In October 2009 my wife Heather and I brought our 3-year-old son home from Kerala, India.  Derin was a resident at Sishu Kshema Bhavan near Kanjirapally.  We were very pleased with the orphanage and the care he received.  We worked with Adoption Advocates of Madison, WI and Children’s Home Society and Family Services of Minneapolis, MN.

Hi!  It’s a little disheartening to see there are only a couple other members here, but since every member counts—here I am!  Both of our sons were adopted from India.  Vijay was two and adopted from an orphanage—BSSK, Pune, India, 2004.  Namith was three and adopted from a foster family through orphanage VCT, Bangalore, India, 2008.  We were also pleased with the level of care they received.  We have no information on Vijay prior to his arrival at BSSK at one month of age, but we have meticulous records from his time at BSSK, and a photo of him once a month for his two years there.  These are very valuable to us all.  Namith was fortunate to be in a foster family from the time of his birth until we arrived, a full three years.  While we have fewer records of his time there, we do know more about his birth mother’s situation, and we were able to meet and spend time with his foster family.  We used Holt International at Eugene, OR as our foreign adoption agency, and Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for our local services.

We’re glad to have you!

Hello:
I am so happy to have found this group!  I have been considering an Indian adoption for the last year or so, but am not sure how easy that will be as a single parent.  My daughter Clara is of Indian heritage and was adopted domestically at birth, five years ago.  We have become involved in the Indian community where we live and she studies classical Hindu dance.  I had been of the impression that India did not allow international adoptions unless one parent was of Indian descent.  Any further information you have to pass along would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Roxane

Hi Roxane,

You don’t need to be of Indian descent in order to adopt from there.  There’s a Yahoo message board you can join called i-child where lots of American singles and couples share their experiences going through the process.

Good luck.

I adopted my daughter Nithya through MAPS and BAAS. She was 3 when I got the referral, and 5 when I brought her home in December 2008- best Christmas present ever! Nithya is from the Christ Faith Home for Children in Chennai, India. She has adjusted wonderfully, and most people can’t believe that she has only been in the US for 2 years.

Hi!  My husband and I are just beginning our adoption journey.  We have two grown daughters and a school-age granddaughter, and have decided that it’s time to start “Phase Two” of raising a family!    I’ve dreamed of adopting an older, waiting child from overseas ever since I was very young, and we strongly feel God is telling us that this is the time for us to go ahead!  Our agency is WACAP, and we are in the process of getting our homestudy done, and are inquiring about a 10-year-old girl residing at Ashraya Children’s Home.  I would love to chat with others who have brought home older children from India!

Suzanne,

We adopted our son from Ashraya 2 years ago! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Hello everyone,

I’m so thankful to have found this group. We are currently in the beginning stages of considering an adoption from India. We are looking to submit our application in the next year or two and right now we are obtaining information from agencies and reading books on the topic. We are hoping to adopt a toddler, between ages of 2 and 4.