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New Children’s Book Gives Voice to Unknowns in Adoption

Author (and Holt mom!) Sarah Hopper has written a book about adoption for children, ages 3-8 years old. Called “Tiger and Lily Together,” the book was recently released and is now available on Amazon or at Barnes & Noble.

Every child who leaves one home to move to another is faced with worries, hopes, questions and preconceptions. And every child joins their adoptive family with a ‘tiger’ like Lily’s in the new adoption book “Tiger and Lily Together” by Holt adoptive mom Sarah Hopper.

Continue reading “New Children’s Book Gives Voice to Unknowns in Adoption”

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5 Reasons We’re Thankful for Sponsors and Donors Like You

As we approach the national day of giving thanks, we’d like to share a few of the reasons we’re so thankful for Holt child sponsors and donors. It was hard to narrow it down to such a short list, but here are our top five:

Mary Luz thought she might have to make the heartbreaking decision to leave her children in someone else’s care. But then she discovered a Holt child sponsor and donor-supported program in her community.
Mary Luz thought she might have to make the heartbreaking decision to leave her children in someone else’s care. But then she discovered a Holt child sponsor and donor-supported program in her community.

1. You help children stay in the loving care of their families.

Poverty and hunger make people do desperate things, including placing their children in someone else’s care. But as a Holt child sponsor, you prevent children from needlessly growing up apart from their families. You help provide everything a child needs to thrive right where they are, from nourishing food to safe shelter to job skills training for their parents. Your monthly gifts mean that parents never have to make the heartbreaking decision to leave their child at the gates of an orphanage. And a child never has to experience the trauma of separating from their family. Continue reading “5 Reasons We’re Thankful for Sponsors and Donors Like You”

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Homes, Not Hotel Rooms for Children in U.S. Foster Care

Holt donors help children all around the world — including children in the United States! In Oregon and Washington, you help children find safe and secure foster and adoptive families. You help children like Marc and Jenny!

For two months, Marc and Jenny didn’t have a home. They entered Washington’s foster care system. But there was nowhere for them to go. Nowhere for them to unpack their bag of few belongings.

So they were moved around. They lived with nine different foster families. Never for very long. And when they were in between these foster families, they had to stay in a hotel with their social worker. They spent a total of ten nights in a hotel. Scared, and feeling alone and unwanted.

Finally, Holt staff in Washington found a foster family for Marc and Jenny to live with. These siblings had already experienced a lot of trauma, and the care of a family came right in time.

Continue reading “Homes, Not Hotel Rooms for Children in U.S. Foster Care”

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I’m an Adoptee and This is My Story

Chinese adoptee Grace White shares about her life as an adoptee, and how she found a community — and a stronger identity — at Holt Adoptee Camp. 

Chinese adoptee Grace White

Every adoptee has a story. Although they likely share some similarities, each story is also unique to the adoptee. I hope sharing my story helps other adoptees or anyone from the adoption community speak out and share their own story. Even though it’s truly hard to write my story, I hope it sheds light on the challenges as well as shares the beauty of adoption, the highs and lows, the pros and cons, and not everything that is just black and white.

Hi, my name is Grace White. I am 16, almost 17 years old and this is my story. Continue reading “I’m an Adoptee and This is My Story”

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Can I Adopt a Baby From Foster Care?

Greg Eubanks, Holt’s senior vice president for U.S. foster care and adoption, answers the most frequently asked question his team receives — “Can I adopt a baby from foster care?”

In May, we recognize National Foster Care Awareness Month. In the same breath, we advocate for children in foster care who wait for adoptive families. To many, this duality can be confusing. Foster care, to be clear, is intended to be a temporary solution to keep children safe until they can reunite with their families of origin. On the contrary, there’s nothing temporary about adoption.

So, which is it? Continue reading “Can I Adopt a Baby From Foster Care?”

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TBRI in Action: Practical Adoptive Parenting Tips

Holt social worker Carolyn Cain provides tips and examples for how to apply the Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) parenting approach for children from hard places. 

Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI®) is a popular parenting approach among adoptive and foster parents who are raising kids who have experienced trauma — kids who come “from hard places.” The TBRI® principles were developed by Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross of Texas Christian University and are found in the book “The Connected Child,”  which Holt began encouraging parents to read almost a decade ago.

Many times, however, parents read this book several years before their child comes home and the concepts have been long forgotten once they are actually in the throes of parenting their son or daughter. Continue reading “TBRI in Action: Practical Adoptive Parenting Tips”

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Pregnant at 14, Macy & Liam Made a Loving Open Adoption Plan

Macy and Liam were 14 when they found out they were pregnant. They felt scared and lost. But Holt in Wisconsin helped them make a loving open adoption plan for their daughter. 

Right after she turned 14, Macy found out she was pregnant. She felt scared, stressed out, sad and lost.

“We didn’t know what we were supposed to do,” she says today through a video call, sitting in her backyard in Wisconsin with Liam. It’s nearly a year later from this time she’s describing — the beginning of their unplanned pregnancy and adoption story.

When Macy got pregnant, Liam was also just 14. For him, money was one of the biggest obstacles  — he had no clue how they would financially support a child.

It was late May and they were just finishing their freshman year of high school. Liam was excited to play football over the summer and in the fall, and Macy couldn’t wait for school to be out so she could spend more time with friends and family.

But suddenly, instead, they had a huge decision to make.

Continue reading “Pregnant at 14, Macy & Liam Made a Loving Open Adoption Plan”

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Holt International Now Licensed to Provide Direct Adoption Services in New York State

Contact:
Susan Soonkeum Cox
susanc@holtinternational.org
(541) 687-2202

Eugene, Oregon, November 10, 2020 — After an 18-month approval process, Holt International is now authorized to provide homestudy and post-placement services to adoptive families in the state of New York. While Holt facilitates adoptions for families in all 50 states, until now, Holt had to rely on coordinating provider agencies to complete the homestudy and post-placement portion of the adoption process for New York-resident families who were adopting a child through Holt. Continue reading “Holt International Now Licensed to Provide Direct Adoption Services in New York State”

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The Four Attachment Styles: Do You Know Yours?

Read about the four attachment styles and how learning yours can help you build a strong, loving bond with a child joining your family through adoption.  

Generation to generation, almost as predictably as hair or eye color, parents hand down their own attachment styles to their children. In essence, children learn one of the most critical lessons about human interaction — how to connect and relate with others — from their parents and caregivers. They then grow up and pass that same pattern of connection on to their own children.

By the time an infant is 1 year old, they have settled into an identifiable relationship pattern matching their parents’ patterns. In adoptive families, however, there can be a mismatch in attachment style between parent and child, which can complicate bonding. When you adopt through Holt, you will receive resources that will help you to identify and learn about your personal attachment style along with feedback to help you parent your adoptive child.

As a sneak peak, read through the following characteristics of each attachment style and see if you can identify yours. Typically, when we are in a ‘good place’, we have one prevailing style. However, it is important to note that these styles are on a continuum and that you likely have characteristics of more than one.

The Four Attachment Styles:

Continue reading “The Four Attachment Styles: Do You Know Yours?”