Born 8/10/2000 in S.E. Asia

Kiera in March 2011, at 10 years old.

Kiera* is the kind of daughter that every parent dreams of.

Born in S.E. Asia to a very sick mother in August of 2000, Kiera immediately entered the care of a Holt partner organization. At 5 weeks old, she was placed in a foster family, in whose care she has grown into a bright, lovely girl. Kiera is now 11 years old.

Over the past decade, Holt’s partners in S.E. Asia have watched Kiera grow up — visiting her at home every 2 or 3 months, and each time documenting her interests, development and personality.

In March of 2001, when Kiera was 7 months old, the visiting social worker wrote, “She is a cheerful, alert little one.” Two years later, she is described as a “bright, talkative and expressive little girl.” She likes to eat noodles, but not garlic. Her favorite color is pink. And she likes to play in water. As she matures, her social workers – and foster family and teachers – grow increasingly enamored of Kiera. She is thoughtful and kind, gentle with children and helpful at home and school.

In December of 2007, her social worker writes, “She teaches all concerned adults the meaning of love, courage and hope.” A year later, she has this to say about her: “Kiera is a delightful little girl that any parent dreams of.”

Over the previous eight years, Kiera watched her foster siblings leave to join adoptive families. It’s hard to believe that such a dream daughter as Kiera would be passed up by prospective families.

Kiera in 2005, at 5 years old.

But next to many of the glowing comments about Kiera’s personality is a caveat. “She can be a dream daughter of any family,” her social worker writes in March 2007, “except for her HIV.”

Kiera has HIV, transmitted from her mother in the womb.

Although a bit small for her age, Kiera has grown healthy and strong, encountering few if any complications from her illness. She did not even know she was HIV+ until a year ago. When she found out, she worried that people might discriminate against her, but was accepting of her illness. Her foster mom was quick to reassure her that they’ve always known that she had HIV, and have always loved her the same.

Kiera is a well-loved girl who, in turn, treats others with love and kindness.

She deserves a family who will also see what a remarkable girl she is – regardless of her condition. Kiera’s favorite subject in school is science. She loves playing with a toy medical set and she hopes to become a doctor when she grows up. Two years ago, she was chosen as her school’s representative for a math contest, ironically titled “Man of the Math 2009.”

Kiera in March 2007, at 6 and a half.

When Kiera was born 11 years ago, it’s not unreasonable that Holt’s partner in S.E. Asia had trouble finding a family to adopt her. But in the past decade alone, treatment has progressed to the point that children born with HIV are expected to live a normal lifespan. In September 2008, as Kiera’s social workers sat down to write, “We cannot find an adoptive family for a girl with HIV like her,” another little girl, also HIV-positive, was settling into her adoptive family in Illinois. In 2007, Terri and Brad Roback brought home Sachi, the first child with HIV adopted from India.

Like Kiera, Sachi is showing “all concerned adults the meaning of love, courage and hope.” Sachi is a bright, busy, healthy toddler who can grow up to do anything, and everything.

More and more, families are adopting children with HIV. Just this past January, Holt matched another HIV+ child – Nadia*, also from S.E. Asia. What these families are learning is that HIV is no longer a death sentence. It is a chronic, manageable disease.

For Kiera and Sachi and Nadia, the future is a hopeful one. Kiera can grow up to be a doctor. She can even grow up to have her own, healthy children. And as Kiera’s foster parents are getting older and less able to care for her, we also hope that soon, she will find a loving, understanding, permanent family to help her achieve all of her dreams in life – with love, courage and hope.

Kiera will need an adoptive family who not only has access to medical resources, but also is experienced with adoption, has a good understanding of older child adoption, and has the ability to support her through her grief when leaving her foster family.

*names changed

For more information about Kiera, contact Erin Mower at erinm@holtinternational.org.

Wondering what it takes to parent a child with HIV? Click here to read the Robacks’ story.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Lauren on an adventure in Cambodia.

My time in Cambodia is coming to a close and I feel rather sentimental. During my other travels, I have always felt that my time in each country was long enough, and I felt ready to move on. As a college student, I am used to thinking about the future and what lies ahead: what classes will I sign up for, when are my projects due, where will I work next summer, where will I live next year, what kind of career do I want, should I go to graduate school right away, etc.

This is the first time I am not ready to part with a country. Interestingly enough, this has been my longest time abroad as well.

I want to plan my next adventure through Cambodia! Not plan my class schedule. I want to keep working for this amazing little NGO that no one’s ever heard of. Not be bogged down with homework assignments.

