Give a Gift of Hope to a Child this Christmas

When you give a Gift of Hope to a loved one this holiday season, you will be helping to provide children and families with critically needed items that will help them to survive….

Baby clothes and a supply of milk and diapers can make the difference in keeping a family together. Single parents often struggle to raise their newborns, and in some cases, supporting a new mother and her child for a few months can give a family the opportunity to get on their feet.

Ming was a single mother struggling financially and emotionally after the loss of her business. With her life turned upside down, the thought of raising her child was overwhelming. When her son, Petch, was born she was planning on making him available for adoption.

But since Holt’s partner organization, Holt Sahathai Foundation (HSF) has provided her with clothes and baby supplies, Ming has been able to provide appropriate care for her 6-week old son and is planning to raise him herself.

“The support from Holt and HSF has given me hope,” says Ming. “Where before I did not have any.”

Change a Child’s Life…Give a Gift of Hope today!

National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation” program recently broadcast a segment on international adoption, and Holt’s Susan Seun-keum Cox spoke as one of the two featured guests.
This thought-provoking program entitled “Why Did You Opt for an International Adoption,” originally broadcast on April 7.  Hosted by NPR’s Neal Conan, the program explored reasons families choose international adoption and issues surrounding the process of adopting as well as parenting internationally adopted children.  The 30-minute program also included several call-in comments from parents and a sibling of an internationally adopted brother.
Susan is Holt’s vice president of public policy and external affairs, and she was adopted from Korea.  The program also featured Isolde Motley, co-author of You Can Adopt, and mother of one biological child and two adopted children.

Mansour Masse recently spoke to the Holt Headquarters staff about ‘keeping the faith’ for the children.

By: Mansour Masse, Holt Haiti Director

What strikes me the most about working at the Holt Haiti program, as I talk with people and we share our stories, is the dedication and passion they have for doing this work. That’s personally what keeps me going.

When you have people who are so dedicated, so motivated to help kids, like we have in Haiti, it is just overwhelming. Sometimes we get discouraged, but we always find a good reason to start over. The kids go home to be with their permanent families, and that’s what keeps us going.

When I was hired at Holt, I told them this is not only a job for me.”Wow, this is a God-given opportunity for me to make a difference,” I thought, and I don’t think that I could ask for anything better than that. It’s not about money; it’s not about a job, because we all struggle daily in Haiti.

Adoption processing for kids has been extremely difficult recently. It takes a long time, but this is something that I do with my heart and I am very passionate about what I do. Whenever the kids enter the village, Read the rest of this entry »

A pastor’s offer of prayer encouraged a couple to proceed with their first of several adoptions through Holt International

by Todd Wisotzkey

Dianne and I got married in July 1993 and five years later began our family with the birth of a beautiful baby girl named Kayla.

Our journey to extend our family through adoption began when Kayla was about 2.  The idea of adopting a child had come up in our discussions before, even prior to our marriage.  The process seemed intimidating, and we were anxious about unknowns and all the factors that were out of our control.  We initially decided against pursuing adoption.  But the Holy Spirit worked on both of us, and we both independently came to the conclusion that we wanted to adopt.  This would be our way to serve God by sharing our blessings, which included our marriage and family life, access to good medical care, loving extended families, a safe family-oriented neighborhood and caring Christian friends.

We began researching adoption agencies and procedures, which took many hours on the Internet and phone conversations with agencies.  We ended up choosing a Christian agency—Holt International.

Shortly thereafter, I became overwhelmed with fear and worry about whether we were making the right decision to proceed with adoption.  We were just getting into the mountain of paperwork, and had not yet been matched with any child.  Dianne and I had prayed a lot about our decision and received many indications that this was God’s will for us, but the details and the unknowns of how we were going to handle it were causing me to question our plan.  I finally said out loud in a tense discussion with Dianne, “I think we should back out.”  In that very instant the phone rang.  I answered, and was greeted by the pastor of the church we were attending at the time, asking what he could pray for on behalf of our family.  Every week, he prayed for five families, and it took him more than a year to get through the congregation’s rolls—this week, he happened to have reached us.  I stood speechless, in awe of God’s timing of this phone call.  My doubts about the process vanished immediately. Read the rest of this entry »