Teach Me Something Tuesday: The Holt Reception Center

Most of the babies in Korea who are placed for adoption are placed in a foster home. Zoe was initially in a foster home in her birth-city of De Jong. Zoe needed to be moved into Seoul as Holt needs to keep the babies close to allow for their monthly medical checks (Well Baby Checks) and other important appointments and so they can monitor the babies as needed. At the time, a foster family was not available in Seoul.

Zoe was moved to the Holt Reception Center in February of this year. The Reception Center is on the 3rd floor of the Holt building and a unique place with fabulous, loving caregivers to tend to the babies. The RC has 2 rooms: one being for the young babies and the other for babies who are a little older. Here the babies get the loving care they need, one-on-one attention from their assigned caregiver.

Admittedly, I was a little concerned about Zoe being moved to what I had envisioned as an orphanage with no one person to love on her and give her the attention that she needs. However, after talking with other adoptive parents, they assured me that Zoe is being extremely well cared for in a clean and stimulating environment. Some of the babies receive physical therapies or other therapies they may need while they are at the Reception Center. They even give the babies "baby massages". One adoptive mom told me it was more like a "baby spa". The babies get lots of playtime with toys, tummy time, etc. and they sing songs to them and play with the babies continually. Check out this caregiver comforting this baby in this photo.

The blog that I found this photo on said: "In the photo above is a gliding thingy that the women used to soothe the children to help get them to sleep. While they glided, they sang to them and patted them on the back very firmly. I almost felt like it was more like a whack on the back than a pat, but the babies seemed to like it. It was comforting to see that the women caring for the children showed such love for them."

What comforting things to hear from a Korean adoptee who never knew an adoptive parent would be reading her blog. :)

Another cool thing about Zoe being at the RC is that when a family goes to pick up their baby at Holt, they get to visit the babies in the RC. I frequent the adoption forums through our agency and I've already had 2 moms send us pics of Zoe from when they visited the Reception Centers when they were picking up their children. Both of these moms went before we were matched with her, but they took pictures of our precious little one. When I shared that we were matched with her, they started sending the pictures of our little Korean cutie! There are a few moms planning to travel in the next couple of weeks and they are going to pay our little Miss a visit and give her a big hug for us and tell her we're coming for her. Here is a picture we received from a family who visited the Reception Center in February. She sent me this picture the day after we were matched. What a huge blessing!

Sometimes Korean adoptees return to Seoul to find out more about their birth-land and about their adoption and to experience Korea. Since being matched with Zoe, we've found 2 such blogs of Korean adoptees who were visiting the Holt Reception Center where Miss Zoe has made her appearance. It is such a blessing to receive so many updates and pictures of our girl! That is how we received the picture below.


If you want to read the entire blog-post, you can do that HERE. The blog owner noted Zoe's wild hair. Ya' think???

About 2 weeks later, another adoptive mom stumbled upon THIS BLOG and sure enough there she was! Seriously, as if there was any question if this was her or not. Her hair is a dead-give away...and those cheeks! She is too cute. I think we are all ready to move to Seoul until she is ready to come home. Here she is having a little playtime on the floor.

Once we have filed Zoe's acceptance paperwork, we will be able to send her a care package with some goodies (like a brush and some hair clips) and photos of our family. We plan to send it with another family who is traveling to get their little one. The travel calls have been pouring in lately, and that date for us can't come soon enough! I love this little peanut and can't wait to have her in my arms!

Oh! I almost forgot, the Reception Center is always in need of baby things, so when we travel, we plan to bring a suitcase full of donations (like rice cereal is a HUGE need, baby care items like diapers, wipes, baby wash, etc.). We will use the empty suitcase to bring home our Korean treasures and Zoe's belongings. If any of you happen to run across any baby item deals, grab them up and we'll take them with us to donate to this wonderful place who's caring for our baby girl!

~paula