Why China

Our journey to our daughter is not unlike others who have traveled the same path before us. We have found there is a higher calling in us to be parents to a little girl.

We are often asked why we chose China, but the choice was not ours, it was China that chose us! The culmination of our childhood experiences, family history, educational influences and a need to cherish a little girl, put China and our family on a direct path to one another. Our agency is Holt International based out of Oregon, with a branch office here in New Jersey. Holt International Agency was one of many, but one that was a standout. Holt's name kept "popping up" whenever we asked someone about adoption, read a story or did research on adoptions. We wanted an agency with a strong background in adoption and found that Holt had over 50 years of experience.

Bertha and Harry Holt the founder of the agency, became adoptive parents through international adoption, they practically coined the term "International Adoption" before it even existed. Please read their story below.....

The Holts Adopt Eight Children From Korea. In December 1954 Harry and Bertha Holt saw a documentary film showing children in Korean orphanages following the Korean War. The Holts sent money to help clothe and feed them. But haunted by the children's sad faces, Harry and Bertha came to an inspired realization: Those children needed families, and the Holts themselves could be the parents for some of those children.

In 1955, a special act of Congress allowed Bertha and Harry Holt, an evangelical couple from rural Oregon, to adopt eight Korean War orphans. The Holts had a large family (6 children) before the adoptions, but they were so moved by their experience that they became pioneers of international adoptions and arranged hundreds for other American couples. They relied on proxy adoptions and overlooked the minimum standards and investigatory practices endorsed by social workers. They honored adopters' specifications for age and sex, gave priority to couples with one or no children, and asked only that applicants be a saved persons who could pay the cost of children's airfare from Korea. They paid close attention to race-matching for children whose fathers were African-American, but otherwise ignored it entirely. They were happy to accept couples who had been rejected, for a variety of reasons, by conventional adoption agencies.