Hunter in July 2011, age 8.

One year to the day we adopted our daughter, Lily – from China through Holt – we got the call about a 4-year-old boy named “Hung” in Vietnam. Holt thought he would be a good match for our family. We had applied to the special needs program only a few months earlier, knowing we wanted to adopt an older child and also that we did not want to wait the 13 months it took to bring our daughter home from China between 2005 and 2006. We had gone to committee once before, but Holt’s social workers decided another family was a better fit for that child. After that, we felt greatly discouraged and weren’t sure we would ever be matched.

We were shocked to receive the call only a month later about Hung.

With a 10-year-old and 2-and-a-half-year-old at home, 4 seemed on the lowest end of the age spectrum we would consider.  And we knew nothing about the Vietnam program.  After praying about it and talking it over as a family for a few days, we requested the file.

One look at Hung’s beautiful brown eyes and we were in love.

In September of 2008, fifteen months after we accepted Hung’s referral, the U.S. and Vietnam decided not to renew their Memo of Understanding regarding adoptions and subsequently suspended all international adoption from Vietnam. We managed to endure the next seven months with the help of weekly telephone calls with Holt staff, hundreds of supportive e-mails, and several visits with our online Holt Vietnam friends and Dong Nai waiting parents group. After our case was finally resolved, we traveled to Bien Hoa, Vietnam, where on April 13, 2009, we met and adopted our son Hung, who we named John “Hunter.”

Hunter came to us with a huge smile and an open heart.

Hunter in his first referral photo, as "Hung."

“Hung” in Vietnamese means “hero” or “brave.”  That describes our son exactly.  We were told he had “special needs” due to his age and an “expressive speech delay.”  We were stunned in Vietnam because he never stopped talking to anyone and everyone in fluent Vietnamese. Apparently, he just wouldn’t speak to his social worker during quarterly visits!

At age 6, after bouncing from an orphanage to two different foster homes, we were his final “placement.” Hunter joined our family and never looked back.  He bonded with all of us immediately, especially his older brother, Marshall, and younger sister, Lily.  He started understanding English immediately and after a few months, we stopped counting the number of new words he acquired each week.

When he started kindergarten, we worried that other students might tease him because of the language barrier, but his teacher told us that he was so confident and helpful that no one would tease him. Initially, Hunter had extreme tantrums of frustration when we could not understand what he was trying to communicate. As we all adjusted to our “new normal,” those heart-wrenching fits of wailing and flailing in frustration disappeared.  Hunter still struggles mightily with reading and writing, but his ESOL teacher tells us he has exceeded all expectations.  He is right on target for science and math and excels at art!  He is in a regular classroom and keeping up with his classmates.  Hunter is all boy – active, active, active and a total ham bone!  He revels in making others laugh.

Hunter with brother Marshall, dad Jim and sister Lily on his adoption day in Vietnam.

A dream that every Vietnamese boy and girl had a home.

This year, the PTA of Hunter’s elementary school held an essay contest for students in grades 2-6.  The kids were asked to submit an essay completing the statement, “If I had $100, the charity I would give it to is…”

Hunter chose Holt and wrote:

I pick Holt International Children’s Agency.  They helped my family adopt me from Vietnam and my sister from China.  They help kids around the world.  They need animals to help poor children with no food.  They need clothes and medicine for kids.  They help kids find forever families.  They build houses and schools.  I would ask them to send the $100 to my orphanage in Vietnam to buy toys, books and crayons for the kids who still wait for families of their own.  Please pick Holt.  They rock!

A winner was chosen from each class and given a $100 check from the PTA for their charity.  Out of hundreds of essays submitted, Hunter won for the second grade!

The winners were asked to read their essays at a “Gift of Giving” assembly at school right before Thanksgiving.  Hunter practiced reading his essay for days and was the last speaker of the night.  There was not a dry eye in the house!

So often we are approached and asked, “Does he know how lucky he is?” Often, Vietnamese people will tell us how “blessed” Hunter is.  Our response is always the same – He is our gift.  He is our special gift from God.  In the two and a half years he has been with us, we have learned many lessons in patience, faith, forgiveness and courage from this little boy with the big smile and the open heart.  We know that his love and compassion will be a gift to the world for the rest of his life.

Hunter's family on Mother's Day 2011. From Left: Jim, Hunter, Lily, Mary Li and Marshall Duda.

Visit Holt’s sponsorship page to learn how you can change a child’s life in Vietnam or another country! 

Click here to read more about Holt’s work in Vietnam.

Know of a child or family who helped raise funds for Holt? Share your story with Holt’s senior writer, Robin Munro, at robinmunro@holtinternational.org.

Many of the children who enter Holt’s care have living parents or relatives whose lack of resources, not lack of love, compelled them to seek outside care for their child. Rather, relinquishing a child is an act of love. What parent wouldn’t rather separate from their child than watch their child grow sick and malnourished?

