By Ashli Keyser, managing editor

*Genet slowly makes her way out of the playroom at Holt’s Durame Intake Center, briefly holding onto the doorframe to get her balance. A dozen of her friends have already made it a few times around the merry-go-round. Undeterred, 3-year-old Genet, her legs [...]]]> Finding families for Waiting Children in Ethiopia

By Ashli Keyser, managing editor

*Genet slowly makes her way out of the playroom at Holt’s Durame Intake Center, briefly holding onto the doorframe to get her balance. A dozen of her friends have already made it a few times around the merry-go-round. Undeterred, 3-year-old Genet, her legs stiff and her eyes struggling to adjust to the bright sun, finally steps outside and slowly but surely finds her way to the empty, bright blue seat waiting at the merry-go-round.

She slides unevenly onto the chair and loosely holds onto the handles, her excited smile more brilliant than her pink Winnie-the-Pooh dress. Genet makes it around only twice before losing her grip and falling, almost gracefully, to the ground. Before she has time to react, two caretakers are at her side, exclaiming, “Govez! Govez!” (“very good” or “excellent” in Amharic), as they gently pick Genet up off the soft ground and wrap her in their arms.

“Govez!” –  the world the loving caretakers use to encourage Genet and reassure her that she is unharmed and in safe hands. Genet just smiles at her protective caretakers and resumes playtime with her friends. She knows she’s in a safe place.

“This is one special girl,” says Sister Abebech Abura, the head nurse at the Durame Center. “Genet’s smile brightens everyone’s day. She has some developmental delays and vision problems but has made so much progress since she arrived at the center.”

Transferred in March from Holt’s care center in Wolaita, Genet came into care, malnourished, after her father had passed away from tuberculosis. Her mother, unable to care for her due to her special needs, often kept Genet from other people, making it even more difficult for Genet to grow and develop.

“It’s very hard for parents to care for children with special needs in Ethiopia,” says Holt Ethiopia Director Dr. Fikru Geleso. “They just don’t know what to do, and many times the children won’t make it to their teenage years.”

Since coming to Holt’s care, Genet has learned to walk, use her utensils while she eats and is even learning a few words. The caretakers work consistently with her on speech and coordination, and give her the attention that she did not receive in her first two years of life.

The Durame Intake Center currently cares for 30 children waiting to find permanent homes. There are separate rooms for each age group, and the children are given age appropriate care and education. Sister Abebech regularly consults with the doctors at the Durame Hospital about the children’s health, and a doctor visits the care center once a month for check-ups. “Genet and the rest of these children have so much potential,” says Sister Abebech. “They are beautiful gifts from God.”

The Holt care centers in Durame and Addis Ababa are shining examples of Holt’s dedication to orphaned, abandoned and vulnerable children. Genet’s story is one of many stories of scared and abandoned children who enter Holt’s care and thrive in their new environment.

“Because of the love and attention given by these wonderful caretakers, Genet has the hope of one day having a permanent, loving family of her own,” said Kim Brown, Holt’s president and CEO, as he visited with Genet and the rest of the children at the Durame Intake Center.  “She never had this kind of hope before.”

Genet is waiting in Ethiopia for a permanent, loving family. If you are interested in learning more about this beautiful, spirited little girl please contact the Waiting Child program for more information.

*Name has been changed

Considering International Adoption?

Get the information you need from the convenience and privacy of your home… log on to a Holt adoption webinar. Several times each month Holt International hosts a live online webinar where one of our adoption workers walks you through the process, answering your questions with helpful audio visuals. [...]]]> Join a Webinar Today

Considering International Adoption?

Get the information you need from the convenience and privacy of your home… log on to a Holt adoption webinar. Several times each month Holt International hosts a live online webinar where one of our adoption workers walks you through the process, answering your questions with helpful audio visuals. You get the most current information about:

• adopting a child through Holt–costs, time frames, countries, requirements, etc.

