Here are our top 5 facts about adopting from Thailand:

1. The minimum age for adoptive parents is 25.

For younger couples who want to start a family through adoption, Thailand is a great choice. Couples can have up to one child in their home prior to submitting their application to adopt a child from Thailand, and couples with a child can request to be matched with a child of the opposite gender. Childless couples must be open to a child of either gender. Adoptions from Thailand, while limited, have remained stable.

2. Most children adopted from Thailand are about 2 years old.

Even though the process to adopt a child from Thailand takes 2-3 years, most children are under 2 years old at time of match and under 3 years old at the time they join their families, and families are needed for children of both genders. Of course, if you are interested in older child adoption, there are many older children in Thailand who are waiting for their permanent, loving families.

3. Our partners in Thailand strive to keep families together and help parents make informed decisions regarding their children. This is something for adoptive parents to celebrate too!

Holt’s longstanding partner in Thailand, Holt Sahathai Foundation (HSF), is a prominent leader of child welfare services and women’s rights advocacy. Since 1976, HSF has helped struggling families stay together through counseling, financial assistance, vocational training, educational sponsorship and income-generating projects. Because single mothers still face discrimination in Thailand, HSF provides shelter, healthcare, postnatal care and counseling to help them cope with discrimination and make an informed decision about whether to parent or relinquish their child. About 80 percent of women who receive HSF support choose to parent their children. Those who do not are well educated regarding their decision. Holt always works to ensure the highest ethical practices in adoption, and HSF is a top-notch reflection of that commitment.

4. HSF lovingly cares for children from day one.

Most children in Holt’s Thailand adoption program spend the first several weeks of life with their birth mothers and then are placed directly into loving foster families. HSF was the first organization to implement foster care in Thailand, providing a more nurturing alternative to institutional care. In the years since, HSF’s foster care program in Thailand has become the model for both governmental and non-governmental childcare institutions in the region. While children wait to join their permanent family, foster families ensure children reach critical developmental milestones, receive proper nutrition and develop vital emotional bonds. Holt also receives a detailed child progress report every four months, which contains an update on the child’s health and developmental milestones, along with new photos to share with the child’s prospective family.

5. Children from Thailand need loving, permanent families.

While Thailand’s economy has grown significantly over the past decade, poverty persists, especially in many rural regions — leaving children vulnerable to family separation or abandonment. While HSF is working to combat the enduring stigma toward single mothers, many young women still choose to relinquish or abandon their children. Over the past decade, the HIV epidemic orphaned nearly half a million children as well. For these reasons and others, many children in Thailand need international adoption to be able to join a permanent, loving family. HSF was founded on the belief that every child deserves to grow up feeling the love and joy of a family.

If you would like more information about adopting a child from Thailand, contact our adoption advisors at adopt@holtinternational.org.

Adopt From Thailand

Many children in Thailand are waiting for a loving, permanent family.

thailand adoption info

The post Top 5 Facts About Adopting From Thailand appeared first on Holt International.

Dear Contributing Donors,

Hello. We are so thankful for your donation to the Special Needs Adoption Families grant. We feel very honored that we were selected to be a recipient of a $3,000 grant. This grant helped cover costs that we honestly weren’t sure how would be paid.

We are a family of five, now six. We have felt the calling to adopt since we were young children. Mallory tried to convince her parents to adopt when she was in elementary school. Aaron was able to witness his two cousins be adopted internationally from China and Cambodia. … We still felt like we had love in our hearts and space in our home for another child. We prayed about this for a while and felt like it was the time to take the biggest leap of faith we ever had by applying for adoption. We had spoken to one of our pastors who had adopted through foster care, a family friend who had adopted from China when Mallory was a teenager and Mallory’s friend who was adopted from China. We were able to ask questions about each of their experiences and what they thought might be a good fit for us. Everyone was so supportive and encouraging, but at this point we didn’t know what agency or even country to pursue.

Aaron is a high school Spanish teacher and with his ability and knowledge, it made sense to pursue a Spanish-speaking country. Adopting from Colombia just felt right. We have a lot of Latinos in our area of town and felt like that would really help our child to have good social mirrors. We didn’t want our child to feel like he or she stood out in class, but rather blended in and felt at home.

In January of 2023, Mallory was looking at the waiting child list and saw a little boy who she thought might be our son. She requested the file and then later that day told Aaron what she had done. Ha! Once we got the file we sat at the computer and read the whole thing in one setting. It felt like we were being blasted with information from a fire hose. We weren’t able to comprehend everything but we were able to write down some good questions. We started asking all the questions and felt like everything was just falling into place. A week later we submitted our LOI (letter of intent) for our son. We were doing it!

