infant formula. Holt takes into account the content for each level
of nutritional requirements, Jian said. “We buy balanced formula—
not too little, not too much of any one nutrient. When we started
our program we had learned from the South Korea program and
other Holt programs what kind of standard to use. We check
weight and height in each stage in those early stages. We did not
just know from day one what worked best. It took management.
We learned from the Korea program, but we have adapted the wisdom gained there to fit the tradition and culture of China.”
Before recent events, food prices were already high for such
items as eggs, milk and meat, with prices over a two-year-period
moving ever upward. In Guigang, Guangxi province, a kilo of
milk doubled in price between 2006 and 2008. In Nanning, the
price of a kilo of rice rose by more than 60 percent. Infant formula
came close to doubling over a two-year period in many locations.
But this year brought even higher prices to bear. Unusually
harsh winter storms—the worst in half a century—drove up the
prices of produce right after the Lunar New Year. News sources
www.holtinternational.org 9
I Was Hungry
and you gave me food
reported some 220 million acres of crops ruined, with transportation problems adding a complicating factor. Rising prices and food
scarcities affected children in Holt projects at social welfare institutes and in foster care, as budgets had to be stretched by special
donations and creative planning.
Food Is a Part of Loving
Molly Holt, who has worked to rebuild the lives of relinquished,
orphaned and abandoned children in South Korea for more than
50 years, notes that “food is a part of loving.”
Molly, who has seen many stunted, starved and nutritionally
dwarfed children in her years of working in Korea, noted that even
though it is now rare to see malnutrition in Korea, children from
orphanages tend to stuff themselves with food. “If children have
no mothers, food is the most important thing in their life,” she said.
“This is why some older children go home to adoptive families and
hide food under their pillows—they hoard food as a substitute. It’s
an emotional thing, food in place of mothering.”
Nurture and nutrition are intertwined in Holt’s work. You can
feed a child, but without loving and attentive care, that child will
fail to thrive. Molly noted that in the early years, malnutrition was
one of the main causes of death, but other factors were crossinfection and lack of loving.
The examples of Harry and Bertha Holt, and of Molly Holt, continue to guide the work of Holt International. Holt International
aims to take the model established by the Holt family in Korea, and
to adapt and replicate it in all the countries where this agency is
called to serve abandoned, relinquished and vulnerable children.
But to successfully help children, Holt International needs the
support of adoptive families, adult adoptees, donors and sponsors.
The moment a child comes into Holt’s care, they need a sponsor.
Holt cares for the children in foster families, childcare centers, and
when possible, with their birth parents through family preservation work. Monthly support from child sponsors is the basis for
provision for a child.
In the face of rising food prices, Holt staff overseas and in the
United States struggle in creative ways to meet the nutritional
needs of children in our care—and continue to seek ways to shelter more. Sponsorship and other support provides clothing for
warmth and protection, regular medical checkups and specialized
care when children are sick. And always, there is food and loving
nurture. ■
You can help provide nutrition for children in Holt programs.
Visit www. holtinternational.org/hunger.
North Korea:
Nutritional
Supplies
For the past 10
years in North
Korea, Holt has
quietly provided
nutritional biscuits,
medical supplies,
clothing and other
urgently needed
items for two baby
homes for children
David Lim, Holt’s senior advisor for Korea, holds
aged newborn to
a malnourshed child at a care facility in
4, two homes for
North Korea.
children aged 5 to
17, and daycare centers for children aged 3 to 5. When Holt staff visited, most
infants at the baby home had skin diseases because they
were not able to take in adequate nutrition in the harsh
conditions. Coal was burned under the floors to keep the
rooms warm, but “children were huddled together in just a
few rooms for warmth” said Paul Kim, director of programs
for Korea.
David Lim, Holt’s senior advisor for Korea, visited again early
last summer and described worsening conditions throughout the country following a critically low national harvest.
”Children are at a greater risk of becoming homeless, due to
their parent’s inability to provide even a subsistence level
of support. Many children have nothing to eat at childcare
facilities, and they are suffering the most. Almost half the
children under 5 are chronically malnourished, while millions
of schoolchildren are said to be so ill-fed that they are mentally and physically stunted,” Lim commented.
More than 1,200 orphans and children from at-risk families
benefit from Holt’s work in North Korea. The project helps
children maintain their minimum nutrition levels and is of
the utmost importance to the survival of homeless children.
Because of the Holt program in North Korea, many children’s physical condition has been improved tremendously,
as have orphanage facilities through Holt’s donations of
cement and other construction supplies sent for repair of
buildings.
“Families and especially vulnerable orphans will suffer from
lack of access to food, eat fewer meals and have a poorer
diet, increasing their vulnerability to diseases and illness.
In my view,” said Lim, “many North Koreans still do not get
enough food ration, and all our project orphanages also do
not get enough food supplies from a local government.”
Holt’s work is critical for the children it serves, and North
Korea has asked Holt to expand its project. Your support
not only provides North Korean children with food or other
supplies, your contribution saves children’s lives.
10
Fall 2008
Globe
Haiti
Cottages will be completed by the end of the year at the Holt
Fontana Village, doubling the capacity of children who can live
at the Village. If you would like to help Holt International in its
efforts to provide assistance to families in Haiti, go to: holtinternational.org/appeals/haiti.shtml
China
Yunnan Earthquake: A school sponsored by Holt International’s
Hand-in-Hand Program in Longchuan, China, was severely damaged by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck Yunnan province on August 21, and the aftershocks that followed into early
September. Forty-three students at the Longchuan No. 2 Middle
School are currently enrolled in Holt International sponsorship,
and Holt has helped 79 students in this school since April 2007.
Dozens more Holt-sponsored children attend a nearby elementary
school that graduates students each year to the middle school.
Holt China Country Director Bi Jianjun reported that when local
Holt staff visited the middle school after the quake, they found:
the dining room and part of the girls’ dorms collapsed; cracks in
the walls of the classroom for music and dancing; some teacher’s
dorms no longer usable because of safety issues.
“Due to the collapse of the school’s dining room, thousands of students have to buy their meal in the school’s kitchen first and then
walk back to their dormitories—a distance of about 600 meters—
so that they can have a
place to sit down and
eat,” she said. “What’s
more, Longchuan has
been suffering from
heavy rains after the
earthquakes,
which
brought the students
more inconvenience to
walk back and forth
every day.”
Holt’s Hand-in-Hand
Program serves children in Yunnan province whose families
are affected by HIV/
AIDS. Located near the
Golden Triangle region
along the Myanmar
border, families in this
area of China have been
adversely affected by the
heroin trade. Children
in Holt sponsorship in
Longchuan come from
Above: New cottages at Holt Fontana Village in Haiti will soon allow more children
to enter Holt care. • Below: Students at Xioba Elementary School in Anxian,
China, received clothing, bed sheets and school supplies from donations made to
Holt to help children affected by the May earthquakes in Sichuan province.
families in which one or both parents have died from or been
affected by HIV/AIDS, and many of the children live in the dorm
rooms of the middle school or nearby elementary school during
the school year. Holt sponsors and donors pay for meals, medical
attention, travel stipends, school supplies and music education.
Sichuan Earthquake: Holt China staff visited several schools in
Sichuan province in late September to deliver care packages, recreational equipment, and school and dorm supplies to children in
Anxian who were severely affected by the May earthquakes. Holt
China Country Director Bi Jianjun and Holt China Project Director
Xiao Du visited the Sangzao Middle School and the Xiaoba
Elementary School in Anxian to deliver more than $20,000 worth
of goods and supplies bought with funds donated by Holt supporters and distributed by an NGO working in conjunction with the
China Ministry of Civil Affairs. More than $44,000 was donated by
Holt supporters and passed through to the Ministry of Civil Affairs
to help child earthquake victims.
Nepal
Holt International is accepting applications for adoption of children
from the Himalayan country of Nepal. To find out more about
adoption requirements, visit: www.holtinternational.org/adoption.
Ethiopia
Work will be completed by the end of the year on the refurbishing
of the Shinshicho Clinic. If you would like to help children and
families at risk in Ethiopia, go to: holtinternational.org/ethiopia.
shtml
Ukraine
The United States Agency for International Development has
extended Holt’s grant for the Family for Children Program through
the end of 2009. According to USAID officials, “USAID and Holt
are both committed to ensuring that activities during the final year
of implementation are sustainable and give focus to transferring
ownership of the ‘program’ to the GOU [government of Ukraine]
and facilitating GOU led rollout of family welfare models beyond
the five oblasts in which Holt currently works.” ■
www.holtinternational.org 11
from the family
Bringing Our Child Home
“You cannot lose sight of the goal,” says this
Haiti adoptive family. Although they were sometimes frustrated by the legal processing and
other obstacles, the Lizers are now adopting a
second girl from Haiti.
by Debbie Lizer
Reinbeck, Iowa
Right: ”It’s worth the
wait,” says father Tom Lizer,
shown here getting ready
to board the flight back to
the United States with his
new daughter, Rogette.
Below: Rogette gives a
thumbs up for her new
digs.
Opposite page: Home in
Iowa, Debbie Lizer enjoys
the company of daughters Vaishali (India) and
Rogette.
W
“We live vicariously through the Lizers.” That’s
what our good friends tell their friends! Who are the
Lizers? My husband Tom and I and our brood—seven children, four of whom are adopted or in process
of adoption from other countries—are the Lizers. We
are somewhat set apart from our “normal” friends.
Our adoption journey began 19 years ago when we
brought home our first daughter, Reka, from India at
22 months to join two big brothers. Our tiny little girl
flourished and soon our family grew by another son.
We put the thought of future adoptions not out of our
minds, but still buried rather deeply.
After years of waiting for the right time to make
the decision about another adoption, we realized that
time was making the decision for us. If we were
going to do this, it was now or probably never. I
started searching Holt’s Waiting Child website “just
to see who was out there.” We thought we might be
interested in a preschool-aged child and soon came
upon a little girl from India with many unknowns.
She stole our hearts and before long, we were working on a dossier, knowing that the choice wasn’t necessarily “safe,” but it was right. Four-year-old Vaishali
joined us in a year, and we thought our family
was probably complete.
It was during the post-placement phase of
this adoption that our social worker urged us to
consider Holt’s new Haiti program if we should
want to proceed with any subsequent adoptions.
