My Name is Life - Holt International

China
“Adoption is like a journey. You travel
beautiful mountains and valleys,
but sometimes it’s hard too.”
Above: A child in care, 2004 • Clockwise from top: Bi Jian Jun, Executive Director of Holt China Children’s Services and
Country Director for Holt’s China Program, enjoys the teamwork of her job and considers the work she does for children a
privilege. She says she finds inspiration in those she works with and keeps the goal of finding families for children close to her
heart. Here she hugs a child in care at Lanzhou, March 2005. • The childcare supervisor at the Nanchang Orphanage baby
unit models affectionate care that helps children survive and develop, March 2005. • A foster mother holds a child, Fuzhou,
2004. Foster families lavish children placed in their care with love and attention, and then release them to their adoptive
families. Despite the attachment that invariably grows between these children and temporary parents, most foster mothers
and fathers continue to take in children. • At the White Swan Hotel, Renée Lemley gives daughter Emerson Gray her first
bath after she received her, Autumn 2004. • Holt adoptees Grace Kirkpatrick, left, and Emily Young, right, play dress-up on
Holt International’s first ever Family Tour to China, June 2005. • Jian Chen, Holt’s U.S. Director of International Programs for
China, visits a boy in care at a group home in Nanchang, March 2005.
When Holt President, David Kim, and Director of International
Programs, John Williams, surveyed conditions in China in 1993,
they came across a ward in one institution where nearly every
child was dangerously weak.
David picked up one especially malnourished child and asked
for formula. At first the little girl wouldn’t feed, but holding her
tiny body, he massaged her feet to stimulate circulation. The little
girl’s listless eyes regained some luster as she looked at David and
began to feed.
Holt immediately began to mobilize for a significant effort in
the People’s Republic of China, operating at first out of its small
program in Hong Kong and assisting a privately run foster care
project in Guangxi province.
Building on concepts developed in this program, Holt took a
new and unique approach. Among its first efforts was to begin
placing orphanage children into well-managed and loving local
foster homes, combining this with a “Baby Care Unit” that
provided intensive care for the highest risk children in the
orphanage. Holt worked together as an equal partner with
government-run orphanages to initiate programs that could
26 50th Anniversary 2006
— Bi Jian Jun, Executive Director of Holt China Children’s Services
and Country Director for Holt’s China Program, speaking at an
orientation for adoptive parents in China to receive their children,
March 2005.
gradually be taken over by local
management and support,
saving the lives of hundreds
of children while protecting
them from the debilitating
effects of growing up in an
institution.
To this day, Holt enjoys a relationship
of trust with the Chinese government and is recognized as
a pioneer in cooperative and culturally sensitive foster care and
other support, reaching out to nearly 3,000 abandoned children
every year around China in locations far from the larger well-traveled
cities.
Holt was one of the first American adoption agencies to facilitate
adoptions from China and is among those officially sanctioned
for placement of children by the China Center for Adoption
Affairs, the government agency that oversees international adoption.
Now with offices in Beijing and Guangzhou, Holt stands out
with its team of full-time experienced local staff, who guide adoptive
parents on their journey in China and oversee a host of efforts
helping homeless children across China.
Into Our Arms
A father celebrates the joy and wonder of adoption
Four years ago in a sun-dappled room in Wuhan, Hubei Province,
China, 14 families waited to meet their daughters. A provincial official
greeted us through a translator and explained the process we would go
through over the next few days. She concluded her talk with: “We are
giving into your care our daughters.”
She explained that China expected us to love and care for these young
girls. “They will become your daughters soon,” she said, “and when they
do, you will be part of the family of China. I welcome you to our family.”
That was the day we received Marit. Now 5 years old, she is a true
wonder. She is tall and lithe, excels at ballet and loves to dance. Her
bright, nearly black eyes are a window on a mind that is constantly at
work. Smart, articulate, kind and sensitive, she loves to draw and is
rather good at it. She has been infinitely patient with us as we learn how
to be the parents she needs and deserves. Since traveling to China with
us in 2003 to bring Mattie home, she has grown into a fantastic big sister.
Put simply, she has become the daughter we could only dream about a
few short years ago. When she calls us Mommy and Daddy, we marvel at
our good fortune to be the ones to bear those titles for her and her sister.
Mattie was a tiny 15-month-old when we welcomed her in a hotel
room in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. Since then, Mattie has grown into a
happy, self-assured 3-year-old with an infectious laugh, a personality that
knows no strangers, and a smile that could light up any of the smaller,
Eastern states. She thinks nothing of walking up to any person on the
street and saying, “My name’s Mattie! What’s your name?” We try not to
get too unnerved by this little habit and, to date, the only result has been
that several persons needing a kind word got their day brightened. She’s
taught us quite a lot in two short years.
As always on our “Forever Family Days,” we take a moment to remember
the birth parents of our daughters. For unknown reasons they set
our girls on their paths to us. For those acts of hope and love, we will
always be thankful. We only wish that some day we could meet them to
thank them in person and tell them that everything has worked out just
fine.
To those of you who have been on a similar journey of your own, all
we can say is “Ain’t life grand?” And to those of you waiting for that first
moment with your child: May that wait be short, your journey safe and
swift and may it bring you all the joy and wonder we have come to know.
—Tim Chauvin
Nacogdoches, Texas
Top: Tim and Wynter Chauvin
with Marit at the U.S. Consulate
in China, 2001.
That’s Marit Chauvin on the left
and Mattie, with pigtails, on the
right.
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