Anjali was left on an overhead luggage rack of a Patna bound train by a parent or parents who felt they could not give her the care she needed probably due to the rare medical issue she was born with that would be difficult for a family with limited means to care for. She was found on Christmas Eve 2012 at the Patna Junction Railway Station and was taken by police to Missionaries of Charity in Old Patna City where she was given the name Anjali by the Sisters. She was approximately 9 months old and was given the birth date of March 23, 2012. Anjali was showered with love and so well cared for and I attribute her loving, happy spirit to the Sisters and caregivers there. It was difficult to find a doctor in Patna to perform the surgery she needed, but eventually Anjali was taken to Indira Gandhi Medical Center where Pediatric Surgeon Vinit Thakur agreed to provide Anjali with the operation she would need only if a nurse could be found who was willing to give Anjali the intensive follow up care she would need after the surgery. Nurse Sujata answered the call with extreme devotion treating her like a family member. Even after Anjali recovered, she would make periodic visits to the orphanage and brought her own daughters to play with Anjali and make her feel like she had a family. In early 2014, Sister Meera joined Missionaries of Charity. She did not have experience with adoptions, and as a result she put several of the children on the CARA site as available for international adoption including Anjali even though she was not allowed to do so because MOC Patna is not licensed for placing children internationally. We were matched with Anjali in April 2014. It feels like it was truly written in the stars that Anjali was meant to be with us. I am simply amazed that everything fell in place as it did.
Our last couple of weeks in Patna were emotional ones that brought to close a defining chapter in the life of our family. On Sunday, September 27th as we were walking to the vegetable market, I heard a woman's voice yell out, "Anjali!" When I turned around to see a woman getting off a motorcycle, I knew instantly that it was Sujata. We had been communicating via email and the street we walk down to get to the market is a short cut from the hospital to her house. We chatted for a bit with her and her husband Jeevan and made arrangements to come to the hospital that Thursday. Anjali would not go to Sujata which made me sad, but Sujata was really happy to see her.
It was nice to visit the hospital and meet some of the people who helped Anjali. We saw where the operating theater where her surgery was performed was and also the recovery room where she spent 3 weeks. Dr. Thakur was out of town, so we were unable to visit with him. But Anjali eventually warmed up to Sujata and let her hold her as we walked out towards the hospital exit. The following day Sujata stopped by our flat with her two daughters who brought gifts for Anjali. She again acted very shy and clingy, but as soon as they left she got super excited about all of the gifts, so I sent pictures to Sujata of her with them.
On Saturday, October 3rd we went back to the courthouse. There was no hearing per se, but we met our advocate there and he spoke with the bailiff who confirmed that our order had been issued. After some time we received word that the written orders would be ready on Monday. They didn't come on Monday, but they did come late Tuesday afternoon and Adam went down to the courthouse to pick them up.
On Sunday, we were invited to a neighbor's house for lunch where we were treated to a typical Bihari meal that included the speciality that we had been told we needed to try before we left Bihar called Litti. It is a round stuffed pastry that was served with a tomatoe chutney. It was a delicious lunch. The family had a 3 year old boy as well who was eager to play with Anjali. Anjali was shy to begin with but relaxed a bit once he brought out his giant stuffed caterpillar. By the end of the afternoon they were playing together in the yard and Anjali was having a blast. It was so wonderful to see her playing with someone her own age.
On Wednesday we headed to the central passport agency to apply for the passport. We learned that there are nearly 2,000 passports being processed each day in this office...mostly men traveling to the Middle East for work. We had done the groundwork before and were taken directly to the manager's office who checked all of our documents and then set us up with an assistant to get everything processed. Anjali was very excited to have to give her thumbprint for a signature. We were there for about two hours and were then told to go to the regional passport office to meet with Mr. Sinha who we had met before. We went to his office and he let us know that we could get the passport within the next couple of days once he got a an email confirmation from the RIPA director that she was okay with us applying for the passport as it is normally the director that is responsible for doing this.
On Thursday, we were invited back to the hospital to meet Dr. Thakur. He had a busy day of surgeries so he met us between two of them and we talked a bit about Anjali and took photos.
On Friday morning, we went to Missionaries of Charity to say goodbye and pick up vaccination records. It was a tough visit. We watch 4 more kids being transferred out. The car transporting them was leaving as we pulled in. I'm pretty sure Anjali's best friend Naveen was one of them in the car. There are only a handful of kids remaining as MOC ends its adoption program and the Sisters were all sad. The eldest Sister took Anjali from my arms and she started crying fiercely really scared she was being handed back. She took Anjali on a walk and to say goodbye and say a prayer. I got the vaccination record from Sister Meera and thanked her for everything. She told me she was really happy Anjali was going home with us but that she would miss her and I promised to call once we got back to the U.S. Then we headed off to the passport office. Anjali had recovered from the farewell at MOC by then and pranced into the director's office. They had a photographer there to take a photo of the first passport issued in Bihar for an adopted child. Anjali was so excited about getting her passport and seeing her picture in it and of course, her thumbprint. Getting the passport turned out to be the easiest, quickest part of the process! We went home and packed and cleaned.
Friday evening we hosted a small celebration dinner at the restaurant 17 Degrees. It was a nice farewell and goodbye for all the wonderful people in Patna who helped us.
Saturday morning, we finished packing and said our goodbyes. Mr. Sinha, our advocate, called and said he had a certified copy of the court order and would meet us at the airport. I cried as we were leaving Pratima and Satishes' place. I will really miss them. They were so good to us and helped us so much. We became really close by the end of our stay.
As our plane took off from Patna rising in the air Anjali and I chanted goodbyes as we looked out our plane window, "Ta Ta Patna, Ta Ta Aunty Tima, Ta Ta Uncle Satish, Ta Ta Sister Meera, Ta Ta Aunty Jata...." It was a bitter sweet moment, but we were so, so happy to be heading towards family in Mumbai and Pune.
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