We smiled and said, “We’ll see,” but thought,
“That won’t happen.” In time, though, curiosity got the best of us. We started reading about
the Haiti program in Holt International magazine
and checked out the waiting children on the
website, “just to see who was out there.” Our
interest grew as we noticed the older girls needing families. We reasoned we could handle the
placement of an older child, as we had already
mastered the ’tween and teen years (to the extent
that that’s possible!) and, we rationalized, we
really could use a playmate for Vaishali, a sibling
closer to her age. We noticed a little girl 7 years
old, and our interest continued to grow. Maybe
she would fit our plan. But God had a different
plan, one much more complex than our own, one
that started us on a new journey down a long and
rocky road. Yet, God’s plan was a perfect one,
12
Fall 2008
and this is how it has been unveiled….
As much as we felt drawn to a particular little girl
waiting in Haiti, there was an older girl who began
to capture our attention more and more. Finally, we
knew in our hearts that Rogette was to be our daughter, so we again began that familiar rollercoaster ride
called international adoption. We quickly completed
the dossier paperwork after receiving Rogette’s referral. We soon learned that this would not be the
well-defined process we were accustomed to with
the India program. In fact, we watched helplessly as
the Haiti process seemed to be falling apart before
our eyes. Time frames grew longer and longer until
Adopting from Haiti
Additional cottages are being constructed
at Holt Fontana Village and scheduled to
be finished by the end of the year. This will
allow Holt to double the number of children in care. Holt will need new families
to match with the children who come into
care at that time. If prospective adoptive
families begin now, their homestudies and
dossiers can be completed around the time
the new children come into care, and legal
processing can begin shortly thereafter.
Families typically are matched with children
within a short time frame following completion and approval of their home studies.
Holt does the matching of children as they
come into care.
The total average time frame from application to arrival is 28 months, which is not
much different from many other country
programs.
See more about adopting from Haiti on our
website: www.holtinternational.org/haiti
—Holt staff report
we finally tried to avoid thinking in terms of
time frames at all. One year stretched into
two. There seemed to be one problem after
another, first a name misspelled on her birth
certificate, and then with the 2½-year mark
just around the corner and a month-long
Embassy closing looming on the horizon, we
received the news that Rogette’s passport had
been processed, but again, her name was misspelled. So her case sat for another month.
Finally in May we were able to make our first
trip to Haiti to do the I-600 work. We had a
wonderful first encounter with Rogette and her birthparents and
returned home thinking we were so close now. Our spirits soared
for one week, then were absolutely crushed when we received
word that once again there was a misspelled name, this time triggering the dreaded DNA test. We experienced the gamut of emotions as we hit rock bottom this time. The weeks drug on, and
we became moody and withdrawn. Rogette’s 15th birthday came
and went, and still we waited. Finally, nearly six weeks later, we
received the call we’d been waiting for… we could purchase plane
tickets and this time buy an extra one-way ticket back!
This may sound like the end of my story, but I said God’s plan
was much more complicated than our own. I really believe I heard
the Lord say, “Let not the Lizers’ lives be simple!” Remember the
other little girl? Jurane is now 10 and yes, our dossier is once again
in Haiti as we begin the process all over to bring her home. Was
it a hard decision? Well, we knew God had put her on our hearts
several years ago and we really felt she was meant to be part of
our family along with Rogette. However, we did still worry about
our ability to weather this whole
process again. We could easily be discouraged about Holt,
Haiti and the adoption process
in general. But people say
that the pains of childbirth are
quickly forgotten, and if we
equate childbirth to adoption,
we can honestly say that the
end justifies the means. We
chose to put our trust in God’s
complicated plan. Jurane will
join our family in a year, or two, or maybe more. And I promise
I will grumble and whine and complain about the process again.
But as I was reminded on a radio broadcast that I heard by chance
while we were contemplating Jurane’s adoption, it really isn’t about
us.....it’s about the children.
As I write this Rogette has been home seven weeks. In so many
ways it seems much longer. She fits in so well with our family and
truly makes herself at home. There are highs and lows (she’s a
typical teenager), but our lives have been impacted by this sweet
girl. I know our family has made a difference to her as well. We
feel very privileged to be a Holt Haiti family. We had the most
wonderful experience visiting Holt Fontana Village. We met the
cutest, happiest, most animated and affectionate children there.
Haiti adoption is a tough process, but it does work, due largely to
the dedication and hard work of the Holt staff and Mansour Masse
and the in-country staff. For them, too, it really is all about the
children. ■
A child is a living message to a time we will not see
Planned Giving Options
through Holt International
Year’s end is an especially good time to review your opportunities for
sound financial planning along with the lasting impact your Planned
Gift can make in the life of a child in need. Carefully considering what
to give—and when to give it—can increase your help to homeless and
vulnerable children while reducing your tax obligations.
•
•
•
•
•
Wills & Bequests
Charitable Gift Annuities
Gifts of Life Insurance
Securities
Real Estate
For more information visit the planned giving page on our website:
holtinternational.org/plannedgiving or contact Jack Wharfield,
Director of Marketing & Development, at
jackw@holtinternational.org or (541) 687-2202
www.holtinternational.org 13
from the family
Raising Chinese-Indian Triplets
The odds may have been against it, but an improbable
combination of non-genetic triplets was born in one mother’s heart,
approved by Holt and blessed by God
by Michell Corron
Woodville, New York
T
The kids just love to be outside, and the days had
finally warmed up. I watched my three little toddlers
running across the soccer fields with their 14-yearold sister. As they grew smaller and smaller in my
sight, I pondered the perfect relationship shared by
the triplets. Mei-Lin picked a dandelion for Anvita,
and they ran on hand in hand. Anvita
stumbled every few steps, and Isaiah
signed, “You, okay?” and lifted her back
up, ever so carefully. Again and again
something forced them to stop—a bug,
a flower, a lost shoe. Often one child
paused to show the other two a great
treasure.
A smile spread across my face
because I felt so blessed. The great
bond between these three seemed
nothing short of miraculous.
Fifteen years ago my husband and
I stood at the altar saying our wedding vows. Little did I know at the
time I would become a mother of
six with three 3-year-olds, whom I
refer to as my Chinese-Indian triplets.
Having graduated with a degree in
advertising design and photography,
I dreamed of a career in New York
City. Little did I know at the time
that I would instead become a stayat-home mom.
Anvita, Isaiah and Mei-Lin
thrive in one another’s
company.
Building Our Family
A year after being married my husband and I were
blessed with the birth of our daughter, Ashley. I fell
in love with her and just being a mom. All my dreams
of becoming a high-profile graphic designer vanished
as I cherished every waking hour with her. A few
years later our son Mathieu was born. He, too, was
my pride and joy. It wasn’t long after that we decided
to adopt a child. I myself have seven adopted brothers and sisters, so this was never far from my mind.
At age 5, Justin came into our lives through domestic adoption. He opened our eyes to the challenges
of being profoundly deaf. Years went by, and we
were content with our family size. Our life fell into
routine: coaching T-ball, hours of homework, and so
many school events. There was little time left at the
end of the day, though we were happy.
14
Fall 2008
Then one day in the supermarket I saw the most
beautiful little Chinese girl with a blonde Caucasian
mother. I couldn’t help but stare. The girl was gorgeous, and something tugged at my heart. I thought
often of this child over the next few months and
decided to Google international adoption.
Holt International was the first site I found, and I
was hooked. The staff at Holt was phenomenal, and
a few short months later our dossier was on its way to
China. How excited we were. Six short months later
we received the referral of our daughter Mei-Lin. She
was the answer to our prayers.
After we returned home I often frequented Holt’s
Waiting Child photolisting, even though I knew we
could never afford another adoption. Until… the day
I saw our precious son Isaiah. He lived in India, and
he was deaf. Isaiah was five months younger than
Mei, and I knew firsthand we would not be considered an optimal family due to this closeness in age.
Something drew me to him, however. I believed our
family would be perfect for another deaf child as we
had become actively involved in raising deaf children
and had a wealth of opportunities to give a deaf child.
While I knew our chances were not good, as Holt
prefers to place children who are at least a year apart
in age, I did apply to the Waiting Child program after
waiting many months for other families to come forward. As I had with the China program, I fell in love
with the Waiting Child program staff and the heartfelt
way they pondered just the perfect family for every
child with special needs.
When we were selected my heart burst. I was
going to have Chinese-Indian twins. The whole family was ecstatic. Eleven months later I traveled to
Pune, India, to get Isaiah. I fell in love with Holt’s
partner agency in India, Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra
(BSSK), and with the BSSK staff and the children in
their care. I just was amazed at the love that abounds
there. When Isaiah came home, the adjustment
was hard at the beginning. Because he had not yet
learned sign language, he tended to point and whine
to get his way. Within months he was fluent in sign
language, however, and life was back to normal.
After I traveled to India, I continued to read
the Waiting Child photolisting and was drawn to
another little girl who was deaf. She was also visually impaired, had psychomotor delays and possible
cerebral palsy. As our lives went on, she continued
Holt’s Special Needs Adoption Fund
Brings Children Home
Isaiah and Anvita came to the Corrons through Holt’s Waiting
Child program, and both adoptions were supported through the
Special Needs Adoption Fund (SNAF).
Michell Corron commented after adopting Isaiah: “Without
assistance from Holt’s Special Needs Adoption Fund, we would
never have had enough money. Your grant also enabled us to
buy him new digital hearing aids upon arrival here (something
our insurance wouldn’t cover).
“We can never thank you enough for our new son.“
If you would like to help a Waiting Child find a forever family,
visit our giving page online at: holtinternational.org/appeals/
snaf.shtml
Anvita, Mei-Lin and Isaiah
to be there, never chosen. Months and months she was on that
photolisting. Finally, I copied her information and passed it on to
some friends who were looking for a child with deafness. I found
myself wishing they would not select her.
When I finally asked my husband about trying for her, he just
smiled and said, “Go for it, what’s one more?” The poor guy had
given up everything in the previous four years to bring these children home. At times he worked more than three jobs at once just
so we could afford the adoptions. He never complained. After
hearing him say “go for it,” I was on the phone to the Waiting Child
program the next day. Our chances were very slim and I knew
this. We did everything in our power to answer the committee’s
questions in depth and with heartfelt responses. Hours were spent
preparing the presentation, and we went as far as getting 10 letters
of recommendations from the deaf community on how well we
have raised our deaf children.
Some Real Concerns
Holt’s Waiting Child Committee had very real concerns: closeness
in age, having three children with special needs, the closeness of
adoptions. Through this all I pushed on; I was adamant that she
belonged with us. I felt an indescribable bond. I needed her and
she needed me. Nights were spent dreaming of her, and I hoped
that someday I would hold her precious face.
