Adoption, a Good Thing

www.holtinternational.org. I start with a website of the adoption agency that brought my family together. I think having a good adoption agency is one of the most important things for building a happy adoptive family, and Holt International Children's Services is one of the best. This agency is a true advocate for children, the people are wonderful, they just about held my hand through the process, long and frustrating at many times, with happy endings all around. They work to keep birth families together whenever possible, fund orphanages and find foster families and eventually adoptive families when it is not possible. I remain humbled by the sacrifices I have witnessed and the good people who have made saving the children their life work. One of the stories that always sends me to the hanky box is when I asked my guide about the foster parents, and how hard is it for them to parent these babies for such a short time. He told me the best answer he ever got was from a foster mother who told him she knew it was her job to have her heart broken. I am so grateful for all the people that worked together to keep my babies safe until I could bring them home. The orphanage worker who had raised my child for the first year of her life placed her in my arms for the first time. My daughter immediately pushed me away and reached for the woman who had cared for her. A mere 12 hours later, we met the woman again, she held her hands out to my child, who wrapped her arms tightly around her daddy's neck and looked away. The woman smiled, touched my arm and said in halting English, "As it should be." Now that is a wise and selfless person that I wish I were more like.