We waited for our dossier to be approved. Then, we waited for our LOI approval. Then, our match. The waiting was brutal! However, once we were matched with our son, we were full steam ahead getting all the papers completed and turned in. It felt like Mallory had a part-time job just working on adoption paperwork.

One of the things that we were nervous about in our son’s file was a liver condition that he was diagnosed with. We weren’t sure what that would look like once we got back home, but I am happy to report that it is really a nonissue! Our son has apraxia of speech and is mostly nonverbal. Since bringing him home, he has learned to use many more sounds and has three words that he says often — Mama, Papa and no. We are hopeful and prayerful that verbal communication will be his main form of communication in the future.

We are working hard to get him all of the help that he needs in order to catch up and also fill in some gaps in development. He has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) at school that includes therapy 4X a week, attends outside therapy 1x a week and is also seeing the chiropractor 2x a week. It is a lot of running around and going to appointments, but we have already seen so much growth in the 6 months we have been home. This growth gives us hope for his future and development. It hasn’t been easy. In fact, it has been quite hard, but we know growth doesn’t happen easily. It happens through trials and consistent care. We have also grown so much in our parenting as well since adopting. We have grown more patient, understanding, empathetic, knowledgeable in areas we never would have thought of, persistent in advocating, and, of course, tired. Ha!

We are forever thankful for your generous gift to the Special Needs Adoption Fund to help us bring our son home and to give him the greatest gift of all, a sense of belonging in a family.

With grateful hearts,

Aaron and Mallory Layendecker

Need help funding your adoption?

Families adopting through Holt receive free, professional guidance and support from a one-on-one finance coach throughout their adoption process. Even if you’re just considering adoption, email us to set up your first consultation today!

email adopt@holtinternational.org

The post With Grateful Hearts appeared first on Holt International.

When I joined Holt in the mid-1990s as part of the China adoption team, one of my first experiences was traveling to China to help process adoptions for children living in orphanages. I will never forget walking into a room full of babies who were laying in their cribs, wide awake and completely silent. The smell in the room was overpowering, like nothing I had smelled before — a sharp, bitter scent of unchanged diapers and unwashed bodies. The silence that hung in the air settled on me like a heavy weight, as I realized these children had stopped crying because when they cried, no one came. They had come to believe that when they had a need, no one would come to meet it. This reality spurred a tremendous sense of urgency for me and those of us working in the adoption field at the time — the realization that if something wasn’t done, and done quickly, many of these babies would not survive their first year of life.

This sense of urgency to help children living in orphanages, whether in China or other countries, has been a driving force behind international adoptions. But I also learned very early at Holt that this sense of urgency has to be tempered with adherence to an unwavering framework of ethics and rules to protect the long-term wellbeing of these same children.

Until the 2000s, there was no U.S. federal oversight body for international adoption agencies. Any adoption agency that met state licensing requirements could help families adopt children internationally.  Aware of the need in China, many agencies here in the U.S. raised their hands to help. But they did so without an overarching framework in place to guide their decision-making and process to ensure the children’s best interests were protected.

Holt’s Role in Developing the Framework

Several years earlier, delegates from Holt had taken part in an international working group to do just that — develop a framework for what would become the Hague Convention, an international treaty to outline the guiding principles and protections needed to ensure international adoptions occurred in a child’s best interest. Central to the priorities outlined in the convention was the concept of subsidiarity — the idea that solutions to problems should always be looked for as close to the source as possible. When it came to children living outside of family care, this meant pursuing family reunification and then domestic adoption before looking to international adoption as a way for children in orphanages to grow up in a family. For children, this was also about recognizing their inherent right to grow up in their birth country, culture and birth family whenever possible.

By the time the Hague Convention was being drafted, Holt had spent decades building a similar model of care for children in the countries where we worked. Part of my new staff orientation at Holt was learning about the organization’s efforts to keep children and birth families together, find adoptive families in a child’s community or country of birth, and lastly, seek international adoption as a path for children to grow up in families. I learned about our family strengthening programs, our services to help single mothers successfully parent their children in countries where they would face shame and discrimination for having a child outside of marriage, and our advocacy for domestic adoption in countries where the concept of welcoming a non-relative child into your family was not yet socially or culturally embraced. With these concepts also becoming enshrined in the Hague Convention, governments worldwide now have an agreed upon set of priorities to work from when considering how best to meet the needs of vulnerable children in institutionalized care.

The concept of subsidiarity may sound simple and straightforward, yet the work required to bring this vision to reality for children around the world who have urgent needs is complex, challenging and ongoing.  There is a constant push and pull between what a child needs in this present moment, and the time and resources required to develop a system that can meet those needs as close to the source as possible. Governments and societies struggling to address the health and safety needs of large groups of their citizens rarely have the capacity to put in place safeguards to protect children falling outside of family care. Often, the only recourse is to place these children in institutions with too few resources to meet either their immediate or long-term needs — like I saw during my first trip to China in the 1990s.  

