When Sunita Schroader came home from India at 3 years old, it quickly became apparent that she was learning challenged. Through hard work and perseverance, however, Sunita successfully overcame the challenges she faced — graduating high school as a member of the Class of 2014. Last year, she was also featured on stage at a Winter Jam concert as a once-Holt sponsored child, now a thriving young woman poised for success.

She cried the first time she saw us. That day, as a 3-year-old at Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra (BSSK), Holt’s partner organization in Pune, India, she understood enough to know her life was about to change. It was my birthday, and my husband had told someone. So they prepared a card for her to give to me.  She was coaxed into handing it to this strange woman with blonde hair, and so began a new life for each of us. We brought her home to join our family — with two bio sons — and a life of love in a modest home in western Kentucky.