Our Adoption Story
It was September 2008. It had been about 15 months since I
had returned home from India with my second child Nithya. Her older sister Kelsey
was adopted from China in 2001. Nithya was a special needs child born with a
cleft lip and palate. She also has chronic hearing loss. During the time that
I was adopting Nithya there were 18 other children in the orphanage that were
available for adoption. All of them had been matched with families except for
a little blind boy about 3 yrs old named Sudarshan. The families of the other
children spread the word about this little boy and prayed desperately for a
family to come along. As each person went to India to get their child, they
met Sudarshan and fell more and more in love with him. Through some unfortunate
events, my adoption of Nithya took 2 yrs and 4 months to complete. By the time
Nithya came home she was 4 1/2 yrs old, and Sudarshan was now 5 yrs old, still
with no family.
There were some people who inquired about him and even a couple
of families that started the process, yet those fell through. Nithya had been
home 15 months now, and Sudarshan was 6 1/2 yrs old, his chances of being adopted
dwindling by the day. I remember lying in bed one night praying, "Lord,
please give Sudarshan a family." Very clearly the thought came into my
mind. "Why don't you adopt him?" What??? I am a single mom, and have
already completed 2 international adoptions. I have no funds to do this and
no way of traveling to bring him home at this point. Yet, I knew what I had
heard. So, I crawled out of bed and sent the email to the agency inquiring about
this little guy; a little boy that I had seen only in pictures over the past
4 years.
The process took 18 months to complete, and the funds miraculously
came together. It was through foundations like A Child Waits that helped this
little boy now almost 8 yrs old to have a family of his own. Without their help
it would have been very difficult to afford a third adoption. Our family is
forever grateful.
The miracles have not stopped here however. Now that Sudarshan is home, he has
access to health care. We have discovered that he does have very limited vision
in his left eye. He will soon have an ultra sound to see if there is any chance
of enhancing the little bit of vision that he does have. Sudarshan also started
school this week, and the thing that he has not stopped talking about so far
is riding the school bus. What a small thing that our kids have been doing for
years without thought, that has brought such excitement to this little guy!
Thank you A Child Waits Foundation for making all the difference in the life of this little angel.
Karen Sheets