The day of committee came, and we waited, and waited. We
knew that in five minutes Holt’s office would close. But we had
yet to hear any news. An hour went by and the phone rang. My
husband answered and through my tears I heard my husband say,
“Thank you anyways; I’m sure she’s going to a great family.” My
heart broke in half. Something that felt so right wasn’t going to
happen. It was a very hard decision for the committee, but I would
be lying if I said I was not bitter. Weeks passed and all thoughts of
adoption were forgotten as I never wanted “another” child. I just
wanted “her.” Three weeks later the phone rang, and we learned
that our precious Anvita was ours. The other family had ultimately
decided against adopting her, and we had another chance. It was
a bit eerie as all along I felt a bond with her, and perhaps it was
all part of God’s plan, in a roundabout way.
Fifteen months later, Bob and I and our 14-year-old daughter,
Ashley, walked into Vathsalya Charitable Trust (VCT), Holt’s partner agency in Bangalore, India. Tears were flowing as the day had
finally come. Mary Paul, the director of VCT, told us that Anvita
had arrived and we could go see her. As we walked out the door
we could see her playing and running around. We moved toward
her. As if she felt our presence, she slowly turned in our direction.
She smiled the biggest smile. And then she ran to us. While it
seems sensationalized I can tell you truthfully it wasn’t. It felt as
if she had been with us forever. No tears were shed (by her), and
she never stopped smiling. She hugged us with utter strength, and
when we gazed into her eyes she seemed to know us. She was
happy, she was comfortable, and we couldn’t have handpicked out
of a million a more perfect child. While it doesn’t happen often
with adopted children, there was never grieving from Anvita. She
smiles from sun up to sun down.
Anvita has completed our family. We may have different skin
colors, but the depth of love and the bond that my three, 3-yearolds share is nothing you could have purposely chosen. It is purely
an act of God. To watch from afar, the three happily signing away,
you’d never know they weren’t biological triplets. They come from
two countries and have varying challenges, but this has not set
them apart from one another. Rather, it has given them a bond that
is indescribable. The love and devotion they feel for each other
amazes me. Watching Mei-Lin interpret for Anvita on the playground, or Isaiah carefully cleaning Anvita’s glasses, just touches
my heart. It seems their lives were chosen for each other.
Perhaps somebody other than us has plans on why certain children should be placed together. If you asked me 10 years ago if
I’d adopt three 3-year- olds, I’d have said, “No way!”
But I realize why I did it. Watching them run across the field
hand-in-hand answers it all. ■
www.holtinternational.org 15
from the family
My Favorite Gift Heads Home for Christmas
T
by Jerry Boone
Aloha, Oregon
published Dec. 20,
2007
The last time we went out—just the two of us—the
almond-eyed beauty sat across from me at lunch, her
voice filled with the excitement of youth and the challenges before her.
©2007 The Oregonian
I’m envious of what she’s become, everything she’ll
do and all the changes she will see before she reaches
my age.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted with
permission
Top right: Janne arrived
at Portland International
Airport (PDX) in Oregon in
December 1975.
Below: Author Jerry Boone
with his daughter, Janne.
Like the thousands of other travelers streaming
through the nation’s airports, Janne will be home for
Christmas.
And every time my daughter visits, I’m reminded
that I don’t see her often enough.
This time she’s in a Ph.D. program at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying nutritional
epidemiology. Don’t ask me to explain it. I can
barely spell it.
It is 32 years—to the day—that we first met.
There are some moments a father doesn’t forget.
My wife, son and I had driven through a winter
storm from Eastern Oregon to Portland International
Airport to meet her, where we joined a settlement of
young adoptive parents encamped around one of the
gates.
The weather had been miserable for days. A
Pacific storm brought freezing rain to our home in
Hermiston, black ice to the gorge and a viscous sky
that settled in over PDX and was even worse at SeaTac to the north.
Her plane had been expected about 5 p.m. Friday.
The updates came every few hours. The plane had
left Seoul. Then it turned back to South Korea because
the weather was
too bad to land in
Tokyo. The plane
was airborne a second time, but then
it was diverted to
Hawaii, where the
young passengers
would spend the
night.
It was already
late Saturday evening, and the
waiting slogged
on like time traveling through heavy
snow.
We
looked
at our watches.
16
Fall 2008
We raided the vending
machines. We colored in
books with the exhausted children and tried to
sleep, strung like kudzu
over the rows of plastic
chairs.
Some couples had
been waiting for the
overseas flight for more
than two days.
Meanwhile, 150 miles away, the
jet engines of a silver Pan Am jet idled at the end of
the Sea-Tac runway as an air traffic controller watched
the radar’s knife, searching for a hole in the clouds
that had socked in the airfield for more than a day.
When he found a break large enough to fit a plane
through, the pilot spooled up the engines and headed
into the leaden sky. It was the only airplane to get off
the ground at Sea-Tac that late December day.
And then the wait entered its final phase.
It takes about five hours’ flying time from Seattle to
Hawaii. An hour on the ground to refuel and pick up
new passengers, and the plane was back in the air.
At PDX, we pressed our faces against the windows,
trying to will its arrival.
The morning sky was just beginning to go from
black to gray when someone spotted the shadow
knifing through the clouds, growing larger as it
neared the Earth and began to take shape. Lower
and slower. Flaps down. Wheels extended. On the
tarmac at last.
The ground crew signaled the plane into position,
then turned to the window full of eager parents, took
a bow and flashed a “thumbs up” to the appreciative
audience.
Then came the collective sigh of silent prayers
answered.
A Holt International volunteer called our name and
we rushed forward to collect our daughter.
She was only 6 months old and probably as frightened and confused and exhausted as we were.
That was a long time ago, but I remember exactly
how I felt, like it was yesterday.
Thirty-two years later—when her plane hits the
PDX runway once again—she is all the proof I need
that the best Christmas gifts aren’t always found under
the tree. ■
Not in Our Time, but God’s Time
A couple celebrates the adoption of their son from Guatemala
My husband and I decided we wanted to adopt
a child on September 15, 2005. Little did we know
that our son had been born in Guatemala just 15 days
earlier. We wouldn’t actually hear his name or see
his face for 14 months. Two years and seven months
later, we brought him home.
I decided to write this in hopes that we would
encourage other families to have the faith to go the
distance. Every child that comes into this world
comes through labor. Waiting takes tremendous
strength and patience. You experience a labor that is
unexplainable, but not unlike childbirth as I imagine
it. In a society where everything is quick and we are
taught to go after whatever we want in life, there sits
international adoption telling us: not in our time but
in God’s time.
Thinking back over the last few years I can barely
remember all the “labor” we went through in preparing for our son. All that stands out in my mind are
the crossroads along the way. At one point early in
the process we were told we would have to change
our last name and go back to my husband’s birth
name, or Guatemalan authorities wouldn’t accept our
dossier. I cried all day and thought maybe we should
change countries.
Victor, Toni and Marcus
Cam Acevedo made it
through all the crossroads
and are together at last.
My sister in-law gave me wonderful advice that I
want to pass on to all of you. “Go all the way until
they tell you, ‘You can’t go any further.’” And so we
did. We changed our name, I redid all the documents
for our dossier, and we kept pressing in and believing
that someday we would have a child.
As of September 2008, our son has been home for
four months. We are celebrating his third birthday in
just a few days. He is the most amazing, loving child
I have ever met.
Marcus is our only child and a perfect fit. He was
worth every minute we waited, every document we
had to redo, and every tear we cried. He was our son
before we knew we wanted to adopt. He has always
been ours and now he is home.
—Toni Acevedo / Springfield, Oregon
www.holtinternational.org 17
from the family
Chasing Haley
After careful research, a couple says yes to a child with
special healthcare needs, and then yes to another
O
One late summer day I was at the soccer field watching my 8-year-old daughter,
Haley, play the game she loved. At the
end of the game, as we were preparing to
leave, a man said to me, “Your daughter
is a great player. Do you know how fast
she can run?”
I thanked the man politely but kept
these words unspoken: Yes, I know she
can run; who do you think has been chasing her for years? My mind traveled back
to the first moment I saw my daughter
with my own eyes—she was running. I
was standing in a hotel room, watching
the hall for her. Waiting my turn. And
there she was, a streak of light, running
in the hallway, my Haley.
by Susan Keogh
San Marcos, Calif.
On the soccer field, I saw Haley running toward me excited and happy after a
good game. I saw her and thought: Who
would know she has special needs?
Our Adoption Journey
Above: Haley needed cleft
surgery when she came
home to the Keoghs, but
she taught her new mother
how to stay fit.
Opposite page: Haley’s
placement photo from
China.
Maybe it is time to tell her story and dispel some
misinformation about children with special needs.
Let me start at the beginning of our adoption journey.
My husband, Jim, and I had raised our four children
together in our stepfamily. The youngest was in high
school when we decided to investigate adoption.
How does one describe the motivation to adopt? One
woman I know said it was written on her heart, and
that is the perfect way to describe it for us. We went
to a Families with Children from China event and talked with many families. This cemented our decision to
adopt and even helped us to pick an agency.
We requested an application from Holt International,
filled out the basic form and sent it in. When a more
comprehensive form came back we tackled it right
away. An auxiliary form took many days to finish—
the checklist of special needs, with each category followed by a yes, no or maybe. Jim and I had already
decided we would not adopt a child with special
needs, but filling out this form was hard. I knew that
every “no” I checked represented a child. I pictured a
child standing in a doorway with the door open, and
as the word no was picked the door closed.
18
Fall 2008
During the process of filling out this form my
husband and I realized that three of our four children would have been labeled special needs. When
I was born I also would have been labeled special
needs. I could almost hear the words in what would
have been my adoption document: “must be open to
unknowns.” My husband also would have been a
child with special needs. So how could we say no to
every category? At this point we decided to go the
regular track but be open to certain special needs
even though we knew we would never adopt a child
with special needs.
We sent the form, gathered our documents, scheduled homestudy visits and continued full speed ahead.
A social worker from the Waiting Child program at
Holt contacted us about the checklist. She wanted to
know if we were really open to a child with special
healthcare needs. I said we were open but that we
wanted to stay on the non-special needs track. It
sounded good to say that, as if I weren’t closing the
door to every child. Maybe in some way it soothed
my conscience. But I wondered, Was I really open to
a child with special needs?
We called my cousin who is a pediatrician and
asked her advice. We researched special healthcare
needs on the Internet. We read articles. Still, I
thought this was not the road we would go down.
Six months after we sent our application we had just
about all our documents ready. One ordinary morning after I returned from grocery shopping, I retrieved
this message from my answering machine: “I think
we have found your daughter.” I called Jim at work
and played it for him. We called Holt right away. Jim
connected through a conference call so we could both
hear the information. The new group of children with
special needs had come in, and one had a need that
we had indicated we were open to: a cleft lip and palate. Could they send the information?
