Holt adoptive parents Kyle Geissler and Robin Stephens bring their 5- and 6-year-olds sons on a trip to Thailand — giving them an early opportunity to explore their identity, celebrate their heritage and reconnect with the foster families who cared for them before they came home. Read and share their story in honor of National Foster Care Month!

The decision to build our family through adoption was an easy one. We wanted to be parents and biological kids weren’t possible for us.

Navigating the choices that followed was not as easy. Ultimately, we chose Holt’s Thailand program.  We liked that Holt’s partner organization in Thailand, Holt Sahathai Foundation (HSF), focuses primarily on family strengthening and preservation — keeping children in their birth families whenever possible — and that the children in their program are mostly cared for by foster families. We liked that Holt’s Thailand program is small and methodical, and that adoptions from Thailand are tightly regulated by the Thai government to minimize the chance of corruption. We also had a few Thai friends and felt comfortable with the idea of bringing Thai culture into our family.

Seven years and two incredible boys later, the choices that face us make those initial decisions seem easy. In addition to the many issues that all parents face, we are also trying to help our kids feel positive about themselves as Asian Americans, born in Thailand and adopted and raised in the Midwest by white parents.

As parents, we educate ourselves as much as possible by reading and listening to the experiences of adult adoptees. We have sought out Asian American adults as role models for the boys.  We’ve moved to a new city where our kids are part of racially and ethnically diverse classrooms. The boys love spending time with their friends who were also adopted from Thailand.  And we talk with the boys a lot — about adoption, race, Thailand and the myriad ways they intersect.  Each year, the boys’ understanding of these complex issues grows, and we work through questions and feelings together.