My amazing and beautiful daughter—Devani Anjali Alderson—turns 24 today, 2/17/19.

As many of you know, Devani was adopted from India.

What you may not know is that my husband, Coleman Alderson and I were in India volunteering at an orphanage in February of 1995 when she was born.

 

This is the story of my daughter.

Six of us were living in a 20’x20′ square room for three months.

My husband and I, and four teens, who traveled there with us. We were there to have a “volunteer vacation”, a different kind of life experience…. the kind that puts first world problems into perspective.

There was a “bathroom” connected to our room, however it was just a room with a drain, a cold-water faucet, a bucket and a scooping cup, like a 2-cup plastic measuring cup.

For bathing, we took cold-water “bucket” baths, by filling the bucket with water and scooping with the measuring cup and pouring that over us to get wet, lather up and then rinse off.

The nicer quality photos such as this one below, is not from our India photo album. One of these years we will finally digitize those memories and replace these with the originals, (or at least add them). However it could easily be an exact picture of the children we spent time with while there.

Living at the Orphanage

In anticipation of our visit, the orphanage had very thoughtfully installed western-style toilets in the latrine rooms outside and around the corner, so we wouldn’t have to squat over the holes-in-the-floor style eastern toilets.  However, the plumbing system wasn’t situated for it, so often those didn’t work.

One morning, a few days after our arrival, the director came to our room with an announcement.  He said that their infant nursery had been vacant for over a year, but now they had an infant coming. It turns out the room we were in was the infant nursery.

One Infant Arrived

His dilemma was that room was to be our home over the next few months, and now they weren’t sure what to do. They wanted to honor their volunteer commitment with us, but they also now needed a place for the infants to stay and be cared for.

Of course we immediately volunteered to not only share our room with the newborns, but also to be its caregivers.

Then, More Infants

Then within three days, there were two more infants, all girls!  There we were, the six of us sharing this same room, taking turns and shifts 24/7 caring for three infants, in very rustic conditions.

The room had a single hot plate and one pot.

We used the pot for boiling water to sterilize the baby bottles, before filling them with milk.

Every morning one of the resident children of the orphanage would bring us a bucket of milk—often water buffalo milk—which we would then boil to sterilize, cool and pour into the sterilized bottles before feeding to the infants.

Was it Fate?

In early 1995 I was 36 and Coleman was 42. We had not yet succeeded in our aspirations to conceive a baby, though we had been married for going on seven years.

We really wanted a family… to be parents… to share our lives with children whom we longed to love and raise. We had even been involved in parenting studies for a few years.

Fertility tests of the time—short of those requiring surgical procedures—did not reveal the answers to our lack of conception. But we knew it was important for us so prior to India, we had lightly touched on the subject of adoption as something to consider after India, if we hadn’t yet succeeded biologically.

So there we were, now caring for three infants, at an orphanage that hadn’t had infants in over six months.

Is Adoption an Option?

We had never looked into foreign or domestic adoption and had no idea of all that was involved. But we were asking ourselves… is this fate…? Is this a sign that we should pursue adoption?

We inquired of the orphanage director if it was a possibility.  I mean, there we were, aspiring parents without children, actually living in the suddenly bustling infant nursery.

It just seemed like destiny… or divine intervention.

So we asked the director, but he immediately said, “This is not possible.”

So, we released that idea.

Disappointed, yes, but not devastated, as we hadn’t allowed ourselves to get our hopes up yet.  We figured it was not the right thing at the right time… that it was not “to be”, and went on back to our volunteer tasks.

Early the next morning, the director came to our room and said:

“It has come to me in the night.  You must have this child. Show me, which one is your daughter.”

There were three beautiful babies, but we had no doubt which infant was our daughter.

 

From Delight to Despair

For the next five and a half weeks before we were to leave India, we continued to volunteer and care for all the infants. A few more came and left into adoption by local families.

 We bonded with her as our daughter from the first moments.

We named her, made plans, let family and friends at home know the amazing news, and they joyously prepared for the new family member.

We Were Naive

Naively, we thought we would be able to travel home with her.

We knew it was a big deal and that there would be bureaucracy involved, however, we also know how things in India often work. It’s often about the connections you have that bring things about. And while that’s a universal thing and not the purview of any one country, it can be a heightened reality that we’d witnessed first hand in India.

The orphanage directors were well known and highly awarded for their philanthropic work, as well as highly successful business owners of multiple factories. So when they said “don’t worry… we’re handling it”, we just figured they had the connections needed to make it all happen.

That is often how things happen in India, so it was easy for us to assume that the necessary permissions were underway. After all, they handled adoptions regularly.

Of course that’s what we wanted to believe, and so we did.

Foreign Adoption

But of course international adoption was more complicated.

Even before 911, foreign adoption was still a lengthy bureaucratic process in both countries: India and the US. In India, it involved layers of complications around politics and recent trends at non-US foreign adoptions for the purpose of child labor and other horrors.

It turns out that even domestic adoption are a lengthy bureaucratic process as well.

The laws of our lands… both for adoption, foreign and domestic, as well as immigration laws to the US, are not designed to address individual circumstances.

Bureaucracies are systems not designed for the individual human equation.

Systems can’t do that.

Which meant that this story was not about a family wanting to love and care for a child that needed that family, but rather, about red tape and bureaucracy.

A Painful Reality

So after five and a half wonderful weeks of loving and caring for our infant daughter, we had to leave her behind.