• the benefits and considerations of international adoption

• an opportunity to ask your specific questions

Adopting From China Webinar: In this live, interactive online seminar, we will share about the three ways to adopt from China: the Standard Process (generally, to adopt a healthy infant female); the China Child of Promise option; an expedited option to adopt an infant or toddler, boy or girl, with a treatable or manageable, identified physical condition; and the Journey of Hope for older children or children with more involved special needs. We will focus on the Child of Promise option and explain how families indicate the physical conditions to which they are open and how we work closely with you to make a match that is within your range of openness. We explain time frames to complete each process, the steps involved, travel and costs. You will also hear from a family who completed the Child of Promise option and be able to ask questions throughout. All webinars begin on Pacific Time……click here to Join a China Webinar

Read touching stories about families who have adopted a child through Holt’s China Child of Promise option

By Ellen Singh

Praise God from whom all blessings flow! And what a blessing Deelip is to us!

My husband, Dave, and I already had two biological daughters, Katelyn and Anna, and one son, Michael, who we adopted [...]]]> A mother’s hearing loss, five years prior, leads to the adoption of a hearing impaired son from India

By Ellen Singh

Praise God from whom all blessings flow! And what a blessing Deelip is to us!

My husband, Dave, and I already had two biological daughters, Katelyn and Anna, and one son, Michael, who we adopted from India. Our life was full with our young brood. Yet, for the past several years, we’d continued to casually look at Holt’s “Waiting Child” page. About two years ago, we read a brief description about Deelip, a 3-year-old boy from India, and knew God wanted us to pursue this child.

All we knew about Deelip was his age and his disability of being profoundly deaf. We were specifically interested in a child with hearing issues due to a major event that changed our lives five years prior. In 2004, I contracted bacterial meningitis. By God’s matchless mercy my life was spared. I woke up from a drug-induced coma with complete hearing loss in my left ear. As a result, we have learned so much about hearing issues and have a great sensitivity to others in similar situations. At age 36, I had to instantly learn how to live with single-sided hearing loss, which has been a great challenge.

Through this devastating event, I got to know various hearing professionals and volunteer in hearing loss research. I learned that St. Louis, near where we live, is a Mecca of hearing loss treatment and research in this country. Plus, there were several schools for the deaf nearby!

After discussing Deelip’s medical records with my ENT specialist and touring a local school for the deaf, we were absolutely confirmed that God was leading us to pursue Deelip.

As we waited for him, we prayed. God’s leading on this faith journey is evident in countless ways. Most especially, it seemed as if my seemingly devastating illness and resulting hearing loss experience came around full circle to blossom into an unexpected blessing!

When we decided to pursue adopting Deelip, we were two months out from having lost Dave’s mother, and her two sisters in a car accident. We were in deep grief. God said, “Trust me and I will provide.” We weren’t sure if we could afford another adoption, the potential major cost of bilateral cochlear implants and specialized schooling. God said, “Trust me and I will provide.” And true to His nature, He has provided for our every need, big and small, and in ways we didn’t even know we needed!

God gives and takes away. He has given us Deelip, and he is our forever son. Dave and I traveled to India this past November to bring him home. The very first moment that he saw me, his eyes got big and sparkly, and he literally leaped out of his chair. He knew who I was and knew that we were taking him home!

Deelip is now five and full of life! He is smart, energetic, charming, clever, funny, and fearless. He is all boy and doesn’t let his hearing/language/speech delay slow him down much! Deelip had bilateral cochlear implant surgery in January and began school at the Central Institute for the Deaf that next week. The irony is that, when in surgery for the implants, Dr. Hullar found evidence of past meningitis, which further confirmed that Deelip was to be part of our family. Deelip embraces his new family, new “ears”, new school and new life with such zeal and passion. He is a flower just beginning to fully blossom.

God called us. We obey. And we are now fully blessed!

Foster families provide a loving home environment that even the most caring orphanage workers cannot provide. Their selfless love nurtures homeless children while Holt completes the adoption processing for permanent families. Holt’s dedicated temporary families are often the only hope for infants suffering from malnutrition, children recovering [...]]]> The value of foster care in China

Foster families provide a loving home environment that even the most caring orphanage workers cannot provide. Their selfless love nurtures homeless children while Holt completes the adoption processing for permanent families. Holt’s dedicated temporary families are often the only hope for infants suffering from malnutrition, children recovering from surgery, and others who need extra care.