After the call I ran to the computer and signed in.
There was the e-mail from Holt, but I was afraid to
open the attached photos. What would I feel when I
saw this child’s face? I looked and saw a child with
an unrepaired bilateral cleft lip. I had seen unrepaired clefts before, but my husband had not. He was
shocked. I gazed at the solemn face of a 20-monthold child and wondered, Is this the child I will adopt?
Her beautiful eyes drew me in. Jim and I decided to
be open to adopting her but not committed.
What we did next was to really investigate what it
meant to have a child who is cleft affected. We needed to know we could be the parents this child would
need. In our city we have a Children’s Hospital, so
we called and found there was a clinic there just for
cleft-affected children. We called the cleft clinic and
talked with the head nurse, who was helpful and
reassuring. Our pediatrician knew we were going to
adopt and had said she would review the information
we received, so I copied everything and delivered it
to her office. Then we chose a plastic surgeon and
made an appointment for a consultation to see what
Cleft Lip and Palate: An Introduction
Clefts occur when tissues of the mouth or lip don’t close properly during fetal development. In the United States, cleft lip or
palate may occur in 1 in 700 to 1,000 births. Cleft lip and palate
may occur together or separately, be complete or incomplete,
bilateral or unilateral, with a varied level of involvement. Clefts
may be genetic, environmental or developmental. Lack of folic
acid during gestation may be a factor. Clefts occur more often
in children of Asian, Latino or Native American descent.
Cleft lip and cleft palate are treatable. Most cleft-affected children have initial reconstructive surgery within the first year to
improve function and facial appearance. Because the bones in
our faces keep growing until we’re 21, additional surgeries may
be timed according to growth and individual need. Although
surgeries can be involved, they often involve nips and tucks
rather than extensive work. “Best practices” involve a multidisciplinary treatment team that provides coordinated care and
services to children. These craniofacial (CFD) teams are often
co-located with children’s hospitals. Children with clefts benefit
from dental, orthodontic care and speech therapy.
Early on, children may need more time and opportunity to get
adequate nutrition. Otherwise, life activities are not impaired.
Famous people with clefts include, Stacey Keach, Doc Holliday,
Tom Brokaw, Jesse Jackson and Carmit Bachar. Social factors
may be a factor for some children. Positive, strength-oriented
parenting helps cleft-affected children grow
up with a positive self image. One child told
me after one medical appointment: “I am a
girl, I am not a disorder.” As a child grows
older, it is important to let him or her own
their personal history and tell their story.
More information about cleft lip and palate
can be found from a variety of Internet
sources. They include:
• Wide Smiles: widesmiles.org
• Smile Train: smiletrain.org
• FACES: The National Craniofacial
Association: faces-cranio.org
• Cleft Palate Foundation: cleftline.org
• About Face USA: Cleftadvocate.org
• Operation Smile: operationsmile.org
• American Cleft Palate Assn: acpa-cpf.org
—Dean Hale, MSW, Holt India Program Director
Editor’s Note: In 34 years as a social worker for Holt International, Dean Hale has worked with many adoptive families whose
children are cleft-affected. He is also the adoptive father of a
cleft-affected teenage girl.
was involved in the cleft surgery. The plastic surgeon took time out of his busy day to
meet with us, did not charge us and gave
us the type of information we were looking
for. His casualness was reassuring. He had
done thousands of cleft repairs and gave us
confidence that this was very doable. Our
pediatrician reviewed the information and
did not raise any red flags.
in a week?” We said yes and drove nonstop to Nebraska, settled our daughter in
her apartment and left the next day. We
arrived home about four days ahead of
when we had to leave. We still needed
visas and had to pack luggage and book
our flight. Somehow it all fell in place, and
we were on the airplane for Hong Kong
right on time.
Jim and I had a big decision to make
and felt we needed more information. We
asked Holt if they could obtain more, something I understood was sometimes possible
and sometimes not. We were lucky. Holt
was able to get an update. This new information made our decision. “Yes,” we said.
“This is our daughter.” We called our social
worker to tell her the good news.
On the flight, we felt a little scared. We
wondered: What if this special need was
too much for us? Could we really parent this child? So many thoughts went
through our heads. I think this is a normal
reaction to such a big life event. We had
been through so much together and were
now facing the unknown with a little girl
we had named Haley. After Hong Kong
we traveled to Nanning, excited but still
frightened. We knew our lives were about
to change dramatically. In our room, we
readied presents for the orphanage and the
toys to entertain Haley. Our group had
dinner together. After dinner, we were all
instructed to stay in our rooms. I stood in
the doorway watching families being born
around me and wondering when my time
would come. Suddenly, out of the corner
of my eye, I saw a child streak out of the
hallway and into the room of our guide.
“It’s her,” I yelled to Jim. My first glimpse
of my Haley and she was in motion, running in the hall.
In May 2001 we sent our dossier along
with our acceptance letter to China. The
wait for our travel authorization began. We
used this time to get our house ready. We
baby-proofed the house, painted the bedroom, bought clothes and toys and read
as much as we could on bringing home a
toddler. And still we waited.
In August the phone call came. It could
not have been a worse time as we were
on our way to Nebraska taking our oldest
child to grad school. We were a thousand
miles from home and not yet in Nebraska
when the call came. “Can you be in China
The guide and the social welfare institute
director brought Haley to us. She was still
in their arms and then in ours, too. She
looked at us and solemnly appraised us.
When the director left our room, Haley
cried a little. We walked her in the hall,
and she quieted down. That night she slept
well and the next morning my new job
started: chasing Haley. We had a wonderful adoption trip but I think I ran through
China in those two weeks. We came home
and I ran around the house, the neighborhood, the parks and stores in our area. I
lost 20 pounds in a matter of months with
this new person in my life. I called her my
personal trainer. Yes, that child can run.
A Little Sister
On the soccer field, Haley came running
up, followed by her little sister, who was
(naturally) running after her. Haley ate her
snack and was ready to go home. She even
made sure her little sister, who also has
special needs and is adopted from China,
got a snack, too. I waved goodbye to the
parents on the team and ran toward the car.
I caught up to my youngest, but Haley was
much too fast for me. As we got into the
car I looked at Haley, and once again I felt
so grateful that I was open to a child with
special needs. ■
www.holtinternational.org 19
CONGRATULATIONS!
Holt’s 2008
Graduates
Anderson, Gregory
Anderson, Natalie
Andrews, Michael
Bannister, Sarah
Barfoot, Melissa
Barfoot, Sarah
Berry, Katie
Betts, Elizabeth
Bladek, Heather
Blodgett, Kaleb
Blodgett, Mindy
Bopp, Nicole
Borowski, Matthew
Boston, Arthur
Bopp, Nicole—Victor, NY; Competitive dancing
Brandon, Hilké
Buckley, Kim
Anderson, Gregory—Point Pleasant Beach, NJ;
Senior Class vice president, NHS treasurer, varsity
soccer captain, varsity baseball, marching and concert band, student council. Plans to major in health
sciences at the University of Delaware. (Korea)
Anderson, Natalie—Springdale, AR; Alpha Chi
Sigma Scholar 2008, 4-year Honor Scholar, First
Ranked Senior Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa, Summa
Cum Laude. B.S. in biophysical chemistry and
mathematics, University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. (Korea)
Andrews, Michael—Grass Valley, CA; Graduated
from the U.S. Marine Corps Boot Camp, 3rd Battalion, Lima Company, Platoon 3025 at Parris Island,
SC. (India)
Bannister, Sarah—Phoenix, AZ; Graduated with
honors as Doctor of Osteopathy from Touro University Nevada College of Osteopathic Medicine
in Las Vegas. Resident at St. Joseph’s Hospital in
Phoenix. (Korea)
Barfoot, Melissa—Lake Tapps, WA; IBAAKO Club,
yearbook, tennis team, Sunday School teacher.
Plans to major in elementary education at Saint
Martin’s University in Lacey, WA. (Thailand)
Barfoot, Sarah—Lake Tapps, WA; B.A. in human
services from Western Washington University in
20 Fall 2008
Coffin, Emily
Combs, Benjamin
Bellingham. Interned at Blue Skies for Children, the
American Red Cross and Boys & Girls Club. Beginning Tennis PE instructor. Plans to continue working with children and families. (Thailand)
Berry, Katie—Sioux Falls, SD; Chorus, State Special
Olympics. Plans to attend South Dakota Achieve
for residential, life skill and employment training.
(Guatemala)
Betts, Elizabeth—Waterloo, IA; Cheerleading,
gymnastics. Plans to major in early childhood education at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo,
IA. (Romania)
Bladek, Heather—Medford, OR; NHS, varsity soccer, varsity basketball, scholar athlete, varsity soccer captain, finalist Chamber of Commerce Future
First Citizen, Excellence in Community Service.
Plans to major in nursing at the University of Portland in Portland, OR. (Korea)
Blodgett, Kaleb—Mondovi, WS; NHS, yearbook,
basketball, class officer, FBLA, Spanish Club, History Club. Plans to major in human resource management at Winona State University in Winona,
MN. (India)
Blodgett, Mindy—Newton, IA; B.S.N from Creighton University Nursing School. (Korea)
since age 3. Plans to major in human resources at
St. Leo University in Florida. (Philippines)
Borowski, Matthew—Newark, DE; NHS, Chess
Club, 1st degree black belt. Plans to attend the
University of Delaware in Newark. (Korea)
Boston, Arthur—Louisville, KY; B.A. in philosophy from Murray State University in Murray, KY.
(Korea)
Brandon, Hilké—Alma, NE; Valedictorian, All-Star
Academics, volleyball, basketball, track, state track,
cheerleading, Quiz Bowl, Who’s Who. Plans to major in psychobiology / pre-med at the University of
Nebraska in Kearney. (Korea)
Buckley, Kim—Omaha, NE; NHS, newspaper editor.
Plans to major in journalism at the University of
Nebraska in Lincoln. (Korea)
Coffin, Emily—Lincoln, NE; Wrestling student
manager. Plans to major in ultrasound technology at Southeast Community College in Lincoln,
NE. (Korea)
Combs, Benjamin—Prairie du Chien, WI; Yearbook,
lettered in golf. Plans to attend Montana Wilderness School of the Bible in Augusta, MT. (India)
Cornelius, J.R.—West Linn, OR; Co-captain varsity
track, cross country, Honors Graduate, NHS, link
crew. Plans to major in business at the University
of Oregon in Eugene. (Korea)
Crosson, Darin—Eddyville, IA; B.A. in fine arts
from Purdue University in Lafayette, IN. Plans to
work on master’s degree. (Korea)
Curameng, Aimee—Glendale, CA; B.A. in film
studies from California State University, Sacramento. Film Club Vice President. (Philippines)
Cornelius, J.R.
