I prayed long and hard about my desire to adopt a baby girl from China. After we applied to Holt we learned that China was making adjustments in its adoption process and our application could not be processed.
But I knew in my heart a daughter was waiting for us there. So we waited also, and we continued to pray. Eventually, we got that wonderful call saying our daughter was ready for us. She had just turned 2 years old. After doing the math we figured she was born around the time God placed the desire on my heart to adopt from China.
But we weren’t yet done building our family.
Each time Holt’s magazine came, my daughter Leslie and I searched the stories and faces of the waiting children. I believed there was a little boy for us in Korea, and one day I found him. Sung-joon was listed as having left spastic hemiplegia and walking with a limping gait.
I called Holt’s
Waiting Child Program but was told we would need an age waiver to adopt from Korea. But we got over this hurdle, too, when the waiver was approved.
Holt sent me a complete medical folder to review with a doctor. My husband and I felt sure we could handle any medical problems Sung-joon might have and were overjoyed when we learned he was to be our son. We named him Ian. He was almost 3 when my daughter Leslie and I traveled to Korea to bring him home.
Four months later, Ian had surgery to stretch his heel cord and now walks normally. He receives speech therapy and occupational therapy at school and is progressing well. No one would know that Ian had cerebral palsy or once suffered seizures and walked with a limping gait.
Ian and Katie have blessed our family, and we are thankful to God and to Holt International for bringing us these precious children.
— Cherie Jones
• Go to the Waiting Child Photolisting
Every day children come into Holt-supported programs around the world. The stories are different, but similar. The children have lost their parents in one way or another—through death, abandonment, natural disaster or some other upheaval. Sometimes children have healthcare needs or other special challenges that make it more difficult to find adoptive families. They may be part of a sibling group, or no longer infants or toddlers. We call these our waiting children, and they deserve to have families of their own. Follow the provided links to find out more about our Waiting Child Program.
“Found in the garbage as a baby over 40 years ago in Seoul, South Korea, I have been living a miraculous life ever since,” says adoptee Kim Deardorff on his website.