My last blog honored a few “saints” in U.S. adoption. This blog will focus on a few heroes in international adoption.
Pearl Buck, an American who lived in China with her missionary parents and then her agricultural scientist husband, is known for her book The Good Earth. She had one child, then adopted seven. She also was shocked to discover in 1949 that existing agencies considered Asian and multiracial children unadoptable. She founded Welcome House adoption agency to serve these children. The first international and interracial adoption agency, Welcome House still exists today, now working with children from several countries, and has facilitated over 5,000 adoptions.
Harry and Bertha Holt made adoption visible on the West Coast. Already parents of a large family, they decided to adopt eight Korean War orphans after seeing news images of malnourished children there. A 1953 Refugee Act allowed Americans to adopt only two orphans from other countries. The Holts mobilized their friends and community to inundate Congress with letters asking to have the law changed, which it was. The Holts began to facilitate other adoptions, eventually leading to Holt Children’s Services, a professional agency existing today. They become spokespeople for adoption. The Holts are credited not only with assisting international adoption, but also with changing, through the visibility of their family and their public speaking on adoption, the idea that adoptions should be kept secret. Intercountry adoption, as international adoption was called at the time, paved the way for transracial adoptions within the U.S.
Mrs. Hyun Sook Han recently received an “Angels in Adoption” award from the Congressional Coalition on adoption. She began her social welfare career in Korea in 1964, working with birth mothers to help them keep their children and establishing foster care for abandoned children. She worked with the Korean government and agencies to establish adoptions within Korea. After moving to Minnesota, she worked with Children’s Home Society for over a quarter of a century, facilitating the adoptions of over 13,000 children. She invited Korean social workers and government officials to Minnesota to learn about intercountry adoption. She also was among the first innovators to design post-adoption counseling and support services for families. Her memoir, Many Lives Intertwined, tells of her childhood during the Korean War as well as her subsequent efforts to help children.
Please see these related blogs:
A Sampling of Overseas Child Welfare Efforts by U.S. Adoption Agencies
Giving Back: What Our Family Can Handle