Hear from Holt adoptive parents about why they chose to join a Holt Adoptive Parent Support Club, and why it is so important to seek out parenting support from other adoptive parents.

Over the past year, my husband and I had the fortunate opportunity to participate in two different sessions of Holt’s Parent Support Club for Teens. Even though we adopted our two boys from Korea in 2004 and 2006, these support club sessions were the first time we had taken advantage of a portion of the network of resources that Holt makes available to adoptive families. 

The first thing we said to each other after the first session was, “Why did we wait so long?”

Gary Sampson and Sunday Silver led each of the Holt Parent Support Club sessions with tremendous compassion, transparency and thoughtfulness. Not only did we find ourselves drawn into the stories of each family, but we found such incredible similarities between the experiences of all the kids. It may sound strange, but after almost 18 years, it was such a tremendous feeling of relief to know that our lived experiences as parents of adoptees was typical. When you are in those moments of questioning, it is easy to feel like you are alone in your experience and that no one could relate to what you and your family are going through. The Holt Parent Support Club provided a safe and accepting space to be open and honest about the challenges, worries, frustrations, and joys that make up being a parent of an adoptee.

While our experience isn’t unique, we have come to have a deeper appreciation of the fact that there are aspects of parenting an adoptee that are different than parenting a biological child. While we always knew this to be true, after being part of the support clubs we have found that we celebrate and embrace those differences much more than we had before.  

Our children are our greatest blessing and having the opportunity to be their parents has brought more love into our lives than we could have ever imagined. There are not enough words of gratitude for the Holt organization and all the different aspects of work they do. Thank you for bringing families together, supporting adoptees and their parents, and for providing the resources for the Holt Parent Support Club. 

Holt adoptive family | Minnesota, U.S.

We are now accepting sign-ups for our Fall 2022 Parent Support Club sessions! Register on Eventbrite here.