As a teen I always wanted to give a baby girl a home and my name. I felt deeply for those who didn’t have a family to take care of them. I believe that “Kids are just kids who need love and care, so why not adopt one who really needs a Family.” Before even getting married I shared my desire with my husband, who accepted it with equal enthusiasm and we decided that we’d have our first child through adoption. We didn’t think at the time of a special needs adoption but destiny had other plans for us. We were in the USA when we first encountered kids with Down Syndrome and having no clue about what this condition is, we started reading up about it online.
After spending almost 2-3 months reading and talking about it, we couldn’t find a single reason why we shouldn’t go ahead and adopt a baby with Down syndrome.
Being Indian citizens living in the USA on work visas we were not eligible to adopt through CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority of India) and the only option left for us was to come back to India. It was a tough decision to make as we wouldn’t be able to leave India for the next couple of years after the adoption, but it was worth it. After a lot of paperwork we registered for Adoption and a home study followed a few weeks later. There was no waitlist for kids with special needs and we actively started looking for a baby with Down syndrome instead of waiting for referrals from CARA, which generally takes a while.
The next step was breaking the news to our family. In India the general view is that you choose adoption only when you’re out of options of having biological kids and adopting one with special needs is a definite NO; our parents’ thought process was no different. So, we did what we thought was right and went ahead with our decision rather than spending time convincing them. And then we found our baby girl in the disability section on the CARA site. A 15- month-old girl with the most beautiful smile and expressive eyes.
One look at her picture and we knew this was our baby and couldn’t wait to hold her. She was in Bhopal, abandoned when she was just six months old. We had a look through her reports and reserved her without wasting another minute. We went to Bhopal and spent hours with our little girl just admiring her movements and smile; we signed the acceptance letter the same day. The biggest concern we had was her physical health and milestone delays. Although she was 15 months old she looked like a 4- month-old baby, weak and underweight.
She was legally free for adoption so we had her in our home within 45 days of our registration. We named her Veda, which means Knowledge. As she belongs to both of us, she has both of our surnames. Our daughter’s name is “Veda Baluni Kaktwan.” The first six months were all about medical check-ups and legal formalities, along with physiotherapy as she has low muscle tone and ligament laxity. Having Myopia (near sightedness) along with Nystagmus she wears glasses, which makes her the center of attraction whenever she is out in public.
We have celebrated each of her achievements and milestones. It has been more than a year since Veda came home. We have seen tremendous changes in her; she is now a much stronger and healthier version of the girl who came home. Veda is a cheerful baby, loving and very patient, there is not a dull moment in our house with her around. She transitioned from Bhopal to Delhi with such ease and accepted us so readily without us having to make much effort from our side. We do still have to keep in mind her past, as a 15-month-old baby she had already gone through a lot.
From being abandoned to being in different places among various unknown faces and finally accepting us as her parents. We are thankful to her for accepting us and loving us unconditionally. Veda is now an expressive, happy, fussy little baby, one who loves to listen to music, greets everyone with a smile, loves unconditionally and can give you a hard time with her stubbornness; and we love her more than anything.
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