Advocating for the Highest Standards in Adoption

Today, in many countries, more and more children are able to be reunited with their birth families or join families through domestic adoption — in part due to Holt’s advocacy efforts and programmatic support around the world.  But still, hundreds of thousands of children are growing up in institutions without the one-on-one devoted care of a loving family.

While we work towards a world where adoption is no longer necessary, and all children can get the care they need and deserve in their families and communities, child advocates fight to uphold the highest standards in adoption processes for those children who, without adoption, would otherwise grow up in institutions.  

The U.S. signed the Hague Convention in 1994, the year after it was finalized, but it wasn’t until 2008 that the implementing rules finally went into effect for U.S. adoption agencies.  A key piece of the implementing regulations requires that agencies must be accredited to provide international adoption services and demonstrate ongoing compliance with all standards set forth by the U.S. Department of State, America’s international adoption authority.

Anticipating accreditation as a key component of Hague implementation, Holt began working towards general accreditation in the late 1990s through the Council on Accreditation (COA), right around the time I joined the organization.  While accreditation was not yet required for international adoption agencies, Holt wanted to ensure its processes met best practice standards at the time — both to prepare for Hague accreditation, and to better serve the children we united with adoptive families.

I remember being initially overwhelmed by the number of standards that had to be met, and the processes in need of revision in anticipation of accreditation. But by the end of the process, I was able to see how holding ourselves to a higher standard benefitted everyone in the adoption process, especially the children we served. The sense of urgency I felt when I entered that silent room of babies in China was tempered with the understanding that action needs to be guided by principles that safeguard the rights of the children whose needs we are trying to meet. As a result of the accreditation experience, I went back to school to obtain a Master of Social Work degree and eventually became a volunteer evaluator for COA.

Although not every country placing children internationally for adoption has signed on to the Hague Convention, the Universal Accreditation Act of 2012 requires that all international adoptions to the U.S. be held to the same set of standards outlined in the Hague. This was another step forward in protecting the rights of children placed for adoption. 

The U.S. and the global community have a responsibility to continue to find ways to strengthen the safeguards put in place to protect those children whose last and best hope to grow up in a family is adoption. Strong oversight in intercountry adoption is critical to keeping children and families safe and ensuring that all adoption placements are conducted ethically and in the best interest of children.

Learn more about Holt’s work and history!

At Holt International, we help children thrive in the love and stability of a family. But our services extend far beyond the adoption work we are known for.

learn about holt

The post How the Hague Convention on Adoption Protects Children appeared first on Holt International.

Before pursuing international adoption for a child, we believe it is the ethical responsibility of every organization working in adoption to first seek a stable, loving home for that child in the country and culture of their birth.

We advocate for in-country adoption in every country where we work, and every year, we now help more children come home to families in their birth country than to families in the U.S. through international adoption.

In recent years, we have also celebrated as more and more countries have embraced in-country adoption as a path for children growing up without families of their own. We also celebrate the number of children who, through family strengthening and preservation initiatives, are now able to grow up in the loving care of their birth families in many countries across the globe. In countries where poverty may have once compelled families to relinquish their children for adoption, more and more families are receiving the support and resources they need to become stable and self-reliant — and to independently care for their children.

Through the years, Holt has developed robust family strengthening programs in numerous countries, and every year, we help thousands more children stay in the loving care of their families than we help children join families through adoption. In 2023 alone, our generous donors helped over 34,890 children grow and thrive in their birth families through services ranging from food, medical care and educational support for children to job skills training and small business microloans for parents.

We are proud to work alongside governments, in-country partners, ministries, social services organizations and individuals who share our passion and our vision for a world where every child has a stable, loving home.

But our vision is still just that — a vision of hope for the future.

Children Still Need International Adoption

Despite our collective efforts, we still unfortunately live in a world where not every child can remain in the loving care of their birth family, or even join an adoptive family in their country of birth. Until we live in that world, we at Holt stand committed to doing everything we can to continue international adoption for those children who still need this unique pathway to the attentive, nurturing care, sense of belonging and unconditional love and devotion that only a permanent family can provide.

Few would question the fact that every child needs and deserves a loving, devoted family to nurture their growth and guide them through life — to give them what even the most well-staffed and well-resourced orphanage or even the best, most loving foster family can’t give them. Permanency.

But as more and more children find permanency through family preservation or domestic adoption in their countries of birth, some have concluded that children no longer need international adoption to have a family of their own.

And that is simply not the truth.

