Marriages end. Romantic love fades—or at least waxes and wanes. But the first time you hold your child in your arms, you know that you are now joined as one, parent and child, for as long as you live. And, even if that relationship ever grows toxic or estranged, parent and child, you shall remain forever.

For my partner and I, and our family, that moment of no return came when our daughter was over a year old. And how she came into our lives became irrelevant as quickly as we fell irrevocably and madly in love with our ever-fascinating child. Five years on, our lives revolve around screentime limits, non-stop questions, the squishiest hugs, the wisest obse­rvations, the funniest jokes, and incessant eye-rolls from the resident six-going-on-sixteen little person in our lives. Meanwhile, the paperwork, the long wait, and the judge pronouncing the order that joined us as a family forever are only distant memories.

But over these five years, I’ve had several prospective adoptive parents reach out to me with questions, worries, and doubts. Will I love this child as I would my ‘own’? What will I do if people I love discriminate against her? How will I tell him he was adopted? Why should I tell her she was adopted? When should I tell them? And, how do I stop my heart from breaking when I gather the courage to tell them? The ans­wers are simple and start from a singular truth. You are parent and child. Forever.

Unconditionally Forever I don’t have an adoptedchild. Instead, my child came into my life through adoption. And adoption doesn’t have to be a scary word. It doesn’t matter what led you to become a parent: great sex, a petri-dish in a laboratory, or truckloads of paperwork. All that matters are the bright eyes that light up your life. And so, adoption was just the process. It is also an essential part of your child’s history, which they have the absolute right to know. Tell them, be honest, use age-appropriate stories, meet other families made from adoption. But it’s unquestionably the right thing to do.

I talk about adoption to everyone who asks, looks curious, or gives me the slightest opening. I’m an over-sharer, and my Facebook timeline is filled with unt­hought-through posts with #TMI. And thus, I open myself up to comments and questions that range from how ‘noble’ we are, how ‘lucky’ she is, and whether we know who our daughter’s ‘real parents’ are. I try to answer each question logically, unemotionally, factually—because often, people really don’t know any better. And I’d like to do my bit to hopefully open someone’s mind enough to have some child somewhere find their way to their forever family.

... There were green

Tattoos on their cheeks, jasmines in their hair, some

Were dark and some were almost fair. Their voices

Were harsh, their songs melancholy; they sang of

Lovers dying and or children left unborn....

“Oh, you are here. Nayantara is getting ready still. Please wait here in the office”. As we entered the Director’s chamber in the children’s centre in an industrial part of north Delhi on that crisp Nov­ember morning a dozen years ago, the mom­ents of waiting for Nayantara seemed to stretch out interminably. Then right in the middle of our half-hearted small talk with the official-looking people in the room, we stopped in mid-sentence as we heard a tiny roar of voices and a swift swoosh as the curtains parted. A bun­dled baby was carried proudly into the room by a beaming nurse. I could see a nice head of hair that had been abundantly and freshly oiled, the smallest of noses, and a light blue cotton onesie with little cars and trains printed on it, no doubt picked out for the spec­ial occasion. My cousin Vatsala’s sage voice rang in my ears. “Didda, don’t get put off by the hair oil”. Before I knew it, Nayantara was in my arms, and I was almost blinded by her million-­watt smile and the spray of dimples all over her face. “She looks just like you”, said the adoption officer triumphantly. Did she know I used to dream of a girl with dimples?

Not because of, but perhaps in spite of what the adoption officer told me, I find myself ever so

often tracing my fingers across my daughter’s face while she sleeps gently next to me. I marvel

at her perfect little nose that has now filled out, her shapely light-brown eyebrows, her

lengthening body, and the fading blue birthmarks that once took up the entirety of her back.

It was a warm September morning and the house of an employee of the Northern Power Distribution Company of Telangana Ltd was decked up for a small yet intimate religious ceremony in the small village. It was a joyous occasion for the man, in his forties, and his wife. A long wait for the couple to adopt a child had finally come true—this was to be the ‘homecoming’ of a 10-year-old boy the couple had ‘adopted’ a few days earlier from a care home in Mumbai. But the story didn’t have a happy ending. A police team swooped on the house that day and arrested the man on charges of kidnapping—the boy he had adopted was found to have been kidnapped from Mumbai earlier. The man landed in jail, though he claims he was the victim of an elaborate racket.

Last year, a man in Mumbai found out that his three children—put in a childcare home run by a well-known charity after the death of their mother—have been adopted by an American couple without his knowledge. He has been fighting a legal battle since then. His case may be not exactly of fraud as the charity had put out newspaper notices about the plan to put up the three children for adoption. But for many others, it has been a nightmarish experience after being taken for a ride by organised gangs.

Experts and activists say the main reason for adoption frauds are India’s complicated laws and their cumbersome implementation process due to which couples desperate to adopt children often look for unauthorised channels. India tightened its adoption rules after cases emerged of parents being coerced or tricked to give up their children for inter-country adoptions. And the involvement of doctors, nurses and orphanage officials in a racket that runs into crores of rupees annually makes it all the more difficult for unsuspecting couples in ­detecting fraudulent deals. Sometimes, of course, couples go ahead despite being aware of the illegal nature of the adoption process.

