Despite the curve balls, Love finds a way......

My adoption journey began in my heart decades ago when on a global public health assignment in Southeast Asia. While on a mission, and looking for a sense of community, I connected with my spiritual community in the country and visited an orphanage for a donation drive. This was my first visit to an orphanage; little did I know that visit would be life-altering.

As I held the little ones in my arms and felt their hearts beating and making eye contact with me, the purity of their consciousness awakened love and bonding that was overpowering and unlike anything that I had ever experienced. I knew at that moment that adopting a child was in God's higher plan for me and there was a reason for my being there. 

After returning to the US and over the next couple of years, I researched options for domestic and international adoption and fostering, took adoption and single parenting classes, joined support groups, and started saving money for the adoption process.  

I realized that adoption, particularly international adoption would take years in the making as would preparing for it. I began creating an environment and space, both within me and around me, that would be inviting and nurturing for a child. 

After exploring all options and doing a lot of soul-searching, I decided to adopt an older girl child from India. Older children with special needs face considerable obstacles in being adopted and age out of the system without any social and emotional support structures. 

The name for this child in my heart is Maya-Sariya or the stream/flowing of love (Maya is love and Sairya is a river or that which is flowing).  The seed of adoption was planted in my spirit while returning home on a riverboat and watching the sunset, after a day-long visit to an orphanage in Southeast Asia. This is what inspired this name- Maya-Sariya.  

I officially started the international adoption process in late 2016.

After completing the mounds of paperwork, clearances, and necessary approvals, by April 2017, I sighed a bit of relief and was eagerly waiting to be matched with a child. 

It seems, however, that God had another plan for me......

In 2018-2019 there was a disruption to my adoption process due to several unfortunate and unexpected situations. For one, my adoption agency lost its accreditation and around the same time, I had to relocate due to a family emergency and my job situation. Several months later, the COVID pandemic hit and delayed things further by a couple of years when things almost came to a standstill with the India adoption program.

Amongst all this turbulence and uncertainty in my own life and the world around me, I decided to hit a pause on the adoption process. I knew that if adoption was in my life’s plan, it would find a way. I kept the hope and the light alive in my heart. 

Over the next couple of years, my yearning for a child through adoption kept getting stronger, and a voice inside me kept guiding me to resume the process. Once my family emergency had resolved, I relocated to the Washington DC metro area for work and decided to settle down in the community of Hyattsville MD. 

Once again, I started to plant the seeds to welcome a child into my life......

I found a stable home community, made friends, expanded my social network, and found a stable footing again. I chose Hyattsville because is close enough to the DC area for regular museum and outdoor excursions with a  child while being far enough from city life to offer a nurturing community environment in which to raise a child.

I researched and decided on a new adoption agency (Nightlight Christian Adoption) and a home study agency (Cradle of Hope Adoption Center). By this time, all the paperwork I had done earlier including clearances and approvals had expired and everything I had paid for the initial adoption attempt in 2016-2019  were sunk costs. In addition to the sunk financial costs from my previous adoption savings, there was a considerable loss of time and effort.

However, I kept plugging along and persevering with the paperwork during a good part of 2022.

As of December 2022, my home study is complete (YEA!!) and submitted to the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) in India. I am waiting to be matched with a girl child and understand that she may have special needs that may require additional medical and educational support services. 

My adoption journey, like many others, has been a long winding one with twists and turns but I remain hopeful, keeping the faith. I sincerely believe that despite all the curve balls that life throws, if one’s intentions are pure and efforts are sincere, love always finds a way.  Maya-Sariya will find a way...

Please join me in prayer,  emotional support, or a financial gift to bring this child home. All donations are tax-deductible and may be matchable by your corporate employee charity plan. 

Thank you for taking the time to read about my adoption journey and for your support, however, that manifests for you.

Love

-Prachi