The Children Left Behind

Around the world, thousands of children are growing up in orphanages, group homes and foster homes with no foreseeable plan to go home to an adoptive family. And overwhelmingly, these children have one thing in common: they are either older in age, part of a sibling group or have special medical or developmental needs.

These are the children who stay behind as younger, healthier children join families in their countries of birth.

Progress takes time.

In many countries, adoption continues to face a strong stigma, especially non-relative adoption. And unfortunately, even countries that have embraced adoption have yet to embrace adoption of children with special needs. In many countries, a strong and enduring stigma continues to surround special needs like Down syndrome, cerebral palsy or HIV — and both children and adults with these special needs continue to face discrimination in their everyday lives.

Tragically, it is this stigma and lack of understanding that compels some families to relinquish or abandon their children in the first place. In other cases, families living in poverty simply don’t have the resources to provide costly medical care — and they hope, by relinquishing their child, that he or she will receive the lifesaving care they need.

Across the globe, Holt’s on-the-ground staff is doing everything they can to reunite children living in orphanages with their birth families. In fact, before ever pursuing adoption for a child, we always seek to reunite children with their birth families, whenever possible.

In just the last few years in Cambodia — a country with one of the highest rates of children living in orphanages due to poverty — Holt has piloted a program to help reintegrate children back into their families. In some cases, these children have spent years in an orphanage, and the process of locating their family, re-establishing ties, and then developing a long-term plan for stability has been both long and involved.

While the families involved still struggle with poverty, the Holt Cambodia team now has a small number of successful reunification cases. But while we continue to champion efforts to reunite children with their families, and help children join families through in-country adoption, we cannot ignore the thousands of children who remain left behind — growing up in orphanages, without the love and care that every child needs to grow and thrive and reach their full potential in life. Children who cannot wait for the long, slow process of change — for the stigma of special needs to fade, for economic development to reduce the rate of abandonment or for governments to change their laws and practices.

In Korea, the stigma of unwed motherhood remains so firmly entrenched that single mothers are shunned by their families, struggle to find jobs and not only they, but also their child face discrimination in nearly every facet of their lives. It’s no wonder that even in one of the most economically prosperous countries in the world, single mothers and unwed couples continue to relinquish their children for adoption.

Some of these children may be adopted domestically in Korea. But if they have any kind of special need — even just low birth weight or other minor conditions — their odds of joining a family in their birth country are very unlikely.

These are the children who still need international adoption to have a family.

In Korea, and in other countries where the stigma of single motherhood remains strong, Holt has helped develop programs to empower single women to parent their children. Working with local partners, we help equip them with the job skills training, counseling and parenting support they need to cope with the stigma, and to independently care for their children. Since Holt Korea began the single mother program in 2005, the percentage of women in the program who are choosing to parent their children has grown from 10-20 percent to over 70 percent.

We absolutely celebrate this progress.

Over the past decade, we have also celebrated as more and more families in the U.S. have opened their hearts and homes to the children who cannot remain with their birth families or join adoptive families in their country of birth. Every year, the vast majority of children coming home to families through international adoption have some kind of special need — whether a cleft lip, developmental delays from living in institutional care or something more serious like a life-threatening heart condition.

As families learn about the children who remain in care, more and more families are also opening their hearts to older children and sibling groups. Today, over 95% percent of children who join families internationally through Holt are either older than age 5, part of a sibling group or have a least some minor special needs.

Where Holt Stands

It’s clear that many families in the U.S. will adopt the children who now need international adoption to have a family. And yet, fewer and fewer children join families every year.

In recent years, the cost of fees and expenses required to adopt a child have increased, and this is one factor that has contributed to the precipitous decline in the overall number of international adoptions over the past two decades — falling over 80 percent since the early 2000s. But even though fees charged to a family have increased dramatically, they no longer cover the actual cost to complete an adoption. This is one big reason why so few agencies continue to do international adoption.

Together, we must work to remove barriers to adoption and advocate for policy changes at home and abroad. We must work to make adoption more affordable by growing philanthropic support for adoption, encouraging employers to help cover the cost of adoption and championing legislation that helps reimburse families who adopt.

In the coming years, we will continue to work alongside fellow organizations in pursuit of a world where every child can grow up safe and loved in the families, countries and cultures of their birth. We will also stand committed to providing post-adoption services for adoptees and their families, throughout their lives.

But until we live in a world where every child can grow up safe and loved in a permanent, loving family, we will continue to provide and advocate for ethical, child-centered international adoption.

Join us for an upcoming adoption information meeting!

These remote meetings are open to families anywhere in the U.S.

Register here!

The post For Children in Orphanages, International Adoption Must Continue appeared first on Holt International.

Last month, pending China adoptions were left in a state of uncertainty when China closed its adoption program going forward. But waiting families haven’t given up hope. And neither have we. Through Congress, we are asking the President of the United States to personally take up the cause of uniting these vulnerable children in China with their promised families in the U.S. 