The Chinese government is asking Holt to step up our foster care programs in China immediately.  Every effort must be made to get orphaned children out of institutional care. We need your help!

Before coming home to the United States, Lilah Ruud lived with one of Holt’s loving and attentive foster families. Lilah’s older sister, Danica, had this to say about her visit to China to meet her little sister:

“We visited an orphanage where babies were lined up in beds, in rows. These babies didn’t have the one-on-one attention of a loving family. I also saw babies – like my sister – who had been cared for by foster families. Love does great things for people. Foster care for orphans can change a child’s life!”

The Following is Joan Ruud’s account of meeting Lilah for the first time, and her thoughts on the importance of foster care:

In September 2004, my husband and I decided we wanted to grow our family through adoption. Because we had an 8-year-old daughter, we chose the country based on how quickly we could bring our second child home. As fate would have it, we chose China! As the wheels of foreign adoption churned, we ended up waiting for Lilah for 4 years.

We received our first picture and official match on November 2007, and that Christmas Eve, we received an e-mail informing us that Lilah was not in an orphanage – as we had anticipated – but with a foster parent. Holt had no additional information and we inferred that our daughter had recently been placed in foster care.

During our wait for Lilah, I had read a bit about orphanages.  I just assumed that our child would be placed in an orphanage, and we would bring her home almost directly from that institution. I was prepared for potential developmental delays and perhaps some attachment issues. The news of Lilah’s foster care placement didn’t mean so much to me, because I assumed it had been a recent development in her young life.

We arrived in China on January 8th, 2008 and held Lilah in our arms for the first time on January 13th. We had traveled in a group of 13 families to Jiangxi Province. About half of the children had been in orphanages and the other half had the good fortune to be placed in foster care. We also learned at this time that Lilah had been placed in foster care, thanks to donations to Holt, within a few weeks of birth.

As Lilah was placed in my arms, her inevitable tears began. Poor child had to deal with strange smells, strange sights and sounds, and strange people who were all so ecstatic to finally meet her. After an hour or so, she settled in and we began our bonding. She wasn’t so interested in big sister, she didn’t care for dad at all, but she wanted me. Lilah clearly assessed her situation and gravitated to the most familiar person; I attribute this to her relationship with her foster mother. She had experienced a home and recognized a family and, in particular, a mother. Her eye contact with me was constant.

We visited an orphanage on our third day in Nanchang. The infants were well cared for, but the ratio of care was 1 to 12 when the infant room was full. The babies did not have the connection that primary caretakers provide. Because of the necessity to care for so many, the babies weren’t mobile or sitting up or crawling.

A foster family provides a one-on-one relationship that allows children to achieve developmental milestones.

We have a picture of Lilah and her foster mom. You can see the love in both their eyes. Lilah is almost four years old now, and she talks about “the little lady in China who took care of me until you could bring me home.” Lilah adjusted so quickly to family life, and I believe she did so because of her placement in foster care and her understanding of family life.

Our experience with Chinese foster care inspired our older daughter, Danica, 14, to spearhead a campaign for Chinese foster care in 2009; she raised over two thousand dollars for foster care in China.

It is my hope to one day return to China and visit Lilah’s foster mother. Lilah has a birth mother, who she will never meet; she has me, her mom; and she has a foster mother who lovingly cared for her for 16 months until we could bring her home. We all have had a part in making Lilah the loving girl that she is today.

While a child waits for a permanent family, nothing can replace the care and affection of an attentive, loving foster family. Help raise funds for foster care in China!

“The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”–Matthew 7:25

By Ashli Keyser, managing editor

In the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses a parable to speak [...]]]> Holt’s Family Preservation program in Ethiopia

“The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”–Matthew 7:25

By Ashli Keyser, managing editor

In the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses a parable to speak about faith and trusting in Him. He discusses two builders, a man who built his house on an unsteady foundation of sand, and the other who built his house on a rock – a firm foundation of faith and trust.

While the two houses in Jesus’ sermon serve as metaphors for obeying the word of God, I couldn’t help but ponder this parable as I observed two very different houses set atop a small piece of land in southern Ethiopia. Standing in front of one structure was *Ejamo, his wife, *Almaz, and their five children, waiting for our team, including Holt President and CEO Kim Brown, to arrive.

