Report From India

By Steve S & Melinda B

Tuesday, May 27 — Day 1

Namaste from India!

After 26 hours of travel by van, air, and truck we arrived safely at 2 AM India time in Pune. Just driving here is quite an experience. Upon leaving Bombay airport we had an educational and harrowing trip through the "streets" — (they are more like alleys with people, motorcycles, and rickshaws coming at you from all sides). The activity here is like a beehive — buzzing in all directions — even in the middle of the night.

We slept a few hours, swam & met the social worker Jyoti this morning. SHe is wonderful — full of love for kids and a warm tour guide. But best of all we met Karanti!

It turns out she has been living in foster care in a small enclave/ co-op here populated by Seventh Day Adventists. Because of her early asthma, she was matched with a foster family who has worked for the social service agency for years. The community has its own schools, church, and printing factory (where all work including Karanti's foster dad). We are really thankful for this since the orphanage has a very institutional and heavy feeling. We met her foster mom, dad & brother who clearly care for Karanti.

Wow — from the moment we saw her we were in love. I look into her eyes and feel like I've known her since birth. Jyoti warned us that Karanti might have difficulty with us — might cry, etc. But she surprised us all. After 5 minutes of shyness we were all on the floor together playing and laughing. We thought we would just meet and then come back tomorrow. But the connection was so smooth and easy that we took Karanti back to the hotel for the afternoon. She is beautiful. Understandably overwhelmeed and has a fantastic laugh. Her eyes are even bigger than the picture — a deep well of chocolate brown. I guess everybody knows how much I like chocolate. She really seemed to enjoy lunch — room service bananas, rice and lentils. She and I napped for about an hour too. It reminded me of those first days home with Willie and Zoey when they would fall asleep on my chest. There are few better feelings.

We visited with Jyoti's (the social worker) family at her house and now we are relaxing at the hotel — a pretty nice one too, kind of like an Indian version of Embassy Suites.

Willie and Zoey are great additions to the trip. They traveled like seasoned college students tramping around Europe — never complaining once — even when we were squished in the back seat of a truck, stuck in traffic leaving Bombay. They too have fallen in love with Karanti. They have made such wonderful efforts to connect and make her feel welcome. Zoey may be loving Karanti a little too much. So aside from getting everyone to let Karanti acclimate at her pace, we have been fantastic. We are all healthy, happy and pleasingly tired.

Tonight Karanti is back with her foster family and we will meet up with them tomorrow morning and make her a permanent addition to our family from here on in. The paperwork is all set here in Pune and aside from one day at the US Embassy in Delhi, we are all set.

Our plans are to pick up Karanti in the AM, visit the orphanage to get pictures of some other kids whose future adoptive families wanted some info, then spend Thursday siteseeing in Pune and shopping for Saris. We are leaving Friday AM for Delhi and will have the weekend to explore before going to the Embassy on Monday. Who knows — we may even take a side trip to the Taj Mahal or another site called Satapur Sikri.

We send you all our love and can't wait for the five of us to see you back in New Hampshire.

All our love,
Steve & Family

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