Twinkles, the Baby in the Bright Green Blanket

What a day, what a day.

We started this morning working to get out the door in order to visit Swanthana Orphanage and St. John's Medical College. My mother met at my door a little blurry-eyed. She wanted to know if I had a clue when my boys, who are staying in their room, woke for the day. I said no, but that I suspected it was after when I woke at 4:30 am. She snorted and corrected me. Twelve-thirty. AM. Elijah woke up, informed them he was awake and that it was morning, then did not go back to sleep. Oh, boy!

Next, we were faced with an email indicating that Arilyn Sneha has tested positive for TB and is now undergoing treatment (a medication she will have to take for 6-9 months). We do not yet know what this means for her being allowed to immigrate into the United States in a timely manner. Prayers are greatly appreciated on this manner. There is, apparently, an established protocol in a situation like this, but it is fairly new and rather untested. We will learn more tonight when we speak to Holt International.

We left with our driver before 9 am to go visit Swanthana Orphanage where Arilyn Sneha lived for her first 2.5 years of her life.

What a blessing that visit was. We were able to speak extensively with Sister Regina who runs the orphanage. They have beds for 50 and currently care for 38 girls, most of whom are mentally or physically handicapped. They have 12 workers including nurses and physical therapists. The orphanage was clean and wonderfully noisy. Sister Regina shared with us that Swanthana was founded in September 2006 and that Sneha and another little girl named Divya were the first girls there in October 2006. She said that Sneha was perfect, developed on target, and was timid and shy while she was there. The staff was so happy to meet us and know that she is going to be adopted.

Divya

Arilyn Sneha's Crib at Swanthana

Swanthana does so much with so little. While we were there, a woman came and delivered a van full of donated diapers, wipes, food, and other supplies. This woman asked me why we were adopting when we already had a child (she had only seen Elijah at this point.) We corrected her and said we had three children. She was then surprised and wondered why we would adopt at all, much less again. I told her that we believed every orphan should have a family. After the woman left, Sister Regina told us that many people are willing to donate supplies, which is good and helpful, but not many want to donate money, which they also need to pay bills and buy other items. We were blessed to be able to give a small donation from our family and from a friend.

We have Swanthana's email address now and will be able to continue to do what we can to help support our daughter's first home and to share with them pictures of Sneha as she grows. We are so thankful we were able to visit and interact with the girls there. I did ask what would happen to the girls as they age and become adults. Sister Regina simply spread her hands and said, "They will stay here as long as they need to. Where else would they go?"

We left Swanthana and traveled to St. John's Medical College and Hospital. Elijah fell asleep in the car on the way. Deeply asleep. At St. John's, we tried to find where Arilyn Sneha had been left as a newborn. The only information we had was from her initial social history report, "She was found abandoned near the public passage of St. John's Residential Quarters." We began at the Dean's Office, but it was closed for lunch. Rather than wander with us, my mother volunteered to sit in the cooler hallway outside the Dean's Office and hold the sleeping Elijah. The rest of us left to wander a bit and hope to find the right spot.

A gentleman sat near Mom and inquired about why a middle aged white woman was holding a sleeping Chinese boy in India. She explained that her daughter was meeting with the Dean to learn more about an infant abandoned at the Hospital residence four and a half years ago. She explained that her daughter and family were in the process of adopting the little girl and were researching her history so that she could have it when she was older. At about this point, I came out of the Dean's office to explain that the Dean had contacted the Social Services department for us and that we should come back tomorrow to talk to the social worker. The gentleman then spoke up and said, "No-no, we can do better than that," and he started making phone calls.

He started with the NICU, where she spent four days, explaining to them who we were and what we were looking for. He made arrangements for us to go up to the unit and speak to the team on shift who was actually employed there in October 2006. He assured them they had time to meet with us. As he was talking, we were most amused to hear him say, "Well, now that you mention it, I am here with a big gang of white people and not an Indian baby in sight!" He also described Ohio as a small village in the United States. I suspect he has spent some time in the USA, judging by his English. Turns out, this was Dr. Sanjiv Lewin, the head of paediatrics of the hospital. Nice.

He then flagged down a med student and told him to lead us over to the NICU. Once there, we met with a doctor who politely listened to what Greg and I were looking for: people who had worked with Sneha and might know where she had been found. She said that they usually remembered the abandoned infants but could not quite place ours until we told her where she had been found. Then she asked if she had been found in a bright green blanket. We did not know. She said it must be the same baby as the timing was right. She said this baby was so adorable and sweet that they had a stream of people coming by asking if they could just take "The Baby in the Bright Green Blanket" home with them. She had longer hair than a baby would normally have and was just beautiful. She cried a lot but stopped as soon as she was picked up. They called her "Twinkles." The social worker at the hospital found an orphanage for her and transfered her after four days. She was thrilled to learn that "Twinkles" was doing well and was going to be adopted. She then drew a map for us showing us the buildings she had been found near.

We walked quite a ways to those residential quarters and were able to record the location for our daughter to see when she is older. The location was a very busy area and she was found by a nurse on her way to work in the early hours of the morning. She was estimated to only be a few days old. We also met a nurse at the hospital who had cared for Sneha who guessed that her biological mother was a single woman who could not handle the stigma of having a child out of wedlock. That does not go over well in India. That has always been my theory too.

What a blessed day. We were able to accomplish our goals and then some. We had not expected to be able to meet some of our daughter's initial caregivers, but because Elijah decided that 12:30 am is the new 7:00 am and then napped later in the day, we were able to be in the right place at the right time to connect with just the right people. God is so amazing to have perfectly orchestrated the whole circumstance. Praise Him.