We returned home with a mission: to begin our US process of becoming approved for adoption and to bring Devani home as soon as possible. But again, it was complicated. We needed to await the bureaucratic process in India, to lumber historically slow way toward approving her for adoption.

To leave her behind was heart-wrenching.

We anguished over thinking it could take many months before we would could go back and bring her home.

Interminable Delays and Daily Soul Searching

Were we doing the right thing to keep hoping…?  To keep her at the orphanage without a family?  (They were holding her for us).

But… maybe just a few more months.

It took three years.

Three Years Later

When we landed in the US with Devani, after three long and painful years to finally get her home, we were ready to kiss the ground.

It was the happiest day of our lives.

The expanded story of all that led up to this day and how it almost didn’t happen, and the numerous “angels” helping along the way, is a much longer story for another day. Perhaps those chapters will yet be written, but this is the happy conclusion to Part One of Devani’s 24 years thus far.

Devani the Young Woman

These years have flown by… seemingly faster than the excruciatingly long wait to have our daughter home… a long, 3-year labor.

We’ve cherished the privilege of parenting and educating Devani and her brother, Nikolai (an easier adoption story to share another day).

Devani blossoms into more grace and wisdom virtually daily, growing steadily into a wonderful human being, a loving and compassionate young woman.

From Uncertainty to Certainty

From the doubt and anguish of those long three years, to the present…

Now, we can unequivocally say, it was worth every tear, every year, every effort and uncertainty.

We would not be today who we’ve become, nor Devani, who she’s become, were it not for each other.

How wonderful this dance of souls sharing lives, where together we can become more than any of us could alone.
~LeAura Alderson, BoomersReinvented.com

A different Life

India is an amazing, exotic land of mystery, majesty, mayhem, and deep spirituality, where all imaginable extremes co-exist like dissonant musical notes edging toward inevitable harmony.

We had hoped to return for an extended visit there while Devani was still a teen.  While we circumstances haven’t allowed for that yet, hopefully that will be a journey we can make before too much more time.

We will never know exactly what kind of life she might have had there. It may have been wonderful, but chances are she would not have had the opportunities she has now in this life.

 

Grateful Beyond Measure

Devani’s biological mother was 16 and single and along with her boyfriend, made a mistake unacceptable to her culture.

We will be eternally grateful that she had the courage to bring Devani into the world, and the love to allow her the chance for another life.

We’re also grateful that Devani’s biological grandmother, had the compassion to accompany her daughter during Devani’s birth that day in 1995.

Adoption is a blessing that beyond measure. A loving family for a child in need, and a child for a family longing to love.
~LeAura Alderson, BoomersReinvented.com

Devani’s Blossoming

Today, for the past nine years, actually, Devani and I have been working, learning and growing together, as business partners, and as a family.

She runs her own social marketing client business serving clients through her company, Vital Media Marketing, which began as part of her entrepreneurial homeschooling education, a phenomenal learning experience on so many levels.

We each help the other in our business endeavors.

AND… today, we are cofounders for our mutual passion project… our biggest yet: the iCreateDaily brand and the iCreateDaily Podcast.

Sometimes I mentor her and sometimes she teaches me.

Mother, Daughter, Best Friends and Business Partners

We both value these years of working and learning together.  She is a beautiful, loving daughter, best friend and a wonderful human being. Funny, witty, sassy, sweet, intelligent, sensitive and aspirational.

Like all of us, she has “days” where she struggles, but she’s an eager learner, with clarity, maturity and wisdom beyond her years.

Others have said about Devani:

“She will go far. She has important work to do in the world.”

It’s cool that Devani also enjoys helping with this baby boomer site and interacting with people of all ages.  We’ve often joked that she’s a boomer throwback on a number of levels.

Besides thinking our 70’s clothes were really cool, some of her favorite music is of our generation. Hint: The Beatles would be tops. All the songs we’ve sung and danced to from the 70’s & 80’s are amongst her favorites.

She’s a child of the ages.

One of the wonderful side-effects of homeschooling, is how children grow up with an absence of age discrimination, relative to how much they can enjoy spending time with people of all ages.

The world is a brighter, lighter, more beautiful place because Devani is here.

Her work in the world will be as great as she chooses for it to be.  Whatever and however that blossoms, I’ve no doubt the world will be a better place for her living in it.

Devani… a compassionate soul with quick wit, quirky humor, and an artist’s dreamy vision.

An Artist and Creator

Devani finds the beauty in all things great and small, and has a deep appreciation for nature.  She gets inspired by interesting people doing wonderful work in the world, and I have no doubt that she will grow ever more fully into being one of them, even more than she already is.

Devani Anjali Alderson, is a funny, clever, bright, loving, compassionate, and brilliant soul… she is our sunshine, our “Devani” (Shining Celestial Being), Anjali (Tribute or Divine Offering), Alderson (wise warrior).

Interestingly, in India, Devani would be of the Rajput or Warrior caste, and our family name, Alderson, also means “wise warrior”.

Devani, a Warrior of Wisdom Bringing Light to a World in Need

Or… whatever she decides it is she’s here to do.  I am forever grateful to be sharing this life journey. Our family is complete because of  Devani and her brother Nikolai.

The three year “labor” was ever so worth it, and that pain is but a shadow memory, long replaced by many years of joy and love.

Devani, Dear Heart, Sunshine of my life, Happy Birthday. We love you more than words can ever express.

 

 

Forever Grateful.