Ten members of Congress have joined our effort already, but many more are needed and time is running out! Please ask your friends and family to call and email your representatives TODAY!  

The deadline for Members of Congress to sign the letter to President Biden is noon tomorrow, 10/31. 

Please call or email your representatives today using the following script: 

SUBJECT LINE IF EMAILING: Deadline Tomorrow at NOON EST: Please Sign the Letter to Biden on China Adoptions! 

Dear [Senator/Representative],  

[My child’s/My friend’s child’s/My grandchld’s/My niece’s/My nephew’s] adoption is one of nearly 300 long delayed by the pandemic and then placed in limbo last month by China’s decision to end international adoptions going forward. We need your help. 

Just last Friday, the US State Department confirmed that matched families from Europe are being invited by China to complete their pending adoptions despite the closure of China’s international adoption program. We are advocating for precious children matched with waiting families in the US to be given the same opportunity. 

Will you sign the bipartisan letter co-led by Sens. Grassley and Cardin and by Reps. Houchin and Hoyle asking President Biden to intervene on behalf of these children who so desperately need their promised families? We remain hopeful that — as happened following Russia’s closure of adoptions in 2012-13 — our government will be able to make a pathway for already-matched children to join their promised families. 

This is a humanitarian issue which transcends borders and politics. Please add your name to the Republicans and Democrats asking Biden to call on the PRC to keep its word by uniting children with the loving families they were promised.   

Senators as of 10/29  

Grassley (R-IA) – co-leader 

Cardin (D-MD) – co-leader 

Brown (R-IN) 

Ernst (R-IA) 

Fetterman (D-PA) 

Wyden (D-OR) 

 Representatives as of 10/29 

Houchin (R-IN) – co-leader 

Hoyle (D-OR) – co-leader 

Graves (R-MO) 

Stauber (R-MN) 

 To sign on or if you have any questions, please contact Garrett Arbuckle in Senator Grassley’s office at Garrett_Arbuckle@grassley.senate.gov. 

We are so grateful for your compassion for children in China. Every child deserves to grow up in a loving family, not an orphanage. Thank you for uniting with us in this effort! 

The post URGENT: Advocate for Children in China appeared first on Holt International.

November is National Adoption Awareness Month!

This year, we will explore how adoption social work practice has evolved in the years since the first children joined families through international adoption nearly 70 years ago, and why so many children still need international adoption to continue in order to have a loving, permanent family.

Follow along as Holt’s team of adoption experts delve into the history of international adoption through a series of articles, Q&As, infographics and short videos.

Amy Trotter, Holt’s post-adoption services director and an adoptee from Vietnam, will share how the inclusion of adoptee voices and adoptee-led research has informed and strengthened adoption practices over the years. Amy will also share about the importance of post-adoption services and how at Holt, we stand committed to supporting adoptees and families throughout their lives.

Susie Doig, Holt’s senior executive of U.S. programming and an adoptive mom of two children from Thailand, will explore how the passage of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption enshrined protections and safeguards to ensure that adoptions are done ethically and in the best interest of the child.

Thoa Bui, Holt’s senior vice president of programs and services, is a Fulbright scholar who worked for several years at Holt’s field office in her native Vietnam before joining Holt International in the U.S. In November, Thoa will share about the changes that have taken place in countries that continue to unite children with families through international adoption — from centralized oversight of adoption practices to better preparation of children who are in the process of joining a family through adoption.

Jodi Miyama, Holt’s senior executive of international adoption, will explore how the process has evolved to include greater preparation and education for prospective adoptive parents — particularly in response to insights shared by adoptees about their lives growing up in multicultural, and often transracial, adoptive families. Jodi will also explore how family preparation efforts have expanded and adapted to the changing needs of children — with more older children, sibling groups and children with special needs joining families through international adoption.

Throughout the month, we will also share about the children who are still waiting for families through international adoption! Around the world, thousands of children are still growing up in orphanages — many of them older or with disabilities or special needs. For these children, international adoption is truly their last, best chance of having a loving, permanent family. Join us in advocating for these children this National Adoption Awareness Month by sharing about them with your family, friends and community, and spreading the message that every child deserves to grow up in a loving, permanent family.

Visit the Waiting Child Photolisting

Meet some of the children waiting for loving adoptive families. Could you be the right family for one of these children?

visit waiting child photolisting

The post National Adoption Awareness Month 2024: Then and Now appeared first on Holt International.