Crosson, Darin
Curameng, Aimee
Dalton, Korey
Devaney, Matthew
Dickey, James
Disdier, Andrew
Drews, Asialee
Edson, Miah
Elwood, Kristy
Farrell, Lisa
Fauber, Nicole
Ford, Andrew
Friesen, Andrew
Garber, Karin
Garvey, Ana
Godek, Jeremy
Gordon, Sean
Garvey, Ana (2007 graduate)—Dallas, TX; B.A.
Hall, Tabitha
Hallquist, Leslie
Heiss, Daniel
Henes, Emily
Elwood, Kristy—Hyde Park, NY; B.A. in psycholo-
Dalton, Korey—San Diego, CA; Student Council,
NHS, volleyball, soccer. Plans to major in business and law at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL.
(Korea)
Devaney, Matthew—Lanoka Harbor, NJ; New
Jersey Stars Program. Plans to major in business
administration at Ocean County College in Toms
River, NJ. (Korea)
Dickey, James—West Chester, PA; B.A. in business,
Cum Laude, from West Chester University in West
Chester, PA. Plans to enter the workforce. (Korea)
Disdier, Andrew—Skillman, NJ; Lacrosse, basketball, church youth group. Plans to major in finance
at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. (Korea)
Drews, Asialee—Omaha, NE; Senior Class vice
president, Student Council representative, NHS,
Minority Scholars, track and field, Academic Letter, Homecoming Queen candidate. Plans to major
in biochemistry at Creighton University in Omaha,
NE. (Korea)
Edson, Miah—Eugene, OR; B.A. in French from the
University of Oregon. Four years of Concert Choir,
and 14 years dancing with Tada Productions Dance
Studio touring last summer in Hawaii. (Korea)
gy from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Social
and Behavioral Sciences Intern of the Year, Dean’s
List, Dance Club choreographer. Works as a psychology technician at St. Francis Hospital in Hyde
Park. Plans to work toward a master’s degree in
mental health counseling at Marist. (Korea)
Farrell, Lisa—Hillsboro, OR; Cross country, track,
Community Service Club, Honor Roll, newspaper,
yearbook editor. Plans to major in international
studies at Elon University in Elon, NC. (Thailand)
Fauber, Nicole—Joliet, IL; Flag corps band, cheerleading, track, Political Club. Plans to major in prelaw at Joliet Junior College in Joliet, IL. (India)
Ford, Andrew—Marlton, NJ; Honor Roll, varsity
soccer, theater, karate. Plans to major in mathematics at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia,
PA. (United States)
Friesen, Andrew—Poulsbo, WA; Varsity tennis and
soccer, Honor Roll, Young Life. Plans to major in
environmental science at Bethel University in St.
Paul, MN. (Korea)
Garber, Karin—Clackamas, OR; B.A. in psychology from Scripps College in Claremont, CA. Magna
Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa. (Korea)
from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, TX. Teaches preschool at Highland Park United
Methodist Church in Dallas, TX. (Philippines)
Godek, Jeremy—Indianapolis, IN; Plans to major
in social studies education at Ivy Tech Community
College in Indianapolis, IN. (India)
Gordon, Sean—Portland, OR; Varsity basketball
captain 2007-08, varsity soccer captain 2007 and
state champions 2005-07, varsity lacrosse captain
2008, volunteer Oregon Food Bank. Plans to major
in mechanical engineering and business at Oregon
State University in Corvallis, OR. (Korea)
Hall, Tabitha—Baleston, Lake, NY; B.A. in English
from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA.
(Korea)
Hallquist, Leslie—Palm Beach Gardens, FL; B.S. in
business from Gardner-Webb University in Boiling
Springs, NC. Summa Cum Laude, 4-year member
varsity swim team and co-captain senior year,
member of Delta Mu Delta business honor society.
Plans to work on a master’s degree in interior design at Florida State University. (Korea)
Heiss, Daniel—Roselle Park, NJ; NHS, Spanish
Honor Society, golf and bowling teams. Plans to
major in marine biology at Rutgers University in
NJ. (Korea)
Henes, Emily—Creighton, NE; Dance, wrestling
statistics, Library Club, Red Cross Bloodmobile.
Plans to major in Spanish at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. (Vietnam)
Hill, Cameron—Salem, OR; NHS, varsity letter in
gymnastics 4 years, twice in Junior Olympics National Gymnastics Championships. Plans to attend
Willamette University in Salem, OR. (Korea)
www.holtinternational.org 21
graduates
Hill, Cameron
Hollister, Clay
Holm, Kendra
Honnold, Ryan
Honrath, Ramey
Horn-Bolivar, Keri
Janka, Clark
Johnson, Alicia
Johnson, Hannah
Keasling, Amanda
Kluck, Stephen
Kocina, Amber
Krengel, Anna
Lassman-Eul, Dolly
Love, Melena
Lynch, Robert
MacMinn, Blair
Madsen, Michael
Magnuson, Shay-Lin
Mankins, Reed
Hollister, Clay (2007 graduate)—Louisville, KY;
B.A. in sociology from Hanover College in Hanover,
IN. Soccer team; Sigma Chi—kitchen steward,
pledge trainer, president. Plans to teach special
education after attending graduate school at the
University of Louisville in Louisville, KY. (Korea)
Holm, Kendra—Cedar Falls, IA; Concert choir, Harmony, Girl Scouts, Sunday School volunteer, 2004
Mayor’s Top Teen Volunteer Award recipient. Plans
to attend Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, IA. (India)
Honnold, Ryan—Ankeny, IA; Track, robotics, gymnastics, show choir, choir, band, Interact, church
youth group, Dollars for Scholars Scholarship.
Plans to train as an automotive master technician
at Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny,
IA. (Korea)
Honrath, Ramey—Houghton, MI; Cross country,
track, private pilot’s license. Plans to major in aviation at Northwestern College at Traverse City, MI.
(India)
Horn-Bolivar, Keri—Tampa, FL; M.A. in English
Education, University of South Florida (2008);
M.A. in organizational management, University of
Phoenix (2004). (Vietnam)
22 Fall 2008
Marino, Brandon
McClaskey, Aaron
Janka, Clark—Osage, IA; Football, track, band,
speech. Plans to major in instrumental music education at Wartburg College in Waverly, IA. (Korea)
Johnson, Alicia—Maple Grove, MN; Graduated
with high honors, softball team. Plans to study
business at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul,
MN. (India)
Johnson, Hannah—Lake Oswego, OR; Coed recreational soccer, band, choir, pep band. Plans to
attend Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR.
(Korea)
Keasling, Amanda—Fremont, NE; Band, choir,
Dance Team, Spanish Honor Society, graduated
Cum Laude. Plans to major in English at Luther
College in Decorah, IA. (Korea)
Kluck, Stephen—Cedar Falls, IA; Honor Roll, State
Soccer Team, State Tournament Soccer Team, All
Metro, All District, wrestling, football, voted “most
artistic,” Upper Iowa Soccer Scholarship. Plans to
major in graphic design at Upper Iowa University.
(Korea)
Kocina, Amber—Platte Center, NE; Softball letter winner, basketball, One Act, FBLA scholarship,
taught religious education, served Mass, church
youth group, worked part-time throughout school.
Plans to major in business and finance at Wayne
State College in Wayne, NE. (Korea)
Krengel, Anna—Lodi, CA; Idyllwild Arts Academy
Best of Senior Show in ceramics, sculpture and
overall senior show. Plans to major in visual arts
and sculpture at the University of the Arts—Central St. Martin’s College of Arts and Design in the
United Kingdom. (Korea)
Lassman-Eul, Dolly (2007 graduate)—Springfield, MO; Community service, cheerleading,
band, Girl Scouts, church youth group, foreign
and domestic mission trips, NHS, scholarships for
academics and leadership. Plans to major in business and marketing at Missouri State University in
Springfield, MO. (India).
Love, Melena—Lamoni, IA; Studies history at
Graceland University in Lamoni, IA. (India)
Lynch, Robert—Rowley, IA; 4-year letter winner
in soccer, also played football, baseball and wrestling, Honor Roll, 2-year All-District Academic in
football, Voice of Democracy essay winner. Plans
to major in computer engineering at Iowa State
University in Ames, IA. (Korea)
MacMinn, Blair—Audubon, NJ; New Jersey All
State Chorus, All South Jersey Chorus, soccer 4
years, golf, track, choir, choral ensemble, band,
church youth group and praise band. Plans to
major in graphic design at Philadelphia University.
(Korea)
Madsen, Michael—Sioux City, IA; Valedictorian, NHS, National Council on Youth Leadership,
marching band, cross country and track. Plans to
major in architecture at Iowa State University in
Ames. (India)
Magnuson, Shay-Lin—Bend, OR; NHS, Stars Program, Summit Chamber Orchestra, People to People, Girls State, cheerleader, gymnastics. Plans to
major in pre-med at the University of Notre Dame
in South Bend, IN. (Korea)
Using Our Gifts
Excerpts from a young woman’s salutatorian address
One of the things graduates look forward to is receiving gifts. Most of us
will receive gift cards, checks, cash and
packages tied with ribbons and bows.
These gifts come with congratulations for
reaching this important milestone in our
lives and are much appreciated.
I would like to speak about the other gifts
we received, gifts that come from our
Heavenly Father that have been demonstrated and lived out during our years at
[school].
A little over 18 years ago, my birth
mother gave birth to me in a clinic in
South Korea. Not only did she give me
the gift of life, but she gave me the gift
of opportunity. By placing me with
a Christian agency, Holt International
Children’s Services, I was given the gift of
a home and a family. I was able to grow
up in the United States where I received
the medical care I needed to overcome
health difficulties. I also received the
gift of a Christian education where I was
surrounded by the word of God, as I was
encouraged to develop academically.
The Bible speaks often about gifts.
Romans 12:6 tells us, “We have different
gifts, according to the grace given us. If
a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it
in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him
teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of
others, let him give generously; if it is
leadership, let him govern diligently; if
it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”
Look around [our] high school and you
will see these and other gifts being used
and shared everywhere you go.
We are the beneficiaries of people who
have cared to sacrifice financially to send
us to this school. Our parents believe
enough in the importance of a Christian
education that they have given up other
things to make sure we could learn in this
environment.
The teachers and coaches have gifted us
with their wisdom, guidance and Godly
example to enable us to develop our
own spiritual gifts and
character. For four years
they have challenged us
to grow academically and
spiritually. They have
faithfully taught us at
lower salaries than they
would receive elsewhere
because they believed in
us and the power of an
education with Christ at
the center.
