What We've Been Up To

Note from the Assistant Director

Lynne and I recently returned from Nepal and Vietnam. It was an amazing trip of excitement and sadness. We traveled to open one program and close another. We visited many orphanages and saw a variety of levels of care for the children. We saw many sick children in need of support, volunteers, and medical care. We met caretakes who loved their children and we met children who were clearly survivors of their unfortunate environments. An orphanage is not a place a child should be raised, even in the best of circumstances. This was a hard trip, but one that reinforced Adopt International’s belief that children are a global issue.

Adopt is proud to share we were licensed to do adoptions under the new Nepali system earlier this year. During this visit Adopt was received by the newly appointed Minister and the Under Secretary. We had a nice visit and learned of Nepal’s intention to sign the Hague treaty. They have already created a central authority to process adoptions and are currently processing the files that were backlogged during the moratorium. Our Nepali staff is working hard to connect with education scholarship programs and other projects outside Kathmandu valley in need of assistance. We will be thrilled to re-open our Nepal program in the coming months.

In Vietnam we were able to assist out last family in successfully welcome their daughter into their family. The family had the unique opportunity to also meet their daughter’s birthmom. It was an emotional day for all and a huge gift to the baby. Of course Lynne and I loved watching the family get to know their daughter and fall in love. It is the part of our job that makes all the paperwork and bureaucracies worth it. We truly hope that the governments can work out an agreement acceptable to everyone and open for adoptions again in the near future.

We were so sad we had to say good-bye to our orphanage, Lynne and I both cried as we drove off the property. It has been a wonderful program and Adopt has loved working in Vietnam. We will continue to be connected to the Ben Tre province through new projects we hope to sponsor. We met with the Department of Labor and learned of a Family-to-Family program in which families in the US can support a family in desperate need of assistance. I personally traveled by van, ferry, motor bike (that part was a little scary), and foot to meet and interview two families with children struggling to feed them. Look below to read more about that program.

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