I meant to write all about the process of coming here to India in March and registering with orpahanges in Delhi and Chandigarh in detail... but before I could get down to it, the long-awaited day I have been dreaming of has already arrived! With God's grace, I have now met and am now bonding with my soon to be daughter who was given the name Trishna in the orphanage by the staff. I met her briefly on the morning of Saturday April 24th and hoped I would be able to adopt her. That morning I had been to pray at the Golden Temple (holiest of Sikh gurdwaras) in Amritsar to ask for a speedy resolution to my adoption of a little girl. Literally a few hours later I met Trsihna. Trishna means a state of contentment of the mind when you obtain real peace.
I am naming her Sofi (sophia or sophos in Greek is wise or wisdom).
Sofi is a beautiful, active, cheerful and funny little girl. She loves hugs and cuddles. She espectially laughs alot when we tickle her tummy or her neck. But she smiles alot anyway. She is starting to make alot of sounds and babbles and sings quite a bit when she is feeling chatty. She likes to grab my chain and use me as a climbing wall because she is just starting to stand with support and can't stand on her own. She is pretty content. She can scream and cry when she needs to get our attention. She already has won over everyone's heart who she meets. She is believed to have been everyone's favourite at the ashram where she was living. All the staff and the other kids love her alot. The staff keep saying how good her kismet must be because she will be going overseas after such a diffcult start in life.
We believe her birth date is June 1 2009. She appears to be meeting all her developmental milestones and seems healthy and fine. She was found by the police and brought to the ashram having been abandoned. We can only guess that her family must be experiencing some tremendous difficulty to give up such a wonderful little girl and we wish them better days to come. She has 6 teeth. They are strong and very sharp.
On my first day visiting with her, May 1 2010, at the Nari Niketan ashram here in Jalandhar, Punjab, I fed her lunch of rice and yoghurt which she enjoyed. She doesn't seem to be able to drink from a milk bottle and likes to drink from a bowl, glass or cup. It's pretty hot these days so she needs to drink a lot of water too. Sippie cup is still a little messy so far. She has bonded with me immediately from the first day and we all believe there is a past life connection between us. I cannot imagine having been given any other little girl to be my daughter.
Once I took her to my uncle's house, I gave her milk which she loves as much as any other baby. She was too excited to take her after lunch nap at the orphanage, so I put her down for a nice nap around 5 and she slept a good 2 hours. For dinner, I had kichari (boiled rice and mung daal) prepared for her with yoghurt that she also ate happily. She is a good eater and doesn't spill too much on her new little bibs. She is enjoying all the one on one attention and love and affection as one can imagine. We took her out for a nice liitle evening walk to the nearby shops and she got all kinds of diapers, and lotions and potions, as well as some ready to eat food from jars. After shopping she enjoyed some custard with banana. After a big day, she went to sleep at 10:30 p.m. I can't say I slept much watching over my little munchkin all nite to make sure she is fine. She seems perfectly happy and content. Trishna by name and Trishna by nature.
The process of starting the legal adoption is likely to take quite some time yet as the State of Punjab courts are notoriously slower than everywhere else. We just pray the outcome is as we want.