Colombia adoption may be the program for you if you…

Want to experience caring for an older child before adopting

Many families are introduced to the idea of adopting from Colombia through the country’s hosting program. The hosting program is a unique way to advocate for older children and sibling groups (between the ages of 10-15+) who are waiting for an adoptive family in Colombia. The children travel to the U.S., accompanied by trained chaperones, to become immersed in an American family for 5 weeks in the summer (or 3 weeks in the winter). This unique visit provides host children a glimpse of what being adopted by a family in the U.S. could be like for them.

The Colombia hosting program is facilitated through Holt and the organization Kidsave in conjunction with the Colombian adoption authorities. During their stay, children often have the opportunity to interact with many prospective families — not just their host family — and while not every family adopts the child they host, many do.

While in the U.S., the children also often experience many firsts — first plane ride, first trip outside of Colombia, first time seeing snow or swimming in the ocean — and remember their visit for the rest of their lives. Their host parents gain the incredible opportunity to help a child find their permanent, loving adoptive family – and sometimes they become that family!

To learn more about the hosting program, email Kelsey Parsons, Colombia hosting coordinator, at colombiahosting@hotlinternational.org.

Have access to Latinx cultural and language resources

The Colombian adoption authorities are deeply committed to the lifelong wellbeing of the children in their care. They celebrate American adoptive families who demonstrate connections to Colombia and/or Latinx culture, and have Spanish-language resources. Second to English, Spanish is the second most common language in the U.S. with over 41 million Americans speaking Spanish in the home (source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2019). Having access to bilingual educational as well as medical and therapeutic services across the U.S. is beneficial because language familiarity eases the child’s transition into their new family and culture and strengthens adoption outcomes. Being able to communicate in your adopted child’s first language will also promote bonding and support the overall adoption transition. Many prospective adoptive parents begin the adoption process without any Spanish-speaking ability and can achieve basic, conversational Spanish after a few months of tutoring!

Have experience parenting, caring for or working with children who have experienced loss

While we work with many different family types to help them adopt children of varying ages and needs from Colombia, most of the children awaiting adoption in Colombia are older. Many did not grow up in an institution and remember entering the protection system because their family was no longer able to adequately care for them. Losing connection to birth family is hard on a child no matter how it happens. Trusting that a new family will support, love and protect them takes time and support. Whether your family consists of a single parent, a same-sex couple, or a mom and a dad, having parenting or lived experience in supporting a child through adversity can provide valuable insight and preparation for older child adoption from Colombia.

Adopt From Colombia

Many children in Colombia are waiting for a loving, permanent family.

colombia adoption info

The post Three Things to Know About Adopting From Colombia appeared first on Holt International.

Catherine and Bernard Leach, a warm-hearted couple residing in Los Angeles, had been certified foster parents for many years before they met Kimberlyn through Kidsave. Already happy parents to their beloved daughter, Maia, they were eager to welcome an adopted sibling into their home. Kidsave’s Winter Miracles program helped them turn that dream into a reality.

Through the Winter Miracles program, Catherine and Bernard had the opportunity to host Kimberlyn, who was 11 years old and living in Colombia at the time, for three weeks during the winter. That hosting period was instrumental in forging a lasting bond between them. There were some cultural differences, but the family found common ground between Kimberlyn’s Colombian culture and Bernard’s South American roots, which helped Kimberlyn feel at home with the family. Catherine and Bernard’s love and patience also helped to nurture a strong connection.

The family spent quality time with Kimberlyn and shared many beautiful moments together. Ice skating was a highlight for Kimberlyn. Catherine says, “It was something that she was very excited about once she learned Maia was an ice skater. She said she had been ice skating before. She said it’s a memory she does have with her birth mom, so it was very special for her to participate in that with us.”

Activities like these brought everyone closer to each other, especially Kimberlyn and Maia. Christmas was also a memorable experience as they shared each other’s cultures and traditions, bringing them closer as a family.

Maia and Kimberlyn did many activities together, just like sisters would. Catherine explains, “They enjoy many of the same types of things like music, dancing, video games, skating, crafts, and shopping.” This deep connection between the two made them inseparable, turning them from friends into sisters.

After the hosting period ended, Catherine and Bernard decided to start the adoption process and bring Kimberlyn into their family. The adoption process was a challenging time for everyone, but their love and commitment to each other never wavered.

Adopt From Colombia

Many children in Colombia are waiting for a loving, permanent family.

colombia adoption info

“The time apart to me was challenging because one of the things they told us was that she wouldn’t really be notified that we were adopting her until we got to a certain point, and that certain point wasn’t until this October, 2 years later, and we traveled out there in November. So, there was a lot of uncertainty,” said Catherine.

Catherine and Bernard were overjoyed, prompting Catherine, Bernard, and Maia to journey to Colombia to reunite with their new daughter and finalize the adoption in Colombia, and bring her home. During their time there, they explored the country and immersed themselves in its rich culture before embarking on their return to the United States.

