Love Can Do Amazing Things – the value of foster care

A critical need in China

Lilah with her big sister, Danica

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....Read more

--by Joan Ruud, Lilah's mother

While waiting 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!

Holt Adoptee Camps

Campers in Corbett, Oregon, on the last day of camp, say goodbye after a week of self-discovery, friendship and fun

When my nine-year-old declared there was "no way" he would go to Holt 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 ice-breakers. 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....Read more

--by Jen Hanlon-Wilde

Learn more about Holt Adoptee Camp

Built on a Solid Foundation

Ejamo's family in January 2009, at the beginning stage of Holt's intervention.

"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

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 atop a small, humble 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.

The family in April 2010. Using his skills and the start-up supplies given by Holt, Ejamo was able to create a better life for his family. This family transitioned out of Holt's Family Preservation program in March 2010.

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."....Read more

--by Ashli Keyser, Managing Editor

Holt International and Matthew Barnett Present the NY2LA Dream Center Tour!

Matthew Barnett, legendary pastor of The Los Angeles Dream Center – one of the fastest growing churches in America – and Holt International present the NY2LA Dream Center Tour, reaching out to communities with an inspirational message of hope and the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of orphaned, abandoned and vulnerable children. The tour, featuring recording artists Press Play and Coffey Anderson, and with inspirational words by Pastor Barnett, began on August 2nd in Detroit's Joe Louis Arena at the Assembly of God National Youth Convention and will play in markets as diverse as Louisville, Tulsa, San Antonio, Orlando and, of course, New York and L.A. Conerts are free. No tickets required! Information online.