Pushing through the Red Tape

Anjali woke up on Tuesday morning and said, "Anjali, Papa beti (daughter), Anjali, Mama beti.  We thought it was an auspicious sign considering it's not something she has ever done before and given the significance of the day.  Well, we didn't pass court on Tuesday.  We had a stressful drive to the courthouse that took far too long.  The hearing was held in District court room 3 and our judge is the honorable Sri Krishna Prasap Singh.  This was a smaller courtroom about 12x12 in a building off to the side of the main court building.  There wasn't enough space for us to sit in the court room, so we sat in a room off to the side that was filled with stacks of dilapidated files stacked haphazardly throughout the room.  An old man kept coming in the room with new stacks of files that he threw carelessly on the ones that were already there.  Mr. Sinha, our advocate and the senior advocate were in the courtroom while Adam, I, Anjali, Sister Meera and Sister Manoj waited in the side room.  There was no picturesque river off to the side of this courtroom and no ceiling fans.  While we were waiting, I had to change Anjali's diaper so Sister Meera took me up to the terrace as there was no public restrooms.  While walking up there as I looked down toward the street there were prisoners not shackled with handcuffs, but rope.  It was quite the scene.  Anjali was quite beautiful, as usual with her Nana's pearls on and a new dress.

The hearing was very short and we were there thankfully for less than an hour.  It was unfortunately, just another preliminary hearing for this new  adjunct court.  The senior advocate was again critical in securing a date for our next hearing which will be the evidence hearing less than a week from this one on Monday, September 21st. He brought us all into the courtroom at the end, so the judge could see us and see that we are here waiting.  It was a critical moment with Adam holding Anjali and Anjali with her arm wrapped around my neck, all of us looking intently at him.  He definitely straightened up a bit and took notice. Mr. Sinha is confident that this next hearing will be our last one.  Everyone will need to be there including the folks from Nalanda which is a two hour drive when traffic is good.  Sister Meera told me that this particular judge asks a lot of questions which is fine by us.  She and Sister Manoj asked us a lot of questions on the drive over and while we were waiting about life with Anjali.  They both were beside themselves about how well Anjali has bonded to Adam and I.  For them it was a confirmation of the good works they have done at Missionaries of Charity with the orphanage.  I am sad to report they will no longer be doing adoptions there.  They will still provide a home for children deemed "unadoptable," but those who have the possibility of being adopted, are currently being transferred to other orphanages.  

We were very disappointed on Tuesday, and headed for our favorite place in Patna on Wednesday, the Patna Zoo with Anjali.  She definitely needed a day of running around after a tense court day.  We discovered the bird aviary and finally paid the extra 25 rupees to go into the zoo playground where they  have a couple of giraffe slides, now that Anjali loves slides.  It was a fun, relaxing morning and put things in perspective as to why we are here and how fortunate we are to be able to foster Anjali as we finish up with court.  We feel so close as a family.  That is simply priceless!

Today we went to the passport office to confirm that we could apply for her passport ourselves and to find out all the documents required.  While I can tell you being there was yet another eye opening exeperience into the world of Indian bureaucracy, I am happy to report we were quickly referred directly to the head passport director at the regional office.  No one knew what to do at the central passport office since there has never been an international adoption in Bihar.  We got a little lost getting there, but once there at the regional office, another Mr. Sinha, the regional passport director, took the time to go over all the documents we would need over tea in his office.  He was so helpful and gave us his mobile number and told us to call him should we have any problems when we do apply for Anjali's passport.  He commented on how happy Anjali was.  Our experience with the people of Bihar is that they have been incredibly honest and helpful,  even if they are inexperienced with foreigners.  We feel so much support from everyone we have met here.

Tomorrow we are heading to Bodh Gaya for the weekend, a two hour train ride from Patna.  This is a very special spiritual place where Buddha sat under the bodhi tree and attained enlightenment.  There are many Buddhist temples there and the seventh generation of the bodhi tree.  It is said that if you find a leave fallen from the tree, it is an auspicious sign.  We are hopeful as we need it right now, but regardless, it will be a chance to calm down, meditate and pause to put things in perspective before our next court date on Monday.  Plus Anjali gets to ride on a train!  

Anjali Earns Her Wings

We were definitely nervous as we headed to the Patna airport for our trip to Chennai and Pondicherry.  We weren't sure how Anjali would do on her first flight or if we would get any grief about our documents for travel with her.  Twenty minutes before we headed out, Anjali got hold of a pepper shaker and put pepper in her eyes.  But when we finally got to the airport everything went smoothly.  We were able to check in and go through security with no problems.  Anjali was sort of in disbelief that she was actually getting on an airplane, but super excited.  We let Anjali sit by the window and when we took off, she had this to say:  Whoooaa!!!  She was a bit restless on the first flight, and had a slight meltdown when we were landing, because she didn't want to wear a seatbelt, but that only lasted a few minutes.  On the flight from Delhi to Chennai, she fell asleep and each subsequent flight seemed to get a bit easier.  Phew!