I can think of a couple reasons why I don’t want to move on. First, the organization I work for is whole-heartedly committed to their projects and to the people we serve.  The mission statement isn’t just some words written beneath a logo. My coworkers truly want to see Cambodia’s rural poor have a better quality of life. My boss is especially committed; he works hard at the office, at home, on the weekends and wakes up early to get extra work done. In a country where 2-hour lunches are common, his work ethic is uncommonly strong. My co-workers work very hard as well – striving to make our program as successful as possible. Each month, my boss finds new ways to improve our work, including planning several trainings and seminars for our office and provincial staff in 2012. I can’t believe I won’t be here to see all the changes to come in the new year!

Pathways to Development is a fairly small operation and it amazes me to see how much work they can accomplish for the 275 children – and their families – that they serve.

Lauren (far left) with her coworkers at Pathways to Development.

My office mates are some of the most caring people I have ever met, and this is definitely shown through their work. They take their work personally.

When a boy in our program developed a very serious case of anemia, the staff took him to the capitol for treatment. The boy needed a blood transfusion immediately, but the blood bank was low on supply. This is when my boss volunteered to give his own blood to the boy. Thankfully, his blood type is O-negative – a universal donor.  The boy is now back in his home province, receiving regular check ups. Thanks to my boss, he is now a healthy boy.

This kind of generosity is not uncommon here at Pathways to Development. Through Pathways, Holt supports two siblings whose parents are HIV-positive. They are a very poor family living in a run-down hut that could not protect them properly from Cambodia’s rainy season. Although our work usually deals with nutrition, health and education, it was clear that this family needed extra aid. Pathways provided this family with a new roof and some other home improvements that were desperately needed.  Since the mother and father both get treatment for their HIV from a hospital 20 km away, they were also provided a bicycle to make their trip easier and faster. The people in our program are cared for personally by our staff and this has made my time here unforgettable.
I am surprised about how much I have learned during my short stay in Cambodia with Pathways to Development. I expected to learn the basics about NGOs and the daily functions of this organization. To my delight, I learned a whole lot more! I will miss this laid back style of life, I will miss the people I have met and worked with, and I will miss this strange culture that I have grown to love.

During her stay in Cambodia, Lauren visited children at a local orphanage. "It was apparent that the main thing the children wanted was attention: they wanted to be held, embraced and loved," she writes.

Within her first few days in Cambodia, Lauren traveled along for a meeting between a young woman and the child she sponsors through Holt. Click here to read her story.

To read more about Holt’s work in Cambodia, click here.

A Q&A with Mariia Zimmerman, mom of Zach and Henry

Henry (left) and Zach (right) with the poster they made to help raise funds for Thailand flood relief.

How old are your boys and what grade are they in?
Zachary is 5 and started Kindergarten this fall. Henry is 9 and in the 4th grade.

How long did Zach live with his foster mother in Thailand?
Zachary lived with his foster mom for 16 months. We adopted him when he was 18 months old.

What does he remember about his foster mom (and foster family)?
Zachary doesn’t remember very much, but we talk about his culture and history with him. He’s very curious to know about it all and asks lots of questions. We have pictures of Zachary with his foster mom that Holt sent to us while we were waiting the nine long months between referral and being able to go over to Thailand and bring him home. These are part of Zach’s adoption book, which he likes to read and discuss all the photos.

One of the stories we like to tell is that his foster mother lived very close to a Buddhist temple, which had an area for children to play soccer in the courtyard. Zachary spent a lot of time there when he was a baby, watching the children. His foster mom told us he always had a laugh when they played soccer and he learned to kick a ball shortly after he could walk. When we met Zachary, he already had really good soccer skills and to this day he loves to play. It was one of the things that we did a lot of when he first joined our family, since his older brother also enjoyed playing and it didn’t require either knowing how to speak the other’s language.

What is International Night?
Our school in Arlington, VA has a tremendous amount of diversity among the students who attend. A couple years ago, the PTA came up with the idea to celebrate this diversity and began hosting an “international night.” Students and their families are encouraged to celebrate their cultural heritage. The teachers also were deeply involved. Together we had games, information booths and geography quizzes. Families brought desserts to share from favorite traditional family recipes, and a local international restaurant graciously provided the food.  Kids dressed up in clothing from their culture, and students participated in a talent show, which included Irish Dancing, Japanese drumming, and many other neat musical skills.

Did the boys come up with the idea to hold a fundraiser for Holt? What inspired them?
Everyone was encouraged to participate and given that none of us had the skill to pull off Thai dancing, we discussed other options. My brother, who lives in Thailand, had been telling us about the flooding there; he had 9 feet of water in his house and was evacuated. We also got the email from Holt asking to help the foster families who had been dislocated. Zach was wanting to do something about Thailand and Henry came up with the idea to make a sign and collect money.  We made a poster that highlighted what was happening in Thailand with the flooding.

