by Cheri Tillman

Created on: March 12, 2009

Adoption from Asia is a reality, but not a new one. In the mid-1950s Harry and Bertha Holt, stirred by the stories of Korean war orphans, brought Korean babies home to Eugene, Oregon. The idea of bringing children from a foreign country to find permanent homes in the United States was so new that the Holt's had to petition Congress to pass laws allowing them to actually bring the children into the country.

Since that time, adoption of foreign-born children has been a growing trend in the United States, fueled both by compassion for children in need and by a lack of the babies most in demand for adoption - healthy, Caucasian infants. The advent of birth control combined with new abortion laws has resulted in 60 to 100 eligible couples waiting for every Caucasian baby given up for adoption.

For many years Korea was the primary source of foreign-born children coming into America for adoption. Because the Korean culture places more value on boys than girls, the vast majority of infants coming into the United States were girls. Through the years the number of children coming from Korea has fluctuated but the country remains the third largest source of foreign-born children adopted by American couples.

Through the Holts and Korean adoption, the door was opened through which thousands of orphans have come into the United States, not only from Asia but South America, countries of the former Soviet Union and from Africa. According to United States Immigration Support, more than 200,000 foreign born adopted children reside in the United States and approximately 20,000 foreign children are adopted annually. The top countries currently sending children are China, Russia and S. Korea followed by Guatemala, Ukraine, Romania and Kazakhstan. Children also come from Haiti, Columbia, the Philippines and many other countries.

With Angelina Jolie and many other super stars joining the ranks of adoptive parents, new attention has been focused on the practice of foreign adoption. Perhaps foreign adoption is a fad among the Hollywood crowd, but it is certainly not new or a fleeting practice. Holt International, the legacy of Harry and Bertha Holt, continues to support orphans and adoption programs around the world. Many other adoption agencies have joined Holt in matching waiting families in the United States with orphaned children from other countries. As long as there are people aching to be parents and babies waiting around the world, foreign adoption will remain a beautiful way to build a family.

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