The staff has shared their
gifts of serving as they
spent countless hours
making sure that we had
the best possible environment to learn in.
The administration and
board have certainly used
Recent high school graduate Christina Noland.
their gifts of leadership as
they made decisions regardties, and have struggled with issues of
ing finances and curriculum, which shape
growing up. It has been wonderful to see
[our] school.
how you have comforted and put yourselves out to help others in need.
And I look at you, my fellow classmates,
and think of the gifts you have been
Students here are great servants. Whethgiven and how freely you have shared
er it is helping in the classroom, sorting
them.
items for giving away, tutoring others, or
helping out with projects, our class has
Every week at chapel, voices are lifted in
always been willing to serve.
songs of praise that help us to worship
God with our hearts and souls. Many of
And finally, we have been given the
you have shared your testimonies and
greatest gift of all—the gift of salvation
experiences of God working in your lives,
through Jesus Christ. This school has
which have inspired us all.
been a vital tool in my spiritual growth
and my walk with Christ. I am so very
Those of you in leadership roles through
thankful to everyone who has influenced
student government have been great
me in a positive way. What a gift it has
examples as you faithfully worked to
make our high school experiences fun and been to be able to learn in a place where
God’s word is freely shared and lived.
exciting.
I can also see the gift of encouragement
so clearly through the cheerleaders and
the spirit club, as well as through the
student body. The way our school rallies behind the sports teams and those
involved in the musical productions and
plays helps everyone to do their best.
The gift of mercy is shown through the
student body. Many of us have experienced difficulties throughout our high
school years. We have lost loved ones,
been ill or injured, had academic difficul-
In 1 Corinthinans 12: 4-6 we read, “There
are different kinds of gifts, but the
same Spirit. There are different kinds
of service, but the same Lord. There are
different kinds of working, but the same
God works in all men.” I pray that as we,
the class of 2008, leave our schools, we
will continue to use the gifts that God
has given us to bless others as we glorify
Him in everything that we do.
—Christina Noland/ Kingsburg, California
www.holtinternational.org 23
graduates
McKinnon, Stephanie
Metzger, Zachary
Meyers, Brian
Miller, Eric
Millsap, Theodore
Montgomery, Eric
Murray, Jason
Noland, Christina
Orton, Gregg Brown
Orton, Sarah Brown
Petrosie, Andrew
Petrosie, Emily
Phelan, Bryce
Pursel, Adam
Rathkey, Joseph
Ray, Daniel
Rochte, Monica
Rogers, Emily
Orton, Sarah Brown—Arcadia, CA; Graduated
Sakai, Hannah
Sathrum, Leah
Mankins, Reed—Porterville, CA; State academic
decathlon medalist, top 5 percent of class, band,
newspaper staff. Plans to major in biology at the
University of California at Santa Barbara. (Korea)
Marino, Brandon—Omaha, NE; Varsity soccer
school record holder for season’s most goals. Plans
to major in sports science and play Division II soccer at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, MO.
(Korea)
McClaskey, Aaron—Los Angeles, CA; Doctor of
Musical Arts (DMA) in piano performance at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. (Korea)
McKinnon, Stephanie—Morganville, NJ; NHS,
French Honor Society, Create Club, Laureate Magazine, youth elder, graduated in top 9 percent of
class. Plans to major in history at the University of
Massachusetts in Baltimore. (Korea)
Metzger, Zachary—Omaha, NE; Music letter 2
years, played cello in orchestra, academic letter
senior year. Plans to study at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha. (Korea)
Meyers, Brian—Memphis, TN; Honor Roll, soccer,
Spanish Honor Society, wrote for school newspaper. Plans to major in pre-law and play college soccer at Millsaps College in Jackson, MS. (Korea)
24 Fall 2008
Scheer, Abigail
Schipper, Timothy
Miller, Eric—Ames, IA; Band. Plans to major in premed at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. (Korea)
Millsap, Theodore—Medford, OR; Youth leadership, guitar, pick-up basketball, spending time with
friends and family. Plans to major in secondary
education at Lane Community College in Eugene,
OR. (Korea)
Montgomery, Eric—LaGrande, OR; Varsity soccer,
NHS, Honors Diploma, Acapella Choir, Wind Ensemble. Plans to major in business at the University
of Idaho in Moscow, ID. (Korea)
Murray, Jason—River Edge, NJ; CPR trained lifeguard, Eagle Scout, assistant counselor for Camp
Sejong. Plans to major in automotive technology
management at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, PA. (Korea)
Noland, Christina—Kingsburg, CA; Salutatorian,
CSF Life Member. Plans to major in physics, premed at Pt. Loma Nazarene University in San Diego,
CA, with a goal toward becoming a medical missionary. (Korea)
Orton, Gregg Brown—Arcadia, CA; A.B. in political science from Vassar College, 4-year member of
Men’s Rowing Team senior year captain, Burnham
Fellow 2007. After working for 1 to 2 years, he
plans to attend law or graduate school. (Korea)
from Cao Institute of Aesthetics, a branch school
of the Paul Mitchell Schools of Cosmetology in
Alhambra, CA. Plans to work on special certification in cosmetics before entering the workplace.
(Korea)
Petrosie, Andrew—Jackson, NJ; B.S. in computer
science from Rochester Institute of Technology in
Rochester, NJ. Currently employed in Rochester.
(Korea)
Petrosie, Emily—Jackson, NJ; Graduated Magna
Cum Laude with a B.S. in graphic arts and communications from Kean University in Union, NJ.
(Korea)
Phelan, Bryce—Boring, OR; Finished Post Level 10
for piano and received a music scholarship. Plans
to study worship arts at Corban College in Salem,
OR. (Korea)
Pursel, Adam—Houston, TX; Soccer, Eagle Scout,
Distinguished Service Graduate, auto tech intern.
Plans to major in business at Stephen F. Austin
State University in Nacogdoches, TX. (Philippines)
Rathkey, Joseph—Portland, OR; Student Council, ASB vice president, President’s Award, Scholar
Athlete, NHS, varsity basketball. Plans to major in
biology at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, WA.
(Korea)
Ray, Daniel—Pasadena, CA; Lifetime member CSF,
varsity swim team, cross country and track, FCA,
drama, Scholar Athlete Award, freshman History
Award. Plans to major in computer science at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. (USA)
Rochte, Monica—Los Osos, CA; Varsity soccer
captain 2 years, most valuable player, All-League,
Athlete of the Month, Sierra Service Project participant, United Methodist Church scholarship recipient, Honor Roll. Plans to attend Cuesta College
in San Luis Obispo, CA. (Korea)
Schupp, Rachel
Scott, Angelica
Simpson, May
Smith, Megan
Spiekermeier, Jacob
Stangland, Gregory
Toulantis, Anthony
Toulantis, Elizabeth
Van Loos, Cameron
Wagner, Melanie
Wankowicz, Grady
Waugh, Mark
Weber, April
Weber, Matthew
Winczewski, Nathan
Wittmann, Zachary
Zava, Louis
Zukowski, Alison
Rogers, Emily—Halton City, TX; A Cappella Choir
3 years, Varsity Women’s Choir. Plans to major in
creative writing at the University of North Texas in
Denton, TX. (Korea)
Sakai, Hannah—Pasadena, CA; Chess Club, Adventure Club, drama productions, cross country
and track. Plans to major in fashion design at the
Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in
Los Angeles, CA. (Korea)
Sathrum, Leah—Salem, OR; Big Sister, Big Brother;
DECA; NHS vice president; Governing Board; volleyball; bowling; varsity water polo; varsity swimming. Plans to major in nursing at the University of
Portland in Portland, OR. (Korea)
Scheer, Abigail—Cook, NE; Valedictorian, NHS
president, Student Council, FFA, band, John Phillips Sousa Award, Scholastic Art & Writing Silver
Medalist, DEKALB Award, Academic Decathlon,
2008 Outstanding Student of America. Plans to attend Rhode Island School of Design in Providence,
RI. (Korea)
Schipper, Timothy—Osceola, IA; B.A. in religion
from Simpson College in Indianola, IA. Plans to
teach English in Thailand. (Thailand)
Schupp, Rachel—Salida, CA; Tae Kwon Do black
belt, Health Careers Academy graduate, Friends of
Modesto Police Scholarship, Outstanding Academic Excellence, President’s Education Award, Congressional Special Recognition. Plans to major in
chemistry at Modesto Junior College in Modesto,
CA. (Korea)
Scott, Angelica—Mobile, AL; Visual Ensemble
4 years, co-captain year 4; Student Council vice
president years 3, 4; Band Council vice president
year 4; NHS; tennis team; Red Ribbon Leadership
Award. Plans to major in education or communications at Troy University in Troy, AL. (Brazil)
Simpson, May—Lawrence, KS; Varsity tennis 3
years, co-captain senior year, photography. Plans
to attend Northwest Missouri State University in
Maryville, MO. (Korea)
Smith, Megan—McMinnville, OR; Majored as dental assistant at Chemeketa Community College in
Salem, OR. Working in Bend, OR, assisting an oral
surgeon. (Korea)
Spiekermeier, Jacob—Robins, IA; Played trumpet in marching band; jazz band, wind symphony,
Student Advisory Council, church youth leadership
team, National Council on Youth Leadership, Academic Honors with Distinction. Plans to major in
communications media at Kirkwood Community
College in Cedar Rapids, IA. (India)
Stangland, Gregory—Yakima, WA; Wind ensemble, Technology Club vice president. Plans to major
in engineering at Washington State University in
Pullman. (Korea)
Toulantis, Anthony—Wantagh, NY; B.A. in criminal justice from Liberty University in Lynchburg,
VA. (Thailand)
Toulantis, Elizabeth—Wantagh, NY; National
Honor Society. Plans to major in biology at Liberty
University in Lynchburg, VA. (Thailand)
Van Loos, Cameron—Bellevue, WA; Photography,
video production, track, cross country. Plans to
major in photography at the California College of
the Arts in Oakland / San Francisco, CA. (Korea)
Wagner, Melanie—Crestwood, KY; Degree in business from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana
University in Bloomington, IN. First place honors
for the Integrative Core Program. (Korea)
Wankowicz, Grady—Phoenix, AZ; Varsity lacrosse,
Eagle Scout. Plans to major in business at the University of Arizona in Tucson. (Korea)
Waugh, Mark—Battle Ground, IN; B.S. in sales and
marketing from Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. Dean’s List, 2006 counselor for Holt Adoptee Camps. Currently teaching English in Seoul,
South Korea. (Korea)
Weber, April—Riverside, CA; B.A. in English from
the University of California, Los Angeles. Plans to
work on her master’s degree. (Korea)
Weber, Matthew—Lake Elsinore, CA; Graduated
as a firefighter from the Department of Defense
Firefighter School at Goodfellow Air Force Base in
San Angelo, TX. Plans to pursue firefighting as a
civilian. (Korea)
Winczewski, Nathan—Portland, OR; Snowboarders Club, outdoor school student leader, football,
wrestling, golf, basketball. Plans to attend Mt.
