Seeing the Child, Not the Label

Update: As of December 2011, Nadia has been matched with a family! Naomi is still waiting to find a family of her own. Click here to read her story and share it via Facebook.

Holt’s waiting child program is currently seeking adoptive families for two young girls in Southeast Asia who have tested positive for HIV – Naomi and Nadia.  Jessica Palmer, Holt’s waiting child program manager, met Naomi and Nadia while visiting their orphanage in March of this year. While there, she also had a chance to speak with the doctor who manages their cases.

Jessica learned that Naomi is mildly symptomatic, and gets occasional skin infections. She takes HIV medication that has the potential side effects of anemia and slow physical development. Nadia is not symptomatic. When Nadia initially tested positive for HIV, she immediately started taking medication, but later lab work indicated such a high immunity count that her doctor discontinued her medication. She continues to receive follow-up checks every 6 months.

Here, Jessica writes about her visit with these two girls.

Last March, I traveled to the girls’ orphanage with two of Holt’s in-country program staff. When we arrived, we met two playful, healthy girls who, like many of the children I met on this trip, seemed frightened of this strange woman who didn’t look like them. Naomi stared at us for a few minutes without changing expression. Then finally, silent tears started to fall from her dark eyes. These strange people, speaking a foreign language, confused Naomi. But after a while, she grew more comfortable, especially once the snacks were brought out. Naomi, who is 6, proceeded to share her drink with her younger friend Nadia, very carefully holding her drink up to her mouth. Nadia, age 3, didn’t seem to take quite as much notice of the visiting strangers. Naomi continued to keep an eye on us.

Eventually, we were able to get close enough to the girls to help them build block towers, though Naomi became distressed

again when her caregiver had to leave the room for a bit. Listening to the caregiver’s description of the girls, however, you never would have thought she was referring to the same children. “Extroverted” was the one word that I couldn’t quite connect to the girls I had just met.  They sounded like delightful children, but they definitely had a healthy amount of stranger anxiety.

During our visit, I noticed Nadia and Naomi looking over the shoulder of a boy as he flipped through a photo book. This book contained pictures of his soon-to-be adoptive parents. I imagine that was probably the hundredth time he turned those pages, and I could see the longing in the girls’ eyes as they looked at the photos. Right then, I could see that Nadia and Naomi, with the right amount of preparation, patience, and love, have great potential to adjust well to a new situation – in a forever family. I knew that all these girls needed now was a family who also saw their potential, and who saw past the label of “HIV positive.”

Wondering what it takes to raise a child with HIV?  

With treatment, kids born with HIV today are expected to live a normal lifespan.  “She can do everything. She can get married.  She can have children.  She can be in the Olympics.  She can do anything anyone else can do,” Holt adoptive mom Terri Roback says of her daughter, Sachi.  In 2007, Terri and Brad Roback became HIV adoption pioneers when they brought home Sachi, the first child adopted from India with HIV. Click here to read their story.

For more information about Nadia and Naomi, contact Jessica Palmer at jessicap@holtinternational.org.

Naomi was recently featured in Holt’s waiting child blogs. Click here to read her story and view a recent video.

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