I had seen this family in a photograph, just over a year ago, and was taken aback by how different each of them looked today. The parents no longer had gloomy expressions of hunger on their faces. The children no longer wore tattered rags of clothes. They each stood, happily, in front of their new house, a strongly built hut, made of durable wood and thickly packed mud. Flowerpots lined the windowsills – a mother’s special touch to a home that she could be proud of.

To the right of the family stood another house – a weak and dilapidated hut made of eucalyptus leaves, straw, and misshapen pieces of wood and branches – a house that looked to be more of a nest than a home suitable for two parents and five children. Today that nest-like shack serves only as a devastating reminder of what this family’s life once looked like and what it will hopefully never be again.

What an amazing moment for Ejamo, I thought. Showing off his family’s new and improved house to Kim Brown and the rest of our team. “Look what I’ve accomplished, look what you’ve helped me to accomplish.” The smile on Ejamo’s face matched his equally large 7-foot frame. This family, no longer weak and wanting – like the broken-down house they once occupied – has made a fresh start and stands strong beside their house, a new beginning and a renewed hope.

“We are going to help this family,” said Phil Littleton, Holt’s senior vice president, standing with Ejamo in 2009, in the beginning stages of Holt’s intervention. “We are going to give them what they need to build a better life for themselves.”

Before their acceptance into Holt’s Family Preservation program, Ejamo’s family was in a critical state. Ejamo, sick with malaria, was unable to maintain his farming duties – the family’s main source of income. Their 7-year-old son had lost his eyesight due to a Vitamin A deficiency, and their other son’s health was failing. The eldest daughter, Tirunesh, 14, lived in Durame as a servant.

Desperate for the health of her children and the return of Tirunesh to their home, Almaz petitioned the local government for assistance. A Holt social worker was contacted and the Holt Committee stepped in to assist the desperate family.

The Holt Committee, made up of a tribal leader, a government representative,  a village agricultural extension worker, a church representative and a Holt social worker, identifies “the poorest of the poor” families in Ethiopia, studies their situations, identifies weaknesses and strengths and proposes an intervention strategy. Currently, there are 120 families in Holt’s Family Preservation program spread throughout four villages in southern Ethiopia.

Holt does not simply give handouts to families in need. We provide families at-risk of losing their children with start-up supplies and assistance to get them back on their feet, including health and hygiene education, medical assistance and regular follow-ups by social workers.  Many of the children in family preservation are also in Holt’s sponsorship program.

Holt gives families the tools they need to build better lives for themselves.  Once families have reached a place of stability, they transition out of the program.

Ejamo had a gift for farming. To build on this talent, Holt gave him seeds to plant on his land, a four-month supply of grain and a donkey for transportation from village to town. The family also received canned milk, new clothing, bed sheets and blankets, and training on health and sanitation. Ejamo and his son received medical treatment, and the family was linked to a micro financing institution.

Today, Ejamo’s family has plenty of food to eat and a garden full of vegetables to sell. Ejamo regained his health and, in the summer of 2009, Tirunesh returned home and now attends school with the rest of her siblings.  The family saved enough money to purchase a cow, and wood for building a new and stronger house.

“The initiative these families are taking is amazing,” says Larry Cahill, Holt board member. “Their willpower is even more amazing.”

Like the man who built his house on a firm foundation in Jesus’ parable, Ejamo took the skills he had learned and the supplies that he had been given and turned them into a better life for his family – a home built on a foundation of faith and strength.

“My father never gave me anything,” said Ejamo, his hand placed gently on his daughter’s shoulder. “Holt International has been like a father to me.”

*Names changed

When my nine-year-old declared there was “no way” he would go to Holt Adoptee camp for a whole week, I was disappointed. I was sure it would be a good experience, but he didn’t want to sleep away from home. I considered the usual parental options: persuasion, bribery and coercion! [...]]]> A mother’s perspective

When my nine-year-old declared there was “no way” he would go to Holt Adoptee camp for a whole week, I was disappointed. I was sure it would be a good experience, but he didn’t want to sleep away from home. I considered the usual parental options: persuasion, bribery and coercion! Fortunately, I soon discovered Holt’s day camp. Not only was this one-day camp much more acceptable to my eldest, but because the age range was from 5-16, his younger siblings could participate too. And parents were welcome!