Hood Community College in Gresham, OR. (Korea)
Wittmann, Zachary—Auburn, NE; Track, baseball.
Plans to major in computer science at Concordia
University in Seward, NE. (Korea)
Zava, Louis—Germantown, TN; Played baritone
sax in varsity band, enjoys playing guitar. Plans to
major in history at the University of Memphis in
Memphis, TN. (Ecuador)
Zukowski, Alison—Hockessin, DE; NHS, All-State
cross country, track, swimming, band, Z-Club, Key
Club. Plans to major in animal sciences at the University of Delaware in Newark, DE. (Korea)
www.holtinternational.org 25
from the family
A Daughter’s Dreams
And although we hoped she would
take her future seriously, we never
thought it would begin just yet.
A mother marvels at her daughter’s goals,
capabilities and future plans
So who is this wonderful young
lady, you might wonder? She is our
11-year-old daughter from China.
She has blossomed into this beautiful flower and has touched the lives
of most everyone she has encountered. And she plans on becoming
a doctor. At this point she has not
decided if she will be a pediatrician
or a family doctor. But she will be
I wonder all this because my daughter has planned
a doctor, nonetheless. She plans
out her life—in great detail. She has spent time
on returning to our rural area to
checking into colleges, paying close attention
practice. Not caring that she probto curricula, location, cost and post-graduation
ably could make even more money
employment opportunities. She has requested, yes Kara Booms has future plans.
by
going further away. She knows
requested, applications. Her next plan is to look
there
are people here, friends and
into available scholarships, and she plans on receiving many.
family,
that
need
good
care,
too.
She has maintained all A’s and has participated in extracurricuAs the school year is just getting under way, I have
yet to meet my daughter’s teachers. I wonder
what they think of Kara? Are they as amazed of
her intelligence as I am? Or are these feelings of
amazement reserved just for parents, as a base to
brag about? Do they struggle daily, as I do, trying
to answer her inquisitive questions? How do they
handle her boredom?
lar activities such as soccer, band, piano lessons, 4-H, churchrelated activities and every chance to help those younger than
she. And yet every step of the way she has maintained a normal
balance in life, remembering to be a kid, too. She has many
friends, none who know what they want to be when they “grow
up.” Living in the rural area that we do, many have not heard of
choosing colleges, planning for the future and so on.
My husband and I are very proud of her. We could not have
asked for anything more. We strive daily to give her the family
values and lessons to continue on this road to life. She has had
to deal with much more than most her age already. And we
feel that she can handle anything that comes her way. She is
a strong, independent, intelligent and very determined young
lady. Many professionals admire her, encourage her, and stand
back amazed at the conversations they hold with her. Many
smile and are filled with pride, knowing they helped to mold this
young lady into who she is today.
Some might think this is a fluke and she will soon change her
mind. I am here to tell you that I doubt it. She has had this
plan since the second grade. It is what she wants. She is working hard and putting 100 percent into everything she does. She
wants to give back to the community that so openly welcomed
her as a baby many years ago.
If she does change her mind, that is fine with us. Whatever she
ends up pursuing in life, we know she will do with her whole
heart—and succeed. We are proud of the young lady she has
become. She is a great daughter and a great big sister. She is a
role model for her younger sister. She knows she has a purpose
on this earth, and she is living to fulfill that purpose. She has
brought us so much joy as we simply sit back and watch her
blossom, supporting her along the way, wherever life’s path
takes her.
— by Kathy Booms / Ruth, Michigan
Her Grandmother’s Guardian Angel
Lauren, now in her sophomore year at
the University of Pittsburgh, is pursuing a
triple major in biological science, neuroscience and anthropology. She hopes to
someday do research in the medical field,
particularly with regard to Alzheimer’s
disease. She participated in the marching band color guard unit and has joined
Pitt STAND (Students Taking Action Now,
Darfur). She also makes beautiful beaded
jewelry that she has just begun to sell at
arts and crafts fairs, all the while studying very hard by taking 18 credits each
semester and also taking classes during
the summer.
Lauren Perwas with her adoring, and adored, grandmother, 90-year-old Jessie Brandes (on the occasion of
Lauren’s high school graduation).
26
Fall 2008
She has a very special relationship with
her “Gram”—her grandmother refers to
Lauren as her “guardian angel” because
of the way Lauren watches out for Gram
and keeps her safe.
I recently asked Lauren where she gets all
of her drive from, because she is indeed
driven to succeed and pursue so many
things. Lauren told me that she believes
that her birth parents made an adoption
plan for her because they wanted her
to have a wonderful future with more
opportunities than they would be able to
provide for her. She added, “How can I
pass up opportunities that come to me? I
have to take any of them that come along
because they wanted so much for me.”
She never ceases to amaze her father and
me with the maturity that she demonstrates in all aspects of her life.
—Valerie Perwas / Mahwah, New Jersey
Adopting from Ethiopia
One of the first families to adopt through Holt’s new
Ethiopia program reports on their experience
A
After considering adoption for nearly five years, my
husband and I formally applied to adopt with Holt in
January 2006, with China as our chosen country. A
year and a half later we still did not have a referral,
and projections for standard process referrals had
lengthened. We were going to pull our dossier.
Much to our delight, we received a call from Holt
informing us they were going to be offering adoption
services in countries that included Ethiopia. We were
drawn to Ethiopia and more than happy to be a “pioneer” family for Holt in Ethiopia.
We received our dossier instructions in August
and submitted our dossier in September. I knew we
would be receiving our referral in January, so I carried
my cell phone in my back pocket the whole month.
No call. Little did I know this was the month our
sweet girl was born. Our referral came in March. We
learned that our daughter’s name is Lechame, and she
is the most beautiful and sweet girl! We received an
Ethiopian court date of May and were set to travel for
our embassy appointment in June.
Traveling to Ethiopia
We felt very fortunate that Holt arranges groups of
families to travel to Ethiopia. Dr. Fikru and his wife,
Selam, and Holt staff Tamrat, who works in the Addis
office, were at the airport with smiles to greet us.
When we arrived at the hotel we had to check in
by candlelight, as they have rolling blackouts every
three to four days in Addis Ababa. It was kind of
cool to check in by candlelight. We had no idea what
anything looked like because it was so dark. Despite
the jet lag, I had a hard time falling asleep thinking of
Lechame’s little body sleeping next door!
We went to meet our children at 10 a.m. We were
the last family to get our turn. When we met Lechame
she was on her tummy hanging out with three of her
buddies on the floor. She
was so sweet and magnificent to hold.
The Holt transition center is beautiful. The staff
keeps it immaculate. The
office staff goes out of their
way to be helpful and the
nannies, along with all the staff, love the children. It
is so wonderful to see the awesome treatment these
children are being given while in Holt’s care. We
could not have been happier.
While staying in Addis we had an awesome driver
named Tsegaw. Driving around Addis was like an
exciting dance. People, cows, donkeys, goats, buses
and cars were all over the road. The buses were
packed with people on top of each other. I don’t
think there is a tailgating law in Addis, and there are
very few stoplights or stop signs. But despite all the
craziness, the people were incredibly nice and smiled
all the time. The horns were tooting, but in a nice
way.
The first couple of days we could visit our daughter
only for certain hours during the day. We felt this was
a good way to slowly transition toward her getting to
know us. On the fourth day we finally were able to
take care of Lechame full time. I had butterflies in my
stomach before we picked her up. We are so lucky
and feel so blessed.
by Jody Lawson
Portland, Oregon
Top right: Jody and Chris
Lawson with their new
daughter in Addis. The
couple began considering
adoption as a way to build
their family when their son,
Lucas, was 3 years old.
Below: The Lawsons were
greeted at the airport in
Addis by Dr. Fikru Geleso,
Holt Ethiopia country representative, and his wife,
Selam, along with Holt
staff member Tamrat.
Holt provided a farewell party for the adoptive
families and their children. The nannies dressed the
children in traditional Ethiopian clothes for the party.
Dr. Fikru and all of the families had the opportunity
to speak, and a blessing was given. There were a lot
of tears. This was a wonderful and difficult day. In
addition, each family received special gifts showing
their child’s time in Holt’s care. I cannot say how
incredibly valuable these gifts were.
We will miss all of the wonderful and beautiful people we met in Ethiopia. It was hard saying
goodbye to the families we traveled with. Both
families are truly amazing, and we feel blessed to
have shared this experience with them.
When we arrived home, a nice group of people
greeted us at the airport, including some of Holt’s
staff. Boy, were we exhausted, but so happy to be
home with our baby. ■
www.holtinternational.org 27
adoptees today
A Call for Adoptees’ Involvement
Holt is ramping up its adoptee outreach and seeks input from adult adoptees
by Todd Kwapisz, Holt Adult Adoptee Outreach Director
B
Because adoption is a life-long process, Holt International has been
and will continue to be committed to serving adoptees throughout
their lives and for generations to come. But more and more, we’re
seeing that our efforts can be in partnership with adoptees.
Early in Holt’s history the founders valued adoptees in ways that
were far ahead of the times. In the 1950s and early 60s when many
institutions recorded very little information on orphaned and abandoned children, Holt was already developing systems for gathering
social histories and keeping this information into perpetuity.
And just recently we’ve begun to ramp up our “Adoptee Outreach.”
We hope to connect with adoptees around the world, create dialogue
and offer opportunities for adoptees to be more involved with Holt
and our efforts for children.
We’re seeking input from adult adoptees. We understand that
some adoptees have unfavorable feelings about adoption agencies
and adoption, and while we respect this opinion, we hope to initiate a thoughtful dialogue that can shape the ways we help children
to have families of their own. We’re developing an Adult Adoptee
Advisory Council to include adoptees’ perspectives in our program
development. We’ve also started an adoptee speaker bureau to
inform audiences about adoption topics and children’s needs. We
need adult adoptees who will share their insights on growing up
adopted and mentor younger adoptees.