We arrived in Chennai at about 8:30pm.  We had a delicious South Indian meal in our hotel restaurant and then went to sleep.  In the morning, we took a three hour taxi ride to Pondicherry.  Anjali was unfortunately not feeling well, had a high fever and slept most of the day.  Thankfully, it all only lasted one day and she was fine after that.  We ended up staying in a guesthouse in Auroville, which is this wonderful little hippiesque town just outside of Pondicherry.  Our guesthouse was tucked away on a dirt road past a grove of coconut trees and was a lovely, peaceful spot for us to enjoy our stay.  It was about 5 minutes from the beach and a 20 minute motor scooter ride to Pondicherry.  Neither Adam or I had ever heard of Auroville, but we fell in love with the place and thought we might even enjoy living there some day.  The best thing we did was to rent a scooter for 150 rupees a day.  We were able to trot all over town and not worry about how we were going to get from one place to the next.  We ended up spending a lot more time in Auroville than Pondicherry.  It was so green and peaceful, with lots of wonderful little restaurants with lovely outdoor courtyards.  Anjali absolutely loved the beach.  She was a little tentative on the first day, but the second day, she simply couldn't get enough of the waves.  

We spent a little bit of time in Pondicherry proper. We went to this amazing Ganesha Temple, Manakula Vineyegar Temple, that had the most beautiful live elephant named Laxmi giving blessings to people as they went in.  The temple itself was absolutely fantastic with every imaginable replica of the beloved elephant headed god from places around the world.   Ganesha is known as the remover of obstacles. We definitely need his help on this trip, so I am so glad we had an opportunity to visit this temple that was built some time before the 1650s.  The French quarter and markets there are something I would definitely like to go back and explore more.

We headed back to Chennai on Tuesday afternoon.  Chennai is a clean, modern city with a laid back feel to it.  Adam had to work most of the time, but I was able to easily get around via Tuk-tuk from our hotel which was in a nice location.  I visited Marina beach, Pondy Bazaar and a nice botanical garden.  Anjali got some new outfits from Saravana store and she made big progress on slides at the botanical garden playground. On our last night we went to a really good South Indian restaurant with some Swedish folks from Adam's company.  

We got back early Saturday and are back in the Patna groove, but feeling refreshed after our little vacation to the beach.  Anjali did so well on this trip.  I am so proud of her.  She was happy to be home, but today was asking when we would go an airplane again.  Tomorrow is our big court date, so soon my sweet little adventurer, god willing, soon.

Ready, Set, Challo!

It is clear that Anjali has an adventurous spirit just like her parents.  She is so excited to see what's out there in the world and we are doing our best to show it to her.  After spending two and a half years in an orphanage, I can understand her sense of urgency.  She has a lot of catching up to do. This is evident when she struggles with things that we take for granted like going up an escalator for the first time or playing on playground equipment at the park and struggling to walk in the sand there. She is eager to try things out even when she feels a little fearful and she always seems happy and proud when she has tried out something new.  Her favorite thing to say right now is challo which means let's go and it means going out somewhere for her.  All the local rickshaw and Tuk Tuk drivers know us.  We don't even have to say where we are going when we head home.

Our favorite place is still the Patna Zoo.  This past week we went on a quiet Friday morning.  It was feeding time and so a good time to see the animals.  Anjali got to take her picture with an elephant which was pretty exciting.  She has also discovered running and the wide walking paths at the zoo provide a perfect track for a toddler.  She fell a few times, but got right back up and seemed to enjoy nursing her first boo boo with us (a small scrape on her knee).

We discovered a lovely Buddhist park called Buddha Smitri Park near the train station on Sunday.  It has a large Stupa, museum and peaceful grounds that also provided little A with lots of space to run.  Instrumental hindi songs piped out of speakers in the ground and Anjali was fascinated that the music came out of them.  We hope to go back to visit the museum some time soon.

Tomorrow, we will be heading to Chennai and Pondicherry for a week.  It will be Anjali's first flight and we are excited for the change of scenery down south.  Everytime we see an airplane in the sky, we point it out to her and tell her she will be going on a plane soon.  This morning I showed her pictures of Indigo airplanes which is the airline we will be flying.  I also found the video below of an Indigo plane landing and taking off and she was super excited when I told her tomorrow Mama, Papa, and Anjali would be going on an airplane.  She is fascinated with all vehicles that move and has ridden in a surprisingly diverse array of them since we've been here.  Today Adam took her on a bike ride in the neighborhood and she sat on the back rack, no problem.  Hopefully, her list of vehicles ridden will also include train, boat, and motor scooter, before we leave India.


This will be a nice test run for the "big trip" back to the states.  The flight consists of two shorter flights first to New Delhi and then to Chennai on the return it stops in Kolkata.  We leave at 2:30pm and arrive at 8:30pm.  We contacted the airline and let them know that we had the custody papers and NOC to make sure we wouldn't have any trouble traveling with her.  They said it would be fine and left a travel note on our reservation.  We will be back next Saturday in time to prepare for what will probably be an intense week with our second court hearing.