Philip has been waiting in an orphanage for a family for more than four years. Our team met him while visiting his orphanage and he has two adoption grants to help the right family adopt him! Could you or someone you know be the right family for Philip?
At an orphanage in Vietnam, a 7-year-old boy sits in a crib at the front of the room. He reaches his arms out for the Holt staff who walk past. They take his sweet hands and look into his face. Philip has the absolutely best smile. It reaches up to his twinkly eyes and is pure sweetness.
“Philip is an adorable and resilient boy,” says one of his caregivers, Thuy. “His smile makes others feel good and encouraged. His innocent, cheerful attitude can brighten anyone’s day.”
He seems happy. He has attentive caregivers, enough food and even the physical therapy he needs to grow strong and manage his cerebral palsy.
The facility is clean, orderly and well run. The caregivers and orphanage directors have strong relationships and bonds with the children, and they work hard every day to ensure the children’s needs are met. With the support of Holt sponsors and donors, Holt’s team in Vietnam helps provide medical care, more nourishing food for the children, nutrition and feeding training for the caregivers, and helps advocate for the children to ultimately join families through reunification or adoption.
Philip’s caregivers truly care for him and do their very best to meet his unique needs, but they have dozens of other children to care for in addition to him.
Philip’s favorite time of the day is when he’s picked up, placed in a chair and wheeled out to the courtyard to sit in the sun for a little while. He watches the other children run around and play, and sometimes they come up to talk or play with him, too…
His orphanage is a good one. But it’s still just that — an orphanage. Philip needs and deserves so much more. What Philip truly needs and deserves are loving parents. A permanent family.
“Philip is an adorable and resilient boy. His smile makes others feel good and encouraged. His innocent, cheerful attitude can brighten anyone’s day.” — one of Philip’s caregivers
Philip came into orphanage care when he was just a baby. Unfortunately, this is very common for children born with disabilities and special needs. In impoverished communities around the world, families struggle to meet the most basic needs of their children. Anything extra — such as medical or therapeutic care for a child with a disability — is simply beyond their means. While Holt works in many communities to empower families to care for their children, it’s still a reality that many children with disabilities end up in orphanage care. Parents assume their child will be better off with another family, or even better off living in the orphanage, and relinquish their parental rights.
But children with disabilities and special needs are not likely to be adopted domestically in Vietnam. So instead, their best hope for a family is through international adoption. This is why we continue to advocate for Philip to join a family in the U.S.
For the past four years, Holt has shared Philip’s photo, shared updates about his life and development, and told prospective families about him, in hopes that they will be the right family for him. And while multiple families have asked to learn more about him, none of them have moved forward or been the right fit for him.
But we still have great hope that the right family will come forward for Philip.
“His progress reports continue to note how much developmental progress he’s making,” says Jessica Palmer, Holt’s director of adoption services for Thailand and Vietnam. “So we are hoping that the right family will come along with access to the resources he needs to continue to make gains and eventually reach his full potential.”
Philip does physical therapy for 45 minutes every day, and can now stand holding onto his crib rails for five minutes. While he can’t speak complete words, he can make vowel sounds and uses polite Vietnamese gestures and facial expressions to communicate with those around him. He raises his hand when someone calls his name, and can nod “yes” or “no” when someone asks him to confirm what he is trying to say.
His caregivers say he loves new experiences, and tries to play along with all of his friends at the center. Every day he eats porridge and different variations of noodle soup, which his caregivers feed to him with a spoon. Around the world, many children with CP and other disabilities living in institutional care are improperly fed — causing them to aspirate on their food, and struggle to get the nourishment they need. But Philip’s caregivers received Holt’s Child Nutrition Program training before he even came to the care center. So for his entire life at the center, he has benefitted from proper feeding and nutrition.
Everything about Philip, from his smile to his countenance to his consideration for others, conveys his sweet heart and personality. He is so loving — and he is loved by his caregivers. But while he receives adequate care at his orphanage, nothing could ever compare to the nurturing care and loving devotion of a permanent family.
Philip no longer sleeps during naptime, but he is thoughtful — observing quiet time so the other children around him can sleep.
“Smiles are always present on his face,” says his caregiver Thuy, “and this truly makes every interaction with him so joyful and pleasant.”
Everything about Philip, from his smile to his countenance to his consideration for others, conveys his sweet heart and personality. He is so loving — and he is loved by his caregivers. But while he receives adequate care at his orphanage, nothing could ever compare to the nurturing care and loving devotion of a permanent family.
Instead of a smile or kind touch in passing from caregivers who walk by his crib, Philip could have a loving parent to snuggle up with him for hours and rub his back as he falls asleep. Instead of watching the other children play for an hour from his wheelchair in the courtyard, he could read books, do puzzles and learn to talk from day-long interactions with siblings. With limited resources, the therapeutic support his orphanage provides is minimal. But given a family with access to the resources he needs, he could receive expert medical care and physical therapy to increase his mobility and develop beyond what he ever thought possible.
Every child deserves a family. And especially Philip.
If you think you or someone you know could be the right family for Philip, please email our waiting child team at waitingchild@holtinternational.org! We cannot share photos of Philip publicly due to country restrictions on privacy and adoption. However, the waiting child team has more photos and videos available to share with prospective families interested in adoption.
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