The kids and I arrived at Camp Angelos promptly at 9 am, and Harry immediately spotted a friend from home on the basketball court. Before I could even apply sunscreen, he was off, disappearing into a crowd of black-haired, rough and tumble boys. Five-year-old Betty darted across the lawn to the playground. Theo, who is 8 and quite shy in new situations, walked with me to the registration table. Camp leaders Michael and Steve greeted us with friendly smiles and gathered the parents and kids into a big circle for some icebreakers. It was refreshing to be in a group of families similar to our own: kids of all complexions, with parents who resembled them very little, performing motherly and fatherly duties – encouraging, cuddling, slipping away for potty breaks as needed. Many of the kids were reserved at first, but the staff’s enthusiasm was contagious.

Steve invited the younger day campers to team up with a group of older, week-long campers – veterans now, with three days of Holt camp under their belts!  And all the day campers, except one, followed their new teenage mentors onto the lawn for games and icebreakers. Theo stuck to me like Velcro, and I was grateful that the staff and other parents were totally accepting. He participated gamely in the adoptive parent workshop, writing a list of words that described his parents and another that described him (“Mom? How do you spell ‘good climber’?”).  But when one of the camp counselors invited him personally to join in a game of freeze tag, this was too tempting, and I didn’t see him again until lunch!

While the kids played and participated in age-appropriate workshops about race and adoption, the parents were invited to consider adoption from our children’s point of view. We heard from teen and adult adoptees and had the chance to listen, ask questions, and share our own experiences with race and racism. I took home an uncomfortable truth: all of our minority kids, regardless of country of origin, experience racism on a regular basis. Both positive and negative stereotypes, as well as nosy and inappropriate questions about where our kids are from or “what” exactly they are, are upsetting to our children. Adoptive parents often want to minimize these encounters, but we need to acknowledge them.

The day felt like a success to me, especially when I spotted Theo at lunch next to his new BFF, one of the camp counselors – a long-haired, Asian skater dude with a beautiful smile. I had a flash vision of Theo in 8 or 9 years, projecting the same effortless cool. It struck me that he doesn’t see many teenagers whose look he can truly emulate in our hometown (population 784) and that maybe that matters more than I thought it did. As for Harry? He ran up to me at lunch just long enough to say, “Mom, I want to come for the whole week next year, okay?” and melted away into the crowd.

–by Jen Hanlon-Wilde

Learn More about Holt Adoptee Camp!

Short stories (250-700 words) from graduating adoptees, or their parents, are [...]]]> The deadline to submit a graduate photo for the fall issue of Holt International magazine is September 1st.   If you are a Holt adoptee and graduated from high school, college or vocational school in 2010, fill out a graduate form and submit your photo, here.

Short stories (250-700 words) from graduating adoptees, or their parents, are also welcome!  Contact Ashli Keyser for more information.

Meihekou, China – At the end of a winding dirt road in Meihekou – a city in Northern China’s Jilin Province – behind a green door decorated in red for luck, a teenage girl spends her days engaged in the usual teenage activities. She text messages her friends on her [...]]]> by Robin Munro, senior writer

Meihekou, China – At the end of a winding dirt road in Meihekou – a city in Northern China’s Jilin Province – behind a green door decorated in red for luck, a teenage girl spends her days engaged in the usual teenage activities. She text messages her friends on her cell phone. Chats online. Listens to music. Paints her long, manicured fingernails in sparkly purple polish. And dreams of her future.

At 19, she should be preparing to leave her childhood home – to pursue her goals, and explore the world. But for Jie Lin (name changed), dreams remain just dreams. And independence a fantasy. Born with a condition that causes severe muscle atrophy, Jie Lin is, essentially, paralyzed in her arms and legs – they are thin as reeds, skin to bone, and folded beneath her like marionette sticks. As her body grew, it became too heavy for her to move from laying to sitting on her own. Her foster mother carries her to the bathroom. To leave the house, she must be pushed in a stroller.

