We adopted a child despite having a biological one; we were firm on this several years ago even when we were dating. When our daughter Rutuja was two-and-a-half years old, we started sensitizing her towards an adoptive sibling. At the time our neighbour had a baby and Rutuja started asking us to get a baby home too. We used this opportunity to assess her reactions towards adoption. We explained to her that her sibling would come from an orphanage. We had to gently tell her to be aware of the many surprises that may come her way from kids about not being related to her sibling by blood. Once we were convinced she understood the situation, we went ahead.

The most grueling task however was picking an adoption agency. We picked Bal Anand. Rohit (then two and-a-half) was simply the first child Bal Anand introduced to us, and we went for him. We believe one doesn’t choose one’s biological child so we saw no reason to do that with Rohit.

To help Rohit adjust to us, we visited him regularly at Bal Anand for 10 months. Despite this, the first two months post adoption were difficult especially to get him to break his old schedule and adapt to the new one.

Today we are a happy growing family with 2 wonderful children and a glorious future ahead of us.

We are adoptive parents of a lovely beautiful girl, Swara who has brought a new meaning to our lives. She has given us a purpose beyond all purposes – of raising her, shaping her views, moulding her to become an extraordinary woman we can be proud of.In doing that, we find ourselves growing too; each day, each hour, each minute that we spend with her.

Being a child with her, laughing with her, crying with her, feeling surprised, elated, excited at pretty much everything. From the mundane to the exotic, we find ourselves looking at everything with innocent eyes, with a renewed hope about life even with all its trappings. This was not the case before. Before she came into our lives, it was incomplete and riddled with many questions, many uncertainties. Most of those concerning a child’s absence in our lives.

Today we are glad we got through those tough times and emerged to live a life that’s incredible in every sense of the word. Having said all this, we have but one fear. Of the time when we will have to tell our daughter that we are not her biological parents. How will she react? This question nags us each day. We know there are no easy answers. The silver lining for us is our faith in our daughter’s intrinsic goodness that will see her sail through the rough and tumble of life, smoothly.

Yet, we have begun to prepare ourselves for any eventuality and at the same time have set ourselves to groom her to be an independent thinking individual who does not lose sight of the values we inculcate in her.

Adoption was always a part of our agenda even if we could have a biological child. Unfortunately that didn’t happen and we plunged into adoption. That decision changed our lives forever. We clearly remember the day we were shown Shreya’s photograph – sleeping soundly in a crib. We fell in love with her picture and knew that very moment that we wanted her. Soon enough, the day came when we brought her home from Bal Ashraya in Nagpur.

The first few weeks were a struggle with us not knowing much of how to go about raising her. Slowly and steadily we learnt and continue to learn till date. It is a wonderful feeling, one that cannot be expressed in words. The joy of being a mother and a father is incomparable to anything else in this world. Shreya is the reason for all this happiness in our lives.Every day is an adventure with her.
How she learns things in her own way, how she has a huge fan following of relatives and friends literally dancing to her every tune.

Her grandparents adore her and dote on her. How it’s impossible to believe that a tiny person like her can command every one around her. I, as a woman and a mother feel that she is absolutely and completely a part of my body and soul and do not feel that I have adopted her. She is totally ours now in all aspects. It is wonderful and incredible to watch her grow in front of our eyes. She pulls at our heartstrings when she is not well or gets hurt. One dazzling smile from her makes us forget all our pains.

Our experience of adopting Shreya was wonderful. Bal Anand and Bal Ashraya guided us with all the procedures and formalities and we did not face any difficulties at any point of time. We have the utmost regard for the staff of Bal Anand and Bal Ashraya for the noble work that they are doing. We feel that if every family adopts atleast one child, then these beautiful children will have a safe and secure home and a secure future they deserve.

We got married on December 29th, 1998 and started a new life. As all new couples, we had many dreams of what our married life would be and looked forward with excitement to enlarging our family. Each new day that dawned brought hope into our life but days and months passed by and yet the Lord had not blessed us with a child. We were very disappointed but we expected God’s plan, and knew He had better days in store for us.

We decided to reach out to other children – each of us, in our capacity as a teacher and engineer. This phase in our life brought us tremendous joy because we were now able to share our love and feelings with children in our neighbourhood and at our place of work. Then God planted a seed in
our minds and it soon grew into a reality. We decided to adopt a baby.

On returning to India from Saudi Arabia, we approached a number of institutions and applied for a baby girl. We had to face a lot of red tapism, but after a year of running around, we found Bal Anand. Finally that special day arrived!

Here, I would like to quote psalm 139 that says: “All the days ordained for us were written in God’s book before one of them came to be.”

It was on May 9th, 2006, that we took our little girl home with great joy and expectations. Lisa has completed our family. She is a gift from God and we are very thankful that God chose us and gave us this fantastic opportunity. She is a miracle that has happened in our lives, and we are very glad we made the decision to adopt her. She has filled the lives of her parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends and neighbors with a lot of joy. We love her very much and want her to be a blessing to others as she grows.

We are celebrating life in its new perspective and enjoying a lot.

Internationally recognised choreographer and single adoptive parent

I am very thankful to Ms. Kalro and her team at Bal Anand for believing in my dream of adoption and making it a reality. It took years of perseverance in face of uncertainty, fighting my right to adopt even as a single male, and then multiple visits to many orphanages till I came to Bal Anand. At Bal Anand, they understood and respected my beliefs, they looked at my thoughts in a modern perspective.Then began a year long process of detailed scrutiny, thorough investigation of my background, my family, my financial and social standing.

The day I met Arjun for the first time, I knew all the effort and work was well worth it. His impish smile got me closer to him and I got the then two-and-a-half-year old Arjun home. I am glad that my son is now a part of my life making it further more happy and exciting. I wish all the best to the team of Bal Anand and say a big thank you, for all what they have done for me and my family, we feel indebted to them for a lifetime.