In India, a cultural practice has perpetuated the perception that female children are less desirable compared to their male counterparts. This belief has resulted in an imbalance in the male-to-female ratio in India, along with higher instances of female child abandonment and even infanticide. However, there are those taking action to counter this distressing phenomenon.
Kristen Williams, from Cincinnati, Ohio, was a single high school teacher on a mission. She made the decision to adopt a 3-year-old Indian girl who was struggling to find a new, loving home. After several couples declined to adopt her, Williams stepped forward. She adopted both Roopa, the 3-year-old, and 8-year-old Muni from India in 2012.
Originally, Williams had attempted to adopt from Nepal, but the adoption program between the country and the United States fell apart, leading to the cessation of all adoptions from Nepal. She lost $10,000. Instead of giving up, Williams turned her adoption search towards India.
It was there that she found Muni, a young girl who had suffered abuse from previous caregivers and bore scars on her face and body. Kristen Williams expressed, "I saw her face, and it was like an electric current just shot out and hit me in my heart. She was everything I wasn't looking for, and she ended up being everything I needed." Six months later, she returned to India and met little Roopa, whose nose and lips had been partially consumed by animals and insects as she lay abandoned and barely alive in a garbage pile. Now Kristen Williams is her mother.
Kristen has taken time off work to help both Durga and Muni settle into their new homes. "It's very unfortunate that this is an everyday event in India," Kristen said. "Because somebody did stop, and someone did pick her up and turn her in. That's kind of the silver lining. They could have kept walking, which many people do."
Roopa has undergone reconstructive surgery for her face and received a nasal prosthesis, while Muni (now 8 years old) has also undergone cosmetic scar removal. The girls are doing well. "I look at my girls, and I'm so happy," Kristen said. "I had set out to adopt a child, but this journey has brought me so much more. I feel so much love for my girls. They're my world, and I can't wait to start our lives together. To call them my family just fills me with joy."
