We have been working with India for a little over 30 years now. Nightlight’s India program first began in Missouri with Love Basket Adoptions in 1984. Love Basket merged with Nightlight in 2015 and brought this wonderful program along with them. India is a Hague country, and we work directly with CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority), that oversees all adoptions in India.
Our India program has continually grown over the years and has successfully found many loving families for waiting children in India. Since our India program first started, we have been able to welcome around 400 children into their forever families here in the U.S.
Typical Ages, Wait Times, and Special Needs
Both male and female children are available for adoption in our India program. Most of the children that we see available from India are around ages 2-15 years old with special needs. India also has older sibling groups available, as well as children with no special or medical needs 8 years and older.
Families adopting from India are able to be matched with a child with special needs from