Kimberlyn’s adoption was finalized in the U.S. in May 2024. She is officially a part of their family. The big transition and adjustment from leaving Colombia and permanently living in the U.S. can take time, but with love and patience, they made it work.

Kimberlyn was enthusiastically looking forward to learning English and embracing her new life alongside Catherine, Bernard, and Maia. Among the shared cultural threads linking them, all three had heritage beyond the United States: Catherine hailed from a Nigerian and Jamaican background, while Bernard’s roots traced back to South America. This commonality fostered a sense of connection for Kimberlyn, who felt a kinship with her native Colombia, especially given the similarities in traditional cuisine. These familiar tastes further enhanced her sense of ease and belonging in her new home with Catherine, Bernard, and Maia.

Adapting to a new environment and country can present challenges, but the Leach’s preparation and research into Kimberlyn’s culture helped them create a home where love knows no boundaries. Catherine concludes “I would definitely say it’s good to be open to things you’d probably never thought you would do before.”

Today, Kimberlyn is blossoming. Surrounded by the unwavering love and support of her forever family, she is reminded every day of the blessings that have transformed her life. With a sister who doubles as a cherished friend and parents whose steadfast presence is a beacon of strength, her journey is illuminated by the warmth of familial bonds that nurture her spirit and inspire her growth.

About Kidsave’s Summer Miracles Hosting Program

Kidsave’s Summer Miracles program gives older chidlren who are overseas a chance at a family. The Summer Miracles program provides older kids with no possibility of birth family reunification – and little likelihood of adoption in their home country because of their age – the opportunity to stay in the U.S. for five weeks in the summer (three weeks in the winter). While here, the kids stay with host families, learn about American culture, create lifelong memories, and connect with potential forever families. Book a call with Kidsave to learn more.

Hugo Mariona | Kidsave

Host a Child from Colombia

Host an older child from Colombia for 5 weeks, and advocate for them to find a permanent, loving family.

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The post Love Knows No Borders: A Colombia Hosting & Adoption Story appeared first on Holt International.

Our Special Needs Project team is currently in the Philippines, meeting children to help them find adoptive families. In between long days of travel and assessing dozens of children, our social workers sent the following report to share about the children who have especially touched their hearts.

By the end of our trip, we will have spent 12 days in the Philippines, traveling by car, ferry, van and plane to meet 42 children — in hopes of finding them loving, adoptive families once we return to the U.S.

Each of these 42 children has sat down with myself, Luisa or Brooke (all of us Holt social workers from our Special Needs Project [SNP] adoption team) while we conduct interviews and assessments, and gather photos and videos to try and get a true sense of their personality, strengths and needs.

We all have children who have especially touched our hearts — children we have cried after talking with because of how special they are, how much they desire an adoptive family to love and support them…

Some of the Children We’ve Met

I think of Bernila*, a 14-year-old girl who is very talented in music and art. She was initially shy, but started to open up after talking for a few minutes. She was very inquisitive and wanted to know all of our favorite things. She admitted that she is teased by the other children because of her acne and it makes her sad when that happens. She wants a family who enjoys traveling because she wants to travel the world.

Another child who Luisa fell in love with has been waiting for a family for such a long time. She has a significant medical condition that has made it more difficult to find a family for her in the past. But part of this is because families that have seen her on the special home finding list don’t have access to a full description of her condition or an updated picture of her. After spending time assessing and playing with this child, it’s clear that she is a true gift, has many talents, and does not allow her medical condition to get in the way of her love for life or faith in being adopted by the right family.

There was a sibling group of two boys where the younger boy has a medical condition and the older boy clearly loves and is protective of his little brother. The older brother describes trying to protect his brother from being teased by others and watched out for him while we visited them. You could see their loving bond just from how they looked at each other.

Another older girl we met was so friendly and engaged — such a sweet and giggly teenager who loves to talk with her friends and has a crush on a boy in her class. She has traumatic and sad memories of her life with her biological family, and desires a family where she can receive love and undivided attention.

The Children Waiting for Families

Each of the children we’ve met is such a joy! Because most of them speak English, we were able to talk with them with only minimal assistance from an interpreter. Some children are extremely outgoing and ready to engage with us, and others are very shy and reserved. They’re all very familiar with adoption and most have seen friends get adopted. Adoption is an everyday conversation these children have with their caregivers.

The children range in age from 4 to 15, with the majority being in the 10-12 age range. We have seen sibling groups and single children, children who wish to be an only child, some who want older siblings and others who want (and would thrive with) younger siblings. We met with two children who have very significant medical conditions, but who are so happy and wish to be with a family. Other sibling groups we’ve met all love each other and want to be placed together. There’s even a sibling group of six! The older children in the sibling groups know that it will take a unique family to move forward with their adoption, but they still have hope…

And that is exactly why our trip, and this adoption program, is so important: hope. As we return to the U.S. with in-depth information and photos of each child, it gives them greater hope of joining a family.