“Sometimes I feel like I have no future,” she tells Sue Liu, who has known Jie Lin since 2000, shortly after Sue joined the Holt China staff in Meihekou.

Jie Lin has soulful, sad eyes, but her expression is often overtaken by laughter. Her hair is short and shag-cut, her face lovely and wise.

Holt has sponsored Jie Lin’s care since 1999, when she was 8-years-old. That year, as the Meihekou Ministry of Civil Affairs struggled to meet rising expenses, Holt took over funding for the local foster care program. To date, Holt and sponsors have invested more than 3 million Chinese Renminbi, or nearly a half million dollars, into local foster care, which has provided for as many as 60 children at once. At present, Holt sponsors care for 38 children in Meihekou and 22 in neighboring Tonghua. Sponsorship covers basic necessities, including food, shelter and clothing, and is often the only source of income for foster families.

When children turn 18, sponsorship ends. But special needs are common, and many children continue to depend on their foster families – and Holt – for care and support beyond the age of 18.

“What can we do?” Sue asks, worried about what will become of the children who “age out” of sponsorship.

Many would like to work, but their physical disabilities limit them. Jie Lin wants to open a small shop selling jewelry or clothes. She says she wishes her life had some meaning. It’s so boring, she tells us, to stay home all the time.

But limitations, including the start-up funds to open a stall, keep her from realizing this dream. Jie Lin needs help moving her own body. To accomplish the constant tasks – and constant movement – required of such work would also require extraordinary will.

But will, Jie Lin possesses. In spades.

She feeds herself and drinks from a cup without using her hands. Her calligraphy is astonishing. She fills pages and pages of notebook paper with elaborate Chinese characters, holding a pen between her teeth. To type text messages, she uses her chin.

When Jie Lin first came into care, Holt wanted to buy her a wheelchair so that she could attend school. But roads in her neighborhood are unpaved, and difficult to maneuver even in a car. Instead, Holt provided a tutor, who came to her home to give her lessons in Chinese, Math and English. Brought her outside to the see ice, for the first time, in winter. Posted maps on her walls so she could study the world.

“I have a strong will,” she types, when asked by Sue to demonstrate how she texts. “I never give up.”

Jie Lin chats with her foster mother through a window in her room, which opens onto a small kitchen. Given the resources, her foster parents will continue to care for her for the rest of her life. To feed her, clothe her, and carry her to their outdoor toilet – on dirt, on ice, in rain, in the middle of the night. But her parents’ health is deteriorating. Her foster mother has chronic bronchitis and a heart condition, her foster father diabetes.

Despite poor physical health, Jie Lin’s foster mother is cheerful and boisterous, laughs easily and welcomes us warmly. Although mostly confined to a small room – with a television, a stack of magazines to read, and a big picture window with a view of the brick porch out front – Jie Lin has constant visitors, and is surrounded by activity.

Her friends, of whom she has many, often tell her to think of happy things.

She realizes that many people care for and love her, and visit her often. But still, it’s hard not to feel as though she’s missing out.

Sue tells us no program exists for people with disabilities in Meihekou – no skills training for income generation, no way to become self-sufficient. I think of Ilsan, Holt’s historic care center for orphaned and abandoned children in Korea, where no child ever “ages out.” Those not adopted grow to adulthood in care, often living out their whole lives with the people who raised them. The Holt School was founded there in 1964 to teach children with mental disabilities, which opened the door for special education throughout Korea. Ilsan also provides a workshop for the residents, many of them severely disabled, to learn crafts to sell to visitors, giving them a sense of accomplishment and purpose.

Holt has already applied a similar model in three Chinese provinces, where children with special needs participate in knitting groups to learn vocational skills and enhance self-esteem. But like most programs in China, Holt partnered with the local orphanages to create these knitting groups. Meihekou has no orphanage.

And unlike Ilsan, Holt’s China programs are relatively new; only within the last two years, as sponsored children come of age, has Holt confronted the need for continued support.

