Top 5 Facts About Adopting From Thailand

If you’re considering international adoption, have you explored adopting a child from Thailand? There’s a lot to love about Holt’s longstanding Thailand program, and right now, we have an urgent need for families!

Here are our top 5 facts about adopting from Thailand:

1. The minimum age for adoptive parents is 25.

For younger couples who want to start a family through adoption, Thailand is a great choice. Couples can have up to one child in their home prior to submitting their application to adopt a child from Thailand, and couples with a child can request to be matched with a child of the opposite gender. Childless couples must be open to a child of either gender. Adoptions from Thailand, while limited, have remained stable.

2. Most children adopted from Thailand are about 2 years old.

Even though the process to adopt a child from Thailand takes 2-3 years, most children are under 2 years old at time of match and under 3 years old at the time they join their families, and families are needed for children of both genders. Of course, if you are interested in older child adoption, there are many older children in Thailand who are waiting for their permanent, loving families.

3. Our partners in Thailand strive to keep families together and help parents make informed decisions regarding their children. This is something for adoptive parents to celebrate too!

Holt’s longstanding partner in Thailand, Holt Sahathai Foundation (HSF), is a prominent leader of child welfare services and women’s rights advocacy. Since 1976, HSF has helped struggling families stay together through counseling, financial assistance, vocational training, educational sponsorship and income-generating projects. Because single mothers still face discrimination in Thailand, HSF provides shelter, healthcare, postnatal care and counseling to help them cope with discrimination and make an informed decision about whether to parent or relinquish their child. About 80 percent of women who receive HSF support choose to parent their children. Those who do not are well educated regarding their decision. Holt always works to ensure the highest ethical practices in adoption, and HSF is a top-notch reflection of that commitment.

4. HSF lovingly cares for children from day one.

Most children in Holt’s Thailand adoption program spend the first several weeks of life with their birth mothers and then are placed directly into loving foster families. HSF was the first organization to implement foster care in Thailand, providing a more nurturing alternative to institutional care. In the years since, HSF’s foster care program in Thailand has become the model for both governmental and non-governmental childcare institutions in the region. While children wait to join their permanent family, foster families ensure children reach critical developmental milestones, receive proper nutrition and develop vital emotional bonds. Holt also receives a detailed child progress report every four months, which contains an update on the child’s health and developmental milestones, along with new photos to share with the child’s prospective family.

5. Children from Thailand need loving, permanent families.

While Thailand’s economy has grown significantly over the past decade, poverty persists, especially in many rural regions — leaving children vulnerable to family separation or abandonment. While HSF is working to combat the enduring stigma toward single mothers, many young women still choose to relinquish or abandon their children. Over the past decade, the HIV epidemic orphaned nearly half a million children as well. For these reasons and others, many children in Thailand need international adoption to be able to join a permanent, loving family. HSF was founded on the belief that every child deserves to grow up feeling the love and joy of a family.

If you would like more information about adopting a child from Thailand, contact our adoption advisors at [email protected].