Living Hope Adoption Agency (LHAA) has been licensed by the country of Honduras and began a “pilot adoption program” in October 2010. LHAA and Direccion de Niñez Adolescencia y Familia or Directorate for Children, Youth and Family (DINAF) created a partnership with one goal in mind — creating forever families for Honduran orphans. Our agency is proud to be working with the Honduran government, and we look forward to providing adoption services to loving families to achieve this goal.

Honduras is located in Central America. It borders Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Originally, Honduras was inhabited by several indigenous tribes — most notably, the Mayans. It was colonized by the Spanish and ruled by Spain for nearly 300 years. Honduras won its independence from Spain in 1821. Currently the country is a Democratic Republic headed by President Juan Orlando Hernández. Today, Honduras is mostly an agricultural society with major exports of coffee and bananas. Most of the people work on small family farms called Campesinos. The primary language spoken in the country is Spanish; however there are also several Amerindian dialects. The major ethnic groups in the country are the Chorti, Lenca, and the Jicaque. Honduras is predominately a Catholic country with 97% of the people identifying as Catholic. The staple foods in a Honduran household are corn tortillas and beans. Other traditional Honduran foods include fried plantains, white cheese, and mantequilla, a fried spicy meat dish. The country celebrates several unique holidays including the La Ceiba Carnival, Feria de la Virgin de Suyapa, Day of the Americas, and their National Independence Day on September 15th.

The majority of the children are placed for adoption due to impoverished conditions, and are then placed in children’s homes or foster homes until they are matched with a family for adoption. Prospective adoptive parents can expect a full process time frame of approximately 5 years for the Standard Program, which places healthy children ages 2 years old and older. The Waiting Child Program has an approximate timeline of 24-30 months, and advocates for children ages 3-13 years old, with special needs, or older children over the age of 7. Siblings are also in search of forever families, on occasion.