Awards and Tributes

Erichsen Books has provided the door to ingenuity, the how-to, and the education to give children homes, health, happiness, and hope for over three decades. ”Children Abandoned in the Haitian Earthquake” was their subject at a recent seminar in The Woodlands, Texas. The speakers, Heino R. Erichsen and Jean Nelson Erichsen, have traveled on child-saving missions to orphanages on three continents. The plight of abandoned children continues to spark their creativity in promoting aid and adoption. Books and speeches by the Erichsens educate the public of the necessity of saving the world’s most precious resource, our children.

In 2007, The Erichsens received two national awards, The National Council for Adoption (NCFA) Hall of Fame award in Washington, D. C. and The International Rights of the Child Congress in Mexico. In Washington, they were honored for their pioneering adoption work in Latin America, their shaping of ethical Intercountry adoption practices, and the research and writing they freely shared with private and public agencies and organizations.

The International Rights of the Child Congress invited the Erichsens to speak in Hermosillo, Mexico. Directors of the Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF), the child welfare departments in each Mexican state, were among the participants. The Erichsens joined other human service professionals in providing solutions to the DIF’s overwhelming problems. For the first time, the international adoption process was presented to the directors as a possibility for orphans.

LNI dissolved in 2009, yet the Erichsen’s work on behalf of children and non-citizen adopted persons continues. Testimonials and words of appreciation from adoptive families and other adoption agencies heartened the Erichsen family during their last months. On a hot July day, over one hundred local adoptive families gathered to honor the family with a loving farewell picnic.

National Council for Adoption Hall of Fame Award

Accepting the award July 27, 2007, for twenty-six years of research, writing, and pioneering international adoptions

Posing with former NCFA President Tom Atwood, and Senator Mary Landrieu at a reception at the senator’s home, July 24th, 2007, in Washington, D.C.

Rights of the Child International Congress