How did they inspire others to donate to Holt — what was their message?  
The poster board had pictures of the flooding, and told very briefly about Zach’s connection to his birth country and the need to help foster families there. It included a picture of Zach and his foster mom. Given that November was National Adoption Month, it seemed a good way to highlight both important issues. Our family brought in some Thai items – including Thai silk, the Thai flag and Thai candies – and made a display. We even played some traditional Thai music on our iPod. One of the most interesting things was how very few people knew that there was even flooding happening in Thailand. A lot of people wanted to discuss Thailand, adoption, the flooding, and the effects of global climate change.  It was pretty amazing.

How do Zach and Henry envision Holt using the money they raised?  What do they hope to help us accomplish?
The boys asked people to contribute $10 or $5 or whatever they could afford to help. With the flooding still happening at that point, we were asking to raise money for supplies to help the foster families and children.

Zach hopes the money is going to help his foster mom buy a new house. In discussing the flooding, he was really worried about her, and his birth mom. He is pretty sure his foster mom will now be able to get a house like ours, just a little smaller.  His brother likes to point out that is not really what is going to happen. Henry envisions Holt using it to help bring water and food to families. Their cousin Benya, who lives in Thailand, made a video showing what her school is doing to help and both boys hope that the money they raised is being used like this to help.

To read about Holt’s efforts to help foster families affected by the recent flooding in Thailand, click here.

Join Zach and Henry and donate to Holt’s Thailand Rehabilitation Fund!

In the coming weeks and periodically throughout the year, we will feature stories about children who raise funds for Holt, and parents, grandparents and others who raise funds on behalf of the children in their lives. 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.

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.

DOB: April 27, 1998

Sichuan Province, China

In April, Ian will turn 14 and become ineligible for international adoption from China. Eligible and interested families should immediately contact their agency. Holt families should contact Jessica Palmer at jessicap@holtinternational.org. See eligibility requirements below.*

Ian (name changed) entered institutional care when he was 4 years old, in May of 2002. A healthy boy with a “sunny” disposition, Ian was also rather quiet upon admission and tended to stand back and observe his surroundings. At the institute, caregivers quickly enrolled him in a program to help him adjust to his new environment. Here, he got along well with his classmates, and quickly became more talkative and active in the group. The following year, he began primary school near his home at the child welfare institute. He became a diligent student who listened well, eagerly answered questions in class, and regularly completed his homework after school. His teachers all liked him a great deal.

After five years in the institute, Ian went to live with a foster family in July of 2007. Then 9, Ian developed a loving bond with this family, in whose care he continued to grow strong and healthy. He developed a taste for spicy food, honed his basketball skills, and became interested in computer games and remote control toys, as well as drawing and playing the guitar. Described as bright and extroverted, Ian has many friends. His foster mom describes him as “sensible and good.”

Now 13, Ian is in junior high school. He is a serious student with grades that always put him at the head of the class.

Although close to his foster family, Ian understands that his situation is not permanent. Initially, he felt fearful of going to a new place – of feeling lonely, and missing his foster family and friends – but he has grown to understand what it means to join an adoptive family, and now embraces the idea of international adoption.

*Ian has less than four months before he turns 14, at which time he will become ineligible for adoption. Due to the short timeframe to adopt, families must already have a dossier in China or have adopted from China within the past year and have a current USCIS 1800A approval. An ideal family for Ian will have parented past his age and also have previous adoption experience.

Born April 23, 2007, China

I have a passion for waiting children, but I didn’t start out feeling that way. Just a few years ago, I would often look at the children on Holt’s waiting child photolisting and think, ‘Aw, I hope they find their family, but that family isn’t mine.’ We always said we would adopt children one day. When that day came sooner than we thought, we knew we wanted to adopt a child as young and healthy as possible.

When we started the process to adopt in June of 2008, we were led to the Korea program. I was a tad hesitant – well, maybe “terrified” better describes my emotions. Because we didn’t live in one of Holt’s branch states, we would have to be in the “waiting child/special needs” part of the program – a requirement of Korea’s central authority, which oversees all international adoption from Korea. To me, at that time, a “special needs” child meant a child in a wheelchair, who might not be cognitively or physically able to do “normal” activities.

That was a lot to swallow, especially for first-time parents dreaming of a “perfect” child.

