Stories of Hope: Muskan’s Story
America World’s India program is always in need of families open to healthy older children. Each child’s story is different, some children come into orphanage care at an older age, others wait years for the necessary paperwork to be registered for adoption or wait years on a matching database for a family open to an older child. While India program staff scroll through hundreds of these files each day, we are always touched when we come face to face with an older child longing for an adoptive family of their own.
Last winter, Muskan was one of those children. America World staff visited her orphanage to correspond on other children matched with their families and to follow-up on their processes. But Muskan’s beautiful face, always smiling, stayed in our hearts and minds in the weeks that followed. As we left the orphanage, the director took our hands in hers, “Please, find a family for Muskan.”
Our staff came home with heavy but motivated hearts over all we had seen. We advocated as we typically do, in a way that protects the child’s identifying information and without a photograph, and we prayed.
In a story we have seen time and time again, yet that never gets old, God brought a family forward, and laid this child on a family’s heart. Already prepared for older children, approved for adoption and waiting, they took the emotional step of reviewing her file, putting a specific name, face and story to the vague advocacy post they had read.
This week, the Steiner’s are in India united as a family of six; their adoption is finalized less than a year after our staff’s trip! This week they experienced the joy of meeting their daughter in-person for the first time!
We believe that age should not be a determining factor in a child having the forever family they deserve. This Day of Hope, we encourage you to give towards and pray over our advocacy efforts. We need families to come forward, but we also need the financial resources required to take practical advocacy steps. These are not just older child files, they are children with dreams and futures ahead of them, please help us keep telling their stories.
Welcome home, beautiful Muskan!
Special thanks to the Steiner family for sharing their story in hopes of being a voice for the many older children in India that wait to be matched.
If you feel led to partner with us as we continue our mission to connect children with their forever families
please consider giving today during the Day of Hope. Gifts given will be matched up to $120,000!