An Adoption Nightmare

 

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"The truth is there are problems with the international adoption system. But American parents are often saving children from poverty, pestilence and war and we should not let the bad guys taint the good work many agencies are doing," he said. "If there is one child kidnapped and adopted, that is one too many. I can't speak about every adoption and bad stuff does occur, but the majority are above board."

"Parents need to be careful. They need to be good consumers -- not consumers of children, but of services. Too many people get caught up in getting a child that they miss the red flags," he said.

On the whole, India is not one of the more problematic countries, said a State Department official on the condition of anonymity. Adoptions from India peaked in 1998, the year the girls were adopted, and have been slowly on the decline, mirroring an overall downturn in foreign adoptions.

It took a year to settle the girls emotionally and get them into school. It would be an additional six years before the girls -- then women in their own right and very much acclimated to America -- would be reunited with their birth mother.

"Through e-mail and other contacts, various people told us they would help us locate the girls' first mother. We had the full name of their mother, father and brother and we knew name of their ancestral village. Every time we thought we were close to finding their first mother, the trail would go cold."

In November 2004, local activist Gita Ramaswamy tracked down the girl's mother and a year later, the older of the two, Manjula, visited her in India.

"When I found the girls' mother, Lakshmi, and told her that her daughters were alive and well and looking for her, she wept for a long time," Ramaswamy told ABCNEWS.com from Hyderabad. "I couldn't speak. I was overwhelmed. Lakshmi could not stop weeping -- it was a dam that had burst. She was so keen to see them, to speak with them."

"One hears crazy stories like this in India all the time. The girls' story sounded authentic and when I had first confirmed it with another relative, and then met with Lakshmi, I knew they had been taken."

Ramaswamy was at the December 2005 reunion when Manjula saw her mother for the first time in six years.

"It was very emotional. Manjula was quiet, but the mother was very vocal. We Indians in time of grief and great happiness sing songs, and Lakshmi began to sing and chant. She chanted about how she gave birth and lost her girls, how she didn't know where they were and how she was reunited with them."

The following year, after she turned 18, Bhagya also returned to India to visit her birth mother.

Reunited

"It was just an incredible reunion. By that the time the girls were different people. They had become Americanized and were used to all our modern comforts. They feared what would happen if they went back, would they have to live in the village, would they be married off," Smolin said.

Neither Manjula nor Bhagya wanted to be interviewed by ABCNEWS.com, but Smolin said they both continue to the live in the United States.

"We and the girls are still in close touch with their Indian family. We are a part of their life and they are a part of ours," she said.

Smolin now operates a Web site, in which she catalogs international adoption injustices and offers advice to adopting parents.

"Don't blindly trust your agency," she said. "Don't blindly trust the Hague convention. Do your homework. Dig for dirt. Love your kids."