But the Lord, in his faithfulness, put a family in our path to calm our fears. This family told us their story of adopting two children with special needs. Our agency is GREAT, but sometimes a momma just needs to hear from another momma. When the mother of this family told me about her son’s special need, my fears were calmed.  We really just needed to hear someone say, “It’s okay to adopt a child with special needs. ‘Special needs’ just means special needs, not broken or defective or never able. Just SPECIAL.”

I knew we could handle “special needs.”

I marvel at the way God opened our hearts and our minds and then led us to our Bates on Holt’s waiting child photolisting!

Mary Leigh and Nick Brown with their two adopted sons, Bates and Brodie.

Now, three years and two special needs adoptions later, I know of no other way to grow our family than by adopting a waiting child.

My husband has jokingly (I think) banished me from the photolistings! I could spend hours pouring over those children’s

pictures, reading their bios, and praying for them. Some of these children simply need a voice, someone to be their champion…

Meet Nolan*. Nolan means “champion.” From what I’ve read and seen of Nolan, this kid is a born champion. All he needs is a mom and a dad who will always cheer him on.

Nolan is described as a “cute, resilient preschooler who is smart and a well-behaved child.”  “Cute” doesn’t do this kiddo justice.  He’s got dimples that will just make your heart melt! Nolan has some physical delays due to his limb differences, which include a missing right hand and forearm, missing/webbed fingers on his left hand, and left clubfoot.  I’ve seen Nolan in action on video and he doesn’t let anything slow him down. Just by watching that short video, I can tell that whoever is holding that camera wants to show the viewer how well Nolan is doing. He asks him to walk around, ride a scooter, and put a vest on and off.

I imagine that caregiver praying as they recorded that video, praying for a champion for Nolan.

Nolan likes basketball. Nolan needs a family to believe in him. He needs a loving parent to coach his peewee basketball team while others cheers for him on the sidelines. He needs a family to go out to ice cream with after the game.

Nolan’s smile lights up his entire face. I can just imagine his face lighting up the first time his family takes him to a basketball game!

Nolan will more than likely need corrective surgery on his foot. I think of my son Bates, who was born at 2 lbs with a hole in his heart. He needed surgery at one week old, and again after he came home to us. I picture my son in those very cute hospital scrubs when he had surgery. I feel the warm tears on my cheek as they took him back, and I remember not breathing until they told us we could see him. It was all I could do not to run past that nurse in recovery and scoop up my son. I pray that when that day of surgery comes, Nolan will have a mother and father by his side. Parents who are his champions.

One thing I was afraid of missing by adopting an “older child” was missing the firsts – first steps, first words, first everything. You know what, with Nolan, you will get to experience so many firsts. His first basketball game. His first steps on his corrected foot. His first campout.  And you get to experience them all while looking at those bright brown eyes, those round cheeks, and indescribable dimples!!!

I know it’s a scary step, waiting children. Trust me, I was there once. But there are hundreds of thousands of children – children like Nolan – waiting for families. Just waiting for someone to be their champion.

For more information about Nolan, please contact Erin Mower at erinm@holtinternational.org.

Bates and Brodie Brown.

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.

by Robin Munro, Senior Writer

Mrs. Choi with Noah on the eighth anniversary of the day he entered her care.

Mrs. Choi hasn’t seen Isaac in more than a decade. Back then, Isaac wore diapers, and went by the Korean name Dong-joon. Since then, Isaac has sprouted into a lanky 13-year-old boy who plays the trumpet and loves Star Wars memorabilia. He now lives in California with his parents and sisters.

Isaac may have been too young to remember Mrs. Choi, but Mrs. Choi sure remembers Isaac. As a Holt foster mother in Korea, Mrs. Choi, Yeong-sun cared for Isaac during the first five months of his life, before he joined his adoptive family in the U.S. and became Isaac Hughes.

Every year, Holt honors two foster mothers for their devoted service to children awaiting adoption in Korea. Holt Korea flies them from Korea to Holt’s headquarters in Eugene, Oregon, where we treat them like royalty for a few days. Every year, we also invite families of children they’ve cared for to a reception in Eugene. Isaac’s family couldn’t travel to Oregon for the event, but they wanted to do something special for Mrs. Choi. So they put together a picture collage of Isaac over the years, including a photo of Mrs. Choi holding Isaac as a baby. “I was hoping that would spark her memory of him,” says Isaac’s mom, Barbara.

They also recorded a video, in which Isaac takes Mrs. Choi on a virtual tour of his room. He shows her his Lego creations, his trophies, his Star Wars collection. She smiles, amused, as she watches the video during the Holt reception. As he begins to play the Korean National Anthem on his trumpet, Mrs. Choi sighs with joy. Although she can’t understand what he says, she understands this melody.