Adopting a Child From the Philippines SNP

Families who would be a good fit for adopting a child from this program should be understanding of developmentally appropriate pre-teen and teenage behaviors, be supportive of a child’s faith and how they choose to worship, and have a true commitment to lifelong parenthood. They need to be flexible, understanding, accepting, loving, good advocates, and have large toolbox of resources — as well as a great sense of humor! Ideal families will meet a child where they are at, can sustain delayed gratification when it comes to attachment, are invested in the Filipino culture, and will utilize TBRI in their parenting.

If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about any of the children we’ve met on our trip, we ask that you come to a Lunch and Learn to hear more about them. And please don’t hesitate to reach out to Luisa or Brooke if you see a child on the SNP photolisting that you feel a connection to — they’d love to tell you more about them!

*Name changed

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Are you considering adopting a child? Attend a free Zoom adoption information meeting to learn about country requirements, parent eligibility, the profile of children waiting for families — and ask any other questions you have about international adoption!

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The post Children Who’ve Touched Our Hearts appeared first on Holt International.

Holt’s Special Needs Projects (SNP’s) are the only ones of their kind in the U.S., setting them apart from other programs. Through these programs, Holt social workers from the U.S. travel to meet children in person! Holt currently has SNPs in the Philippines and Thailand, and hopes to utilize this advocacy strategy in more countries in the future. By visiting children waiting for adoptive families and meeting them face to face, Holt social workers can learn about their personalities and interests, and review any medical, developmental, cognitive or emotional needs they may have. This helps our clinical social workers best determine the kind of family they will thrive in — maybe yours!

If you’re a prospective adoptive parent concerned about the unknowns in adoption, one of Holt’s Special Needs Projects may be the right choice for you because of the detailed information our highly trained social workers are able to provide about children in these programs.

February 2024 Trip to the Philippines

During this February 2024 trip, the Holt social workers will visit and gather information about these children and their daily lives. They’ll also speak with a variety of people who work with the children, including teachers, caregivers, nurses and social workers. Having a comprehensive portrait of the child’s life, personality and environment, Holt staff here in the U.S. will better position our social workers to advocate and talk with prospective adoptive parents about the individual needs of these children.

And when prospective families reach out to Holt, we will now have a wealth of information and photos to share! Often, we can even direct families to a staff member who traveled to the Philippines and interacted personally with the child. They can then give their impressions and perspective on the child’s needs! In the world of international adoption, this kind of interactive approach is transformative for children and families alike.

While the team is there, they will also have real conversations with the children. They get to talk to them about adoption and their wishes for the future.

The Benefit of Conversations about Adoption with Children

Celeste Snodgrass, Holt’s senior director of clinical services, was part of the team that visited the Philippines in 2023 on Holt’s first SNP trip. She participated in many of these conversations — including how the children felt about the possibility of adoption.

“We discussed the topic of adoption often. The majority of children have seen friends be placed with adoptive families,” Celeste says. “When asked what they would wish for if they had three wishes, most children said their first wish would be for an adoptive family. Many children said they pray every night for an adoptive family.”

“It is so nice to meet with these children!” Celeste continues. “Their personalities really come alive when we talk with them about things they enjoy and games they like to play. Meeting them and getting to sit down and engage in both play and discussion with them means we are able to highlight who they are as a person. This helps us advocate to find them an adoptive family!”

The children in the program tend to be older, between 9 and 15 years old. For these youth, a dialogue about adoption is especially important.

“I hope that these children will feel that they have a voice in communicating with prospective families,” says Luisa Barnes, Holt social worker and director of adoption for Korea and the Philippines. “Since most of these children are older, their input is so important for a successful adoption. Their wishes, dreams and the vulnerability that they shared with us are so impactful. There is no doubt that families will see how incredible they are!” 

Last year some children said they want to be adopted into a two-parent family, others said they wanted a single mom. Many children wanted adoptive siblings while others were looking for pets. Whatever their wish, our SNP team listened and assured them the agency would do everything to advocate for them when they returned to the U.S.

Want to learn more about the children who need families through this special project? Our agreement with the Philippines government requires us to only share the children’s profiles with families who have an active application with Holt. If you fall into this category and you would like to view the children who are waiting, please email our waiting child team at waitingchild@holtinternational.org.

Email our Waiting Child Team!

Get in touch with our team of expert advocates for the waiting children we feature.

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The post Holt’s Unique Adoption Program in the Philippines Is Growing appeared first on Holt International.