Ashok Chand, a former deputy commissioner of police (crime) who had unearthed at least three adoption rackets in Delhi around 2010, says that racketeers have more or less the same modus operandi in which they either buy ­children from poor parents or ask them to ­conceive and hand over the newborn to needy parents in return for money.

“One gang had four members, including two women, a doctor and another man. The women were operating the racket in the garb of ­running NGOs,” Chand says.

Holt International and Gift of Adoption Partner to Make up to $500,000 in Adoption Philanthropy Grants Available to Put Adoption in Reach for Qualified Families Adopting Vulnerable Children.

Eugene, Oregon, Nov. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In celebration of National Adoption Month, Holt International and Gift of Adoption today announced a partnership to reduce financial barriers to adoption for qualified families yearning to adopt vulnerable children by making up to $500,000 in adoption philanthropy grants available. The partnership celebrates each organization’s child-centered beliefs that every child deserves a permanent and loving home.

Through its Families Not Finances campaign, Holt will provide grants of $10,000 towards the fees for adopting children they’ve identified as needing special support to be matched with a qualified family regardless of the family’s financial status. Holt’s $10,000 grant will go toward eliminating Holt’s agency costs for the adoption of children who have been identified as needing special support.

Gift of Adoption will provide up to $15,000 to complete the adoption of any Holt family who has been matched with a child and needs financial assistance to bring their waiting child home.

“For 25 years Gift of Adoption volunteers and donors have made adoption a philanthropic priority", added Pam Devereux, CEO of Gift of Adoption. "Reminding us that you don’t have to adopt to give a child a loving permanent family.”.

Visakhapatnam: The Child Welfare Committee representatives have received the baby of

Anupama Chandran, say reports. The couple who adopted the child handed over the baby

boy to the CWC at a district centre here on Saturday.

The four-member team from Kerala reached Andhra around Saturday evening. They received the baby after talking with the couple for over one hour and 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, it is not confirmed that whether they will return to Kerala on Saturday itself. CWC will have the responsibility to take care of the child until the court completes the procedures.

Thiruvananthapuram: A family court here on Saturday has denounced the Child Welfare Committee over the illegal adoption of Anupama Chandran’s baby. The court raised the criticism when the CWC sought more time to submit the final report over the case

The court observed that the committee didn’t submit the adoption license even after the court issued directions for the same. The affiliation license issued by the State Adoption Regulatory Authority was expired in 2016.

The CWC has not produced the renewed original license along with the affidavit before the court. Irked with this, the court denounced the CWC and issued strict direction to produce the original license.

Meanwhile, the CWC informed the family court here that the investigation into the baby kidnap case is in the final phase. The committee also requested the court to grant time till November 29 to submit the detailed report.

However, the family court expressed satisfaction over the case. The court also directed to avoid lapses in the case. The case will be considered again on November 30.

"We had received several complaints against this NGO, including allegations of selling babies in the guise of running the home and that there were incidents of molestation of the infants," said the police.

Howrah (West Bengal): The daughter-in-law of former Howrah deputy mayor Minati Adhikari and a state government official were among 10 people arrested from West Bengal's Salkia for allegedly selling newborn babies from an adoption centre, the police said on Saturday.

Acting on complaints, Howrah City Police Commissioner C Sudhakar led a raid on 'Cradle Baby Centre' late on Friday night and arrested 10 people, including the woman, who was running the adoption centre for the last five years, and the West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS) official, a senior officer said.

Several babies were removed from the private home by police during the raid, he said.

"We had received several complaints against this NGO, including allegations of selling babies in the guise of running the home and that there were incidents of molestation of the infants," said the officer.

Fernando and Constanza were separated for 42 years and three years ago she learned that she was adopted and that she belonged to the group of irregular adoptions sponsored by the priest Gerardo Joannon and the doctor Gustavo Monckeberg .

Although both sought each other, it was Constanza's action that achieved the reunion after confirming that her lifelong family was not the biological one.

In his process, he created an NGO to unite illegally separated families, went to an international blood bank and met his biological mother, from whom he did not receive the expected affection.

However, from this side of his biological family he received the necessary clue to find the whereabouts of Fernando.

Learn about this exciting story and that of the NGO that Constanza leads to help Chileans who live what she experienced in the following Report 24.

Anupama and her husband Ajith come out of the CWC office at Poojapura on Thursday

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala state council for child welfare on Thursday issued an order for facilitating the DNA test of the child it had given out for adoption to an Andhra couple.

The order was issued after Anupama, who has accused her parents of giving out her baby for adoption to the council without her consent, claimed that the child was hers. After the government informed the court about the claims of Anupama over the child, the court had directed the council and child welfare committee to take steps for conducting the DNA test of the child.

Reacting to the latest development, Anupama, who is staging a protest in front of the welfare council, said she was happy about the order, but would continue the stir till she gets her baby back. “The order says the child would be brought back to Kerala in five days for the DNA test. The district child protection officer would be the custodian of the baby till the DNA test is over. The child would be housed in a government facility is what I assume,” she said.

The child would be brought from Andhra under police protection. “Getting back my child is one of the most important demands I have raised. But there are other important problems that need attention. It includes action against the authorities who failed to do justice. My fight would continue until all those responsible for the forced adoption of my child are punished,” Anupama said.