“Thank you for taking care of me when I was a baby,” he says at the end of the video, smiling broadly. It’s clear. Isaac has a good life and a loving family, and Mrs. Choi is so pleased to see that.

“This opportunity to see the kids I’ve cared for grow up so beautifully and strong brings me such joy. I’m so grateful to the parents who’ve love them so well,” says Mrs. Choi, in Korean, after both foster mothers are presented with awards for their service. Sitting beside Mrs. Choi is her fellow honoree, Mrs. Lee, Wol-seop, both of them wearing traditional hanboks.

Holt staff and visiting families applaud Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Choi.

Although Isaac’s family couldn’t make it, two families did travel to Eugene for the event – the Ellisons, from Springfield, OR, whose daughter Lindsay Mrs. Lee cared for as a baby; and the Gibsons, from Olympia, WA, whose son Noah was in Mrs. Choi’s care.

Today is a particularly serendipitous day for Mrs. Choi and Noah’s reunion. “We think that today is eight years to the day that he came into Mrs. Choi’s care,” says Noah’s mom, Christy, as Noah plays with a remote control truck – a gift from Mrs. Choi. Noah entered foster care the day after he was born. Yesterday was Noah’s eighth birthday.

Bill and Christy Gibson met Mrs. Choi once before, when they traveled to Korea to pick up their son a little less than eight years ago. “It was so heart-wrenching,” Christy says of the moment Mrs. Choi said goodbye to the little boy she had nurtured for the first five months of his life.

“To raise a child like that, knowing you’d have to give that child up, is something I don’t think I could do,” says Paul Kim, Holt’s director of programs for Korea. “Holt Korea loses the most foster moms after the first child. It’s too hard.”

Mrs. Choi confided to Paul that after saying goodbye to her first several foster children, she was ready to quit. But she couldn’t resist the opportunity to care for just one more.

One more turned into another one and then another. Since 1995, Mrs. Choi has cared for 67 children. Mrs. Lee, 312.

“The caring for these children is truly something that I love,” Mrs. Lee says after the award ceremony. “I’m thankful to all of you for honoring me in this way.” Lindsay Ellison, now 14, was one of the first children Mrs. Lee cared for as a foster mother. Her whole family remembers and ask about her, in particular Mrs. Lee’s two sons, who grew very fond of Lindsay during the months she spent in their home.

Lindsay Ellison, 14, with her former foster mom, Mrs. Lee.

Through translation, Mrs. Lee shares the things she remembers about Lindsay. She remembers that she smiled a lot, and that she sunburned easily in the summer. At home, she has photos of Lindsay with her sons and family. “I always hoped to meet her,” she says.

Mrs. Lee’s mention of her sons’ fondness for Lindsay underscores a point made earlier by Paul. The whole foster family raises the children, he says. It’s often just as hard for the foster family to say goodbye as it is for the foster mother.

The love and care these families provide is truly in a category unto itself.

Over 40 years ago, Holt played a major role in developing the Korean model of foster care – a model of attentive, nurturing care later adopted by many other countries. In the U.S., the term “foster care” has such a negative connotation that the Korean system deserves a different name, says Paul. In Korea, fostering a child is considered an honor. Some families have been caring for children for 35 years. Some also pass the torch to their children who, seeing how wonderful it is, choose to become foster parents themselves – becoming, in a sense, “second-generation” foster families.

For the children, the value of foster care is both immediate and long-term. Foster families provide a nurturing attention that children rarely find in orphanage settings. When placed into the warm, soft arms of a Mrs. Choi or Mrs. Lee, they immediately feel safe and comforted. When they cry, someone responds – and with a consistency they can rely on. In an orphanage full of crying infants, caregivers are often too overwhelmed to attend to every child’s needs. Study after study has proven, however, that such devoted care is essential to a child’s development. In that way, foster care serves a lasting purpose in the lives of children. It helps them achieve developmental milestones, and to form healthy attachments – easing the bonding process with their adoptive parents as well.

“There is no point in their lives that they haven’t been truly loved – from their birth mother to their foster family to their adoptive family,” says Paul.

Although Noah was too young to remember Mrs. Choi, his parents made a point of imparting the significance of her role in his life. “When I said, ‘your foster mom is going to be here, do you know who that is?’ he said, ‘yes, that’s the woman who took care of me,’ ” says Christy.

Seeing Noah, Lindsay and Isaac happy, healthy and strong is enough for Mrs. Choi and Mrs. Lee. They don’t need recognition to continue fostering children. But they deserve it.

And even though letting go of children never gets easier, the joy is worth the heartache.

“Caring for the children just brings such happiness and joy to me,” says Mrs. Choi. “That must be why I keep doing it.”