“Ananya”- like no other.

Little did we realize that she would change our lives like no other person ever has. This tiny bundle of joy was placed in our hands when she was barely 2 months old, and we both fell in love all over again. It is difficult to describe the emotions one feels then- love, joy, happiness, gratitude, responsibility……..but above all peace– because I think for the first time all three of us realized that we had found where we truly belong.

All the apprehensions about “Will we be good parents?”; ” How will we tell her the truth?”; ” Will we love her as much as a biological child?”; ” How do we deal with nosy people?”— all that just dissolved looking at her twinkling eyes and seeing that cheeky grin which has become so much a part of our lives. Today only when people remind us, we remember that she is ‘adopted’. We would rather say that she chose us. There was no way that we wouldn’t be her parents after she placed her tiny hands on her father’s cheeks and caught his collar on Day 1.

What about when she grows up? Will she want to know about her roots? What if she seeks out her birthgiver? She is only 19 months as of today, and we don’t know what is going to happen when she grows up–but we do know one thing– she our daughter. Nobody knows her better than we do, what she likes, dislikes, when she smiles in one way or the other, the meaning of her different types of cries; how she likes her feet rubbed when she’s tired……………oh we can go on and on. The fact is and always will be that she is always going to be our daughter and we her parents. Would she want to include her birthgiver in her life later??

Sure– we have enough room to have as many people in her life as she wants. But that won’t take away what we share with her, because nobody at any point in life can share the years with her that we would have. And that gives us confidence and hope, that no matter what, this journey together is going to be one beautiful memory.

We had gone to a couple of orgnaizations before SOFOSH, but the comfort level was never achieved with them as we found here. From the minute we walked in here, till now, Sharmila, Deepa, Mrs. Madhuri………..all have become part of our family. We don’t know how many countless people we have referred to them and despite the change in rules, they have guided all patiently. Going throught he journey with them, they took us through the process amazingly, and have even equipped us for the years to come. We knew that we had come to the right place and we knew we’d find our daughter here, because all doors just open up when you are on the right track. A lot of people even ask us about the genuineness of the process, about acquiring children by other means, and we have only one thing to tell them– we went by the book.

SOFOSH is anyway an organization that is so meticulous in their paperwork and so tightly bound by the guidelines and law. We didn’t have to spend a paisa more than the processing fee– no hanky panky. When one brings up a child one must do so with honesty, integrity and responsibility, because that is what we would like to inculcate in our child, and thanks to the entire team at SOFOSH, we have been able to do so always.

Not a day goes by that in our prayers we don’t thank her birthgiver and SOFOSH for the most precious gift that we could have ever asked for –our darling daughter

“ANANYA”.