Find Families for Older Colombian Orphan Children

When Vivian was 12, she arrived from Colombia for a 6-week stay with Susan and Thomas in the US. “I was fortunate because Susan speaks excellent Spanish; you would think she’s from a Latin American country.” It wasn’t difficult for her to bond with her host family, though she remained unsure of being adopted.

“Over the summer, I just took the gentleness of my Thomas, and I noticed from the get-go how strong Susan was. It was a little scary to me because I’ve never seen a woman so independent and so well put together.” Growing up in a Colombian orphanage, Vivian’s education was limited.

Although Susan and Thomas wanted to adopt her, Vivian returned to the orphanage for close to a year. “While I was in the U.S., I had a great time,” she says, “but I was also homesick for Colombia. Susan and Tom would call me every Sunday, and that was enough for a while,” she says. But then, “things just started to be very depressing in the orphanage, and I realized that when I turn 18, they just let you go, and who knows where I would be,” she says. 

At last, she made the call they’d been waiting for. “I called them one Sunday and said, I think I’m ready to leave this place. I think as soon I said that, they got on the plane, went to Colombia, and started the process of adopting me.”

Vivian remembers being “really red” when the papers were signed. “I was sweating and hot; I definitely cried, and so did my parents,” she says. “My favorite child psychologist was there, and even she cried.” Their journey home was an emotional one.

As the years went by, Vivian felt more and more at peace with her family. “They were interested in keeping my culture alive,” she says. “They would write me letters saying how proud they were of me, and they would see the potential in me that I’ve never seen anybody else see in me.” Her parents instilled confidence in Vivian in the best way. “To me, that was a huge thing, because I never had someone who would just be like, ‘you’re worth sticking it out for.’”

“Adopting an older kid, I’m not going to lie, is not roses — it’s hard and complicated,” Vivian says. “But if you are willing to give the kid that unconditional love, you are really going to change someone’s life.”

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