“All Things Are Possible”

Senior Writer Robin Munro discusses her experience at a Holt-supported foster care program in Northern China.

by Robin Munro

Jilin City, China—Today, we drove to a small farming village just outside of Jilin City, a forested, mountainous region of Northern China where Holt sponsors foster care for 39 children. Here, amid lush green acres of corn stalks, rice fields and gable-roofed homes, we meet several of the children in our sponsorship program. Ducking out of the rain, we step into an unoccupied house – recently built by the village – where the families have gathered, anticipating our arrival. I am with Sue Liu, the Beijing office manager and assistant to Jian Chen, Holt’s China director; Jessica Palmer, Holt’s Waiting Child program manager; and a couple officials from the Jilin City Social Welfare Institute, with whom Holt has partnered since introducing a foster care project to this region in 2006.

I find a windowsill in which to sit and observe the scene – foster mothers sitting in a circle on the floor, cooing over babies swaddled in blankets as Sue and Jessica assess the children’s development and the foster care manager distributes formula and food. One boy – an older boy of about 9 or 10 – comes over to talk to me. “Hello,” he says in English, smiling. “Hello,” I say back, followed by a couple more simple phrases. He shakes his head, not understanding. “Ok,” I say. And he repeats. “Ok.” He wants to learn, wants to engage me with any means of communication he can find. I give him a thumbs-up. And he lifts his hand to mimic me.

But even this – this universal symbol for a job well done – he can’t use to communicate.  His hands and feet are deformed, bent at near 90-degree angles. He walks on the side of his feet, turned inward, his legs bowed out at the knees, his arms flapping to maintain his balance. But the smile of this boy, Geng Jia (name has been changed), never leaves his face. He is boisterous and charming and eager to show us what he can do.

As Sue and Jessica stand by, Geng Jia sits on the floor and puts on his shoes – his feet not flat inside, but angled sideways. He stands to walk, leaning against the wall to stabilize himself, all the while talking away in words I can’t understand. “He’s very smart,” says Sue. “Very normal mental development.”

His foster mother tells us that he’s very independent at home – washes his clothes and face by himself. I think of what Jian told me a few days ago about Holt-sponsored foster care – how Holt teaches parents not to help children with special needs too much. In this case, help can be a disservice. They must learn to do simple tasks by themselves – to feed and clothe and bathe themselves without too much assistance – so that, ideally, they can one day live with some independence and freedom.

Despite an extraordinary will, Geng Jia will always need care. He can’t use the toilet without help, a need that keeps him from attending school. The schools serving this region don’t have the resources for children with special needs, Sue explains. And he can’t walk too far on bumpy, dangerous dirt roads.

“You remember what you said the other day?” Sue asks Jessica. “How anything’s possible?”

“Anything is possible,” Jessica says about Geng Jia’s chances for adoption. Once Jessica returns to Eugene, she will work to find homes for the children we’ve met in China, including this boy.

Every child deserves a chance to be adopted, and Holt strives to ensure that chance – by posting photos and stories of children on the Journey of Hope photolisting, featuring them in the e-newsletter and Holt International magazine. In the last 2 years, Holt matched over 600 children from China.

“Sometimes I’m surprised a family comes forward for a particular child and sometimes I’m surprised a family doesn’t come forward,” Jessica later explains. “It’s really hard to tell which children will be adopted. Sometimes it’s really quick. Sometimes it takes one year, two years.”

With every child interaction, Sue and Jessica demonstrate incredible dedication and optimism about finding them homes.

As we drive away, I see Geng Jia riding sidesaddle on bicycle handlebars, the grin having never left his face, friends or family members pushing the bike. Anything is possible, I think. Anything is possible.