Hey, friends! I’m posting 2 weeks in a row. Can you believe it? Ha!
With this post, I am going to attempt to document our travel to India. This will really be an overview of our trip as I don’t want to go into too much detail at this point. Some things I am still processing. And some things we need to hold close and not share with others, at least not yet, because although this story is mine, it also belongs to Jillienne and I don’t want to share anything that would be hurtful to her in the future. If you would like to read more about our adoption, you can do that here (find out why we decided to adopt) and here (my most recent blog post about our adoption journey).
Bear with me as I try to succinctly tell you about our time in India!
After many months of waiting for court decisions to be made, we received a phone call in the middle of the night Saturday October 19 saying we could travel to India the following TUESDAY! Which was THREE days away! I was in shock – so excited about finally traveling but also nervous about all the things that needed to get done before we left. I stayed up all night ordering things from Amazon (thank goodness for Prime!) and began the tedious job of packing our bags in addition to organizing the kids’ schedules so my parents wouldn’t be so overwhelmed when they arrived to take care of them.
On October 22, we flew from Nashville to Bangalore, India, with layovers in Detroit and Paris. It was a long day and we didn’t get into Bangalore until 1:00 a.m. on the 24th. We were flying a day later than another couple who was also adopting a little girl from Jilienne’s orphanage and we were anxious to get to our hotel to see them.
After many many hours on planes and in airports, we finally exited the airport in Bangalore. I was struck with the beauty of my surroundings, which I hadn’t prepared myself for. All of my senses were engaged – pink and green lights lit up the airport, the scent of Indian food wafted around us, traditional Indian music blared from speakers, and a warm breeze blew through the palm trees. I could feel the excitement building in anticipation of meeting our daughter in just a few short hours.
A driver picked us up and took us to our hotel where we slept briefly. We woke up, ate an unbelievable breakfast, and then we hired another driver to take us to Jillienne’s orphanage. As we drove, we noticed cows standing and sitting along the sides of the roads, motorcycles and scooters weaving in and out of traffic, and horns blaring. Honestly, it seemed as though there were no traffic rules at all.
We pulled up to the orphanage and were greeted by the orphanage director who took us into a small room, gave us all of Jilienne’s paperwork, and answered some of our questions. She then led us to the chapel where another nun brought our sweet girl into us. Jillienne was screaming and reaching for a particular young nun and eventually that nun was asked to leave in order to help Jillienne settle down. It was truly heartbreaking to watch. The sisters sang a sweet song and prayed over us before handing Jillienne to me. I could see the fear in her eyes and I held back the tears threatening to pour down my cheeks as I whispered words of comfort to her. Eventually her little body just gave up and she fell asleep in my arms.
We drove back to the hotel in silence as I studied sweet Jiliienne’s features. She was beautiful and I was so thankful for her!
For the next two days, we attempted to entertain and comfort Jiliienne. She was terribly sad and depressed, mourning her loss, and I’m sure she was wondering who these crazy white people were. Ha! On October 25, we flew from Bangalore to Delhi where all of our paperwork had to be completed before we could leave the country. At this point, Jillienne was sleeping all the time and wouldn’t eat or take a bottle. I was beginning to worry about her because her mourning seemed so deep.
But as we arrived at our hotel in Delhi and were heading to our room, another family called out to us from the floor below asking if we had just adopted our daughter. We decided to meet in the 3rd floor lobby, and as only God could have ordained, we discovered that this family had also just adopted a little boy. From the SAME ORPHANAGE in Bangalore, a three hour flight away! Just as we were meeting this family, the couple who had flown ahead of us to get their daughter came out of their room so we all congregated on couches and chairs as we swapped stories and watched our little ones play. Jillienne was especially excited to see her friends. I can’t even imagine what goes on in their little minds as they watch children being taken from their midst in the orphanage never to return.
It was truly a blessing to have found these families because now they feel like our own family. Our hope is that we can have reunions once a year so that our children never lose touch with each other.
After reuniting with her friends, Jillienne’s little personality began to shine. We could see that she was sweet and smart and helpful and silly. We definitely began to fall in love with her and she began bonding with us as well.
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. Our agency, Children of the World, provided us with an amazing in-country guide who took us everywhere we needed to go: medical appointment, embassy appointment, visa appointment, etc. He even took us sightseeing to a couple of Delhi’s favorite tourist attractions.
By the end of our stay, I was really ready to get home to our other children, and I was anxious to get into a routine with our new family of 6. But as we drove away from our hotel toward the airport, sadness overtook me. I just couldn’t stop crying as I realized that we were now taking this sweet baby girl to the other side of the world away from everything she had ever known.
She would never again live in India.
She would never again be surrounded by her people or her culture.
Were we doing the right thing in taking her with us? Could she have had a good life in India or were we truly giving her a better one in the United States?
All these thoughts raced through my mind as I rode in the car, tears silently streaming down my face. I knew that God had called us to adopt this beautiful child, I knew that she was our daughter, but still the questions rose in my mind.
Airport security leaving Delhi was tight and stressful. I don’t really have the words to express the fear I felt as we tried to leave a country whose language I didn’t speak. I wondered what the people thought as they looked at us holding one of their own children. We waited at the immigration desk for over half an hour as the attendant took all of our paperwork and left. I held my breath until he finally returned and allowed us to go through, calming my fears. And finally, after a 16 hour flight from Delhi to Newark, we stepped foot on American soil and I could finally rest easy.
There is so much more I could say regarding this trip but I will save those thoughts for another time. One day I hope to record our journey in book format so that our family can see exactly how God ordained each and every step of our adoption journey. He has been so good to us and we are excited to see what He is going to do in the future!
Thank you all for following our adoption journey, for financially supporting us, and most of all for praying for us. Please continue to pray as we adjust to being a family of 6 and as we deal with any trauma Jillienne has faced in leaving those she loves.
(credit for heading photo: Three Chicks Pics)