“We should keep helping kids who were sponsored,” comments Jessica Palmer, Holt’s Waiting Child program manager, as we drive away from Jie Lin’s home. Jessica finds families for children who often wait longer to be adopted – because of a special need, or because they are older. Some end up waiting too long. When children turn 14, they are no longer eligible for adoption from China.

“We have so many of these children in Meihekou,” Sue says of Jie Lin – and of children who age out of sponsored care but continue to depend on their foster families.

In the afternoon, we visit another boy in Holt-sponsored foster care – a boy with dwarfism, who still depends on his foster mother for many of his basic physical needs. Like Jie Lin, he is also 19. He is also a typical teenager in so many ways – he poses for the camera with his hand on his chin, has stylishly cut hair, teases and jokes with his foster sister, and desperately wants a laptop. Over and over, he tells us he wants a laptop. Sue explains to him that sponsorship can only cover basic needs – that so many children need to be fed, to be clothed, to be given the love and support of a family. He acknowledges this with a smile, but still won’t let up about the laptop – amusingly, as he stands beside a giant computer monitor on the desk in the front room.

Like Jie Lin, this boy – Bai Ze (name changed) – will always depend on his foster mother, who never remarried after her husband died, seven years ago, because she feared a new husband wouldn’t accept her foster children. She is utterly devoted to the two children in her care – a sweet 17-year-old girl who hopes to become a nurse, and Bai Ze. The house smells of popcorn when we enter, and activity fills the front room, where the foster mother’s elderly father sits, smiling, on the bed. A neighbor girl has come to play, and others walk by the open door, saying greetings in Mandarin. It is a cheerful home – with posters for good fortune, family portraits and an aquarium full of huge, colorful fish. I’m so glad that Holt sponsors this family – and that the only thing Bai Ze lacks in life is a laptop.

When asked how she would like to be remembered, Bertha Holt’s request was a simple one:

“[Remember me] as that lady who loved the Lord,” she humbly replied.

On the tenth anniversary of her passing, it’s fitting to reflect on Bertha “Grandma” Holt’s love for the Lord, her [...]]]> July 31st marked the 10th anniversary of Bertha Holt’s passing.

When asked how she would like to be remembered, Bertha Holt’s request was a simple one:

“[Remember me] as that lady who loved the Lord,” she humbly replied.

On the tenth anniversary of her passing, it’s fitting to reflect on Bertha “Grandma” Holt’s love for the Lord, her faith in Him, and how that faith has inspired many people around the world to carry on Holt’s mission of finding families for children.

Brian Campbell, Holt’s creative services director remembers Bertha Holt, and how she has inspired him:

I remember watching Bertha Holt at a Holt picnic, one year, as she sat and had her picture taken with hundreds of children of all ages.  I stood there, amazed, listening to her recall the names of the children and sharing a brief story about each one of them. Older adoptees also came up to her, giving her hugs and thanking her for the work of Holt International.  The younger children referred to her as “Grandma.”  She had prayed continually for all of these children while they were in Holt’s care and traveled all over the world to serve them; they were always her top priority.

During a quiet moment, between the visiting and photos, I caught Grandma by herself.  A look of peace and blessing was on her face.  Not a look of pride or pleasure in knowing that she was important to all these people, but rather a look of peace that comes from knowing that she was doing what God had called her to do.

Now, more than 20 years later, I recall that moment with Grandma Holt. I imagine her with me in places like Ethiopia, surrounded by children, listening to their giggling and crying, laughing with them, and cradling and comforting them without hesitation. I ask for the children’s names, take their pictures, touch their little hands and pray for them. Today, inspired by Bertha Holt, these children are also my priority.

After the death of Harry Holt, many thought Holt International would close its doors. But Bertha always had faith that the agency would carry on. “This has always been God’s work,” she said. “If He wants it to continue, it will.”

And it has. What followed, and what remains today, is a 55-year legacy of caring for and providing loving homes to the world’s orphaned, abandoned and vulnerable children.

Evidence of Bertha Holt’s faith can be seen today through Holt employees, working diligently and joyfully for children all over the world, to the hundreds of adult adoptees who were touched by “Grandma’s” life and, most importantly, through the smiling faces of children now home with their loving families.

The mission of Holt International has carried on, and will continue, all because one woman had faith that it could.