by Alice Evans—Holt Managing Editor

Not quite 3 years old, the little boy with the dark hair and dark eyes loved to dance — and he knew how to relate. “He got me dancing with him,” said Abbie Smith, director of the Holt International Waiting Child program.

Smith and Angie Wharfield, social services director for Holt International’s Bulgaria program, were in Bulgaria a week ago, where they interacted with dozens of children in five childcare institutions – four baby homes for children birth to 3, and one orphanage for children 3 to 5.

At one of the baby homes, they met a group of especially glowing children. “The children were obviously well cared for, and happy, and they had spent time learning folk dancing,” said Smith. “This little boy liked to dance with a partner.”

Wharfield and Smith also met with Bulgaria’s Deputy Minister of Justice. The attorney and CEO of Holt’s Bulgarian partner agency, Vesta, is currently working with the Ministry of Justice to draft a new family code that will amend the law favorably for adoption practices, including children with special needs.

“Overall, I have been motivated by the tireless care and work being done for children living in institutional care in Bulgaria,” said Wharfield. “Even when adoptions slowed and most U.S. agencies had to withdraw from adoptions in Bulgaria, Vesta and these institutions found creative and innovative ways to continue the good, quality care to children. The care I observed over the last week reflected the sacrifice and commitment these individuals have to the children in their care. And the proof is in the smiles and laughter observed in these children.” Read the rest of this entry »

by Alice Evans—Holt Managing Editor

Several Holt International adoptive families had the opportunity to show off their children and discuss concerns about current long wait times for receiving referrals when high-ranking officials from China’s Department of Social Welfare and Social Affairs of the Ministry of Civil Affairs visited a family’s home last weekend in Portland, Oregon.

After touring the Holt International headquarters in Eugene, the Chinese delegation traveled to Portland and met with two Holt adoptive families. The delegation and the families talked about the lives of adoptive children and the future of adoption from China. Mary Masterson, a Holt adoptee from Korea who has also adopted two children from China through Holt, hosted the gathering at her home. Read the rest of this entry »

Keri Horn-Bolivar, the first child adopted from Vietnam through Holt International, recently won the Florida Beginning Teacher of the Year Award, given by the Florida Council of Teachers of English. Keri teaches English to 8th graders.

She earned her M.A. in English at the University of South Florida earlier this year, and an M.A. in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix in 2004.

Keri lives in Tampa, Florida, with her husband, Rick Bolivar. She came home to Ann Horn-Gross and Kermit Horn in 1972 and grew up in Eugene, Oregon.

For more about recent Holt graduates, see the Fall edition of Holt International magazine.

One of the first families to adopt through Holt International’s Ethiopia program reports on their experience

By Jody Lawson

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 International 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 Read the rest of this entry »

by Toni Acevedo, Holt International adoptive mom

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. Read the rest of this entry »