At Holt, we believe poverty – or disease or discrimination – should not prevent children from growing up with otherwise loving birth parents. That is why, everywhere we work, we strive to keep at-risk families safe, stable and together.

To that end, we provide basic nutrition and medical care for physical health, and counseling for psychological wellbeing. We assist with education, sending children to school and training parents in income-generating trades. And through microloans for small businesses, we help families achieve both self-reliance – and lasting stability.

One small business is particularly adaptable to many of the regions we serve: raising livestock. After Holt provides the resources and know-how, families can quickly take the reins.

Here are three short family stories from Vietnam, a country where – with international adoption suspended – family preservation efforts have become a major focus, and livestock a major source of support. All three of these children are supported by Holt’s sponsorship program as well:

 A few little chicks can make a big impact…

When Cara’s* mother died in November of 2009, she and her three siblings went to live with her grandmother and aunt. For income, the family harvested rice and raised a few chickens. This barely provided enough to meet their basic needs, however, let alone pay the fees for the children to attend school. Cara and her siblings were at risk of dropping out of school when the local district referred the family to Holt-Vietnam.

To ensure that Cara and her siblings could stay in school – and with their family – Holt provided funding to support the family’s chicken-raising efforts. Holt social workers regularly visit Cara’s family to check on their health and wellbeing, and to advise her grandmother and aunt on how to manage their small business.

Today, Cara and her family are doing well. Now 4, Cara attends kindergarten and is developmentally on track. “She walks, runs and jumps without any problem,” a Holt social worker wrote in a recent sponsorship report. “She is learning colors and counting from 1 to 100.”

A couple pigs can support a family…

Suong* lives with her mom and her sister.  Her parents are divorced, and her father provides no support. As a single mother, Suong’s mom struggled to provide the basics for her two daughters. The girls rarely had enough food, and paying school expenses posed a significant challenge.

To help Suong’s mom care for her daughters, Holt-Vietnam provided start-up funding for the family to raise pigs. When the pigs grew big enough, Cara’s mother was able to sell them at market – generating income to cover the girls’ school fees, and provide nutritious food for her family. She reinvested the money left over by buying more pigs – creating a stable, self-renewing source of income for her family.

Suong is now 3. “She loves dressing up and playing dolls and with new toys,” writes her social worker. “The little girl is really adorable and active.”

Even send a child to school…

After Hai’s* father died in May of 2010, his mother became the sole income-earner for the family. Her work as a farmer provided some support, but not enough to adequately care for her children. After a local women’s union referred the family to Holt-Vietnam, Holt supplied the family with pigs to help generate income. With this resource, Hai’s mom is able to pay the school fees for her children.

Although Hai was sick when Holt began supporting his family, he has recovered and is now in good health. “He loves to go to kindergarten every day where he can play with toys with his friends and learn new things,” writes his social worker. He loves riding tricycles and playing on the slide, knows some children’s songs, and is learning to read poetry and tell stories, his social worker also writes. He is a healthy, happy, 4-year-old boy. Overall, his family is faring much better with the regular income from raising pigs.

* names changed

This holiday season, you can help a struggling family achieve both self-reliance and lasting stability. Click here to give livestock or other gifts of hope to children and families in need.

To learn more about Holt’s sponsorship program, click here.

For more information about Holt’s work in Vietnam, view our Vietnam country brief.

In the spring issue of Holt magazine, Minalee Saks, executive director of Birth to Three, described a workshop she led last February – in India. Birth to Three is a non-profit organization in Eugene, Oregon that provides parenting education and support for families of young children. Organized by Holt, the workshop drew 19 social workers from six countries for a four-day training in Birth to Three’s “Make Parenting a Pleasure” curriculum.

At the end of the workshop, the participants returned home to put Minalee’s practices to work – making the act of parenting both more enjoyable, and more effective, for families from Ethiopia and Uganda to the Philippines and Vietnam.

In Vietnam, the two social workers that participated are making quick progress.

With the lessons still fresh in her mind, Holt social worker Nguyen Thu Ngan led a one-day training session for fellow social workers and staff in Vietnam. In turn, the Holt-Vietnam staff will soon begin training families we serve throughout the country – beginning with 50 struggling families we support in the north, near Hanoi. The children of these families are all in preschool, and all at risk of neglect or separation from their parents. Through basic support services, we are helping these families give their children a safe, stable home. And now, thanks to Minalee Saks and Birth to Three, we can help them become better parents for their children as well.

Read about Minalee’s time in India….

Sponsor a child in Holt’s care today!

When it comes time to share your spirit of giving, what better way to do so than by helping a vulnerable child. Together, we can make the world a better place for children–one child at a time.