If you are interested in Holt’s Adult Adoptee Outreach program and
would like to get involved, please contact Todd Kwapisz at toddk@
holtinternational.org or visit holtinternational.org/adopteestoday. ■
My Lucky Number
Reflections of a recent graduate
Numbers can change lives. Lottery winners’ lives are changed overnight. Heirs
inherit money, which can impact one’s
life. Some people believe in lucky numbers. Similar to all of these possibilities,
my life changed with a combination of
numbers: K90-821. These numbers may
look meaningless to someone, but to me
these numbers represent who I am today.
And so my story begins.
Case number K90-821: Name: Jung
Kyung Chul: Date of birth: 5-27-90:
Place of birth: Pusan, South Korea. I was
dropped off at an orphanage in Pusan
two days after my birth. I do not know
the reason I was dropped off at the
28
Fall 2008
Highlights of Holt’s History of
Serving Adoptees
1957—First adoptive family picnic where international adoptees can develop friendships
1975—First Motherland Tour for adult adoptees to
visit their birth country, Korea
1983—First Heritage Camp for international adoptees from 9–16 years old
1999—In collaboration with three other organizations, Holt organizes the “Gathering of First Generation of Korean Adoptees,” an event that leads to
many subsequent conferences for adult adoptees
2001—Develops the Parents in Process training curriculum to help new parents understand issues of
race and identity for international adoptees
2001—Advocated for internationally adopted
children to become U.S. citizens upon their arrival
in the States, closing a loophole that left some
adoptees unprotected by U.S. law
orphanage. Could it have been that my
birth parents did not want me? Could
it have been my birth parents did not
have the financial resources to care for
me? Whatever the situation was, I was
nobody’s child at the time. Finally, on
August 7, 1990, I was officially “assigned”
to my new parents. On October 19, 1990,
at 5 months old, I made the trip halfway
around the world to live with my new
family. As I look back today, I have come
to realize that this set of numbers has
defined my life. My adoption has shaped
who I am today.
I always think to myself, “What if I was
not adopted by my parents? Where
would I be today?” Neither my parents
nor I can answer these questions and
not have any doubts. I could have been
adopted by
some family in
Ohio, or even
Canada. My
social class
could have
been completely different. I could be
a kid working
two jobs to
help support
the family,
or I could be
Recent high school graduate
Andrew Disdier
someone who
has not worked
a minute in
his life. Everything I enjoy now could
be something that I could possibly have
hated if I were in a different location.
Places
in the heart
connection :: culture :: experience :: engage
20 09 Holt Heritage Tours
China Family Tours
Contact Lisle Veach, China Program | (541) 687-2202 | lislev@holtinternational.org
Korea Heritage Tour
Contact Paul Kim, Korea Program | (541) 687-2202 | paulk@holtinternational.org
Thailand Family Tours
Contact Marissa Leuallen, Thailand Program | (541) 687-2202 |
marissal @holtinternational.org
h o l t i n t e r n a t i o n a l.o r g /t o u r s
Would I be playing two varsity sports like
I am now? Or would I have been someone who has no interest at all in sports?
These questions and situations are all still
a mystery that will never be solved.
Another set of questions in my head is,
“What if I was not adopted at all? What
if I remained in Korea?” These are other
questions that cannot and never will be
answered. If I was not adopted I could
still be in Pusan, South Korea. Because
Pusan is a port city in Korea, I could be
working for a shipping company, operating cranes to move giant boxes around.
Something as simple as my daily diet
would be completely different. I would
most likely be eating kimchi and rice with
every dinner, as opposed to steak and
salad. The education I would receive, if
I were fortunate enough to receive one,
would most likely not be as advanced as
the education I have now. I would most
likely not be learning about the economy
of the world, or about the basics of calculus. One thing that’s for sure is I would
not be living a lifestyle that I am today.
My adoption has led me to many great
opportunities throughout life. I am
receiving an outstanding high school
education now, and I will be continuing
on to college soon. My adoption has
also led me to a great family. Not only
the family I live with everyday, but my
extended family. I have grandparents, a
great aunt, four aunts, five uncles, and 14
cousins. My family and my relationships
with everyone in my family are extremely
important in my life. Another aspect of
my life that has great importance to me
is my religion. I am deeply involved in my
church community. I have been an altar
server for eight years, a part of the youth
group for three years, and I am currently
a Eucharistic Minister. My religion and
family have guided me throughout life.
Had I not been adopted I may never have
experienced either.
I guess you could say that my lucky
number is K90-821. It has brought me a
life that most people can only imagine. I
am fortunate enough to live my life as I
am now. As I stated before, numbers, like
the lottery, can change lives. Well, guess
what? I hit the jackpot.
—Andrew Disdier / Skillman, New Jersey
www.holtinternational.org 29
waiting children & neighborhood calendar
Arkansas
December 7—Holt Quarterly Meeting and Christmas Open
House in North Little Rock, 1–4 p.m. For details: www.
holtinternational.org/adoption/branches/arbranch.shtml
California
January 25, 2009—Holt Silk Bag Luncheon, Event Center
at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, 1:30–4:30
p.m. Contact: Monica Wilton, Holt Events Manager, at
monicaw@holtinternational.org or (800) 451-0732
Charlie
August 2–6, 2009—Holt Adoptee Camp in Dobbins for
adoptees 9–16 years old. Contact: Steve Kalb at (541) 6872202 or stevek@holtinternational.org
Sara
Nebraska
Waiting Children
Special needs, special blessings
Ho-min
Sara
*Brittany’s Hope grants are available
for nine months from their granting
date, which varies by child. Find out
more at www.brittanyshope.org
New Jersey
Interested in a Waiting Child? Contact Holt’s Waiting
Child Program at 541-687-2202. View a photolisting of other
waiting children or apply online: holtinternational.org/
waitingchild
Oregon
Sachin
Born in India, 6/25/2000
This adorable little girl loves to smile at her
caregivers. She can turn her head when her
name is called, sit with assistance, recognize
voices and say “ma” and “let’s go.” Sara was
diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome, and
recent reports note cerebral palsy and cortical visual impairment. *$7,500 grant available from Brittany’s Hope.
Sachin asks his caregivers every day when
he will get his parents. When he came into
care he tested positive for chronic hepatitis
B. In September, his viral load had decreased
dramatically. He has good self-care skills and
is independent in doing them. *$7,500 grant
available from Brittany’s Hope.
Charlie
Holt’s descriptions of waiting children are based
on information available to Holt from caregivers
and medical personnel in the child’s country of
origin. Holt cannot guarantee the accuracy of
these descriptions or that the medical and psychological diagnoses published here are correct and
complete.
Born in SE Asia, 4/14/2007
A handsome little guy, Charlie is cheerful and
content since joining his foster family. He
smiles responsively, can move his neck and
begins to move in a circle. Born premature
at 28 weeks, he has global developmental
delays.
Ho-min
Born in Korea, 8/18/2007
Ho-min is flourishing under the love and
care of his foster mother. He had surgery
for meningomyelocele when he was only 1
day old and has a scar. Ho-min had some
alcohol, tobacco and medication exposure
in utero. *$5,000 grant available from
Brittany’s Hope.
Fall 2008
July 26–30, 2009—Holt Adoptee Camp in Ashland for adoptees
9–16 years old. Contact: Steve Kalb at (541) 687-2202 or
stevek@holtinternational.org
These children and many others you can view on
Holt’s website need adoptive families. They may have
various challenges such as medical conditions, or they
may simply be older or in sibling groups, but they have
so much to offer the family who makes them their own
son or daughter.
Born in SE Asia, 12/7/2006
30
March 28, 2009—Holt Colors of Hope Dinner Auction to
benefit homeless and at-risk children in Ethiopia, at La
Vista Embassy Suites in Omaha. For more information,
contact: Monica Wilton, Holt Events Manager, at
monicaw@holtinternational.org
Sachin
August 9–13, 2009—Holt Adoptee Camp in Starlight, PA for
adoptees 9–16 years old. Contact: Steve Kalb at (541) 6872202 or stevek@holtinternational.org
November 15—Adoption Fair held by Coalition of Oregon
Adoption Agencies (COAA) at OHSU Center for Health
& Healing, 3303 SW Bond Avenue, Portland. 1–5 p.m.
For more information, visit the COAA website at www.
oregonadoptionagencies.org or call Kathie Stocker at
(503) 244-2440 ext. 109 or e-mail her at kathies@
holtinternational.org
May 8, 2009—Holt Colors of Hope Dinner Auction to benefit
homeless and at-risk children in Ethiopia, at Valley
River Inn in Eugene. For more information, contact:
Monica Wilton, Holt Events Manager, at monicaw@
holtinternational.org
July 19–23, 2009—Holt Adoptee Camp in Corbett for adoptees
9–16 years old. Contact: Steve Kalb at (541) 687-2202 or
stevek@holtinternational.org
Texas
February 22, 2009—Holt Tea & Silent Auction to benefit
homeless and at-risk children in Ethiopia, at Paradise
Cove in Southlake. For more information, contact:
Monica Wilton, Holt Events Manager, at monicaw@
holtinternational.org
Wisconsin
November 15—Holt Colors of Hope Dinner Auction to benefit
homeless and at-risk children in China, at the Milwaukee
Zoo, Peck Welcome Center. Register online at www.
holtinternational.org/events. For more information,
contact: Monica Wilton, Holt Events Manager, at
monicaw@holtinternational.org or (800) 451-0732
family tree
“Grandpa” E. Dale Habegger, 82, and
Annika Anderson, 27 (Korea)—San
Diego, Calif.
Cameron, 10; Avery, 8; Sawyer, 3 (Mongolia);
and Laurel Armand, 4—Kenner, La.
Andrew Bavuso, 20 months
(Korea)—Sicklerville, N.J.
Mail original color prints to:
Holt International magazine
P.O. Box 2880
Eugene, OR 97402
or upload digital photos at
holtinternational.org/submissions
Jess, 24, and Daniel Babakian, 26 (Korea)—
Flemington, N.J.,
Hailey Doyle, 5, and Allison Livecchi, 5
(both from Korea)—Bridgewater, N.J.
Left (l to r): Aden, 3; Austin, 11; Kylee, 9;
Shabnam, 9 (India); and Adam Schmidt, 4—
Bellevue, Iowa
Lee Mair, 21 months (Vietnam)—Lake Oswego, Ore.
Sydney Harris, 4 (China)—Marysville, Wash.
www.holtinternational.org 31
A ye
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The 2009 Holt International
calendar features adopted children
from around the world. Every
calendar you purchase will benefit
children who still need families of
their own.
This large calendar
(12 x 18 when
hung) will brighten
your home or office
and heart… every
day of the year.
$10 (pric e includes shipping).
Or der your s from:
holtinternational.or g/c alendar
Post Of fice Box 2880
E u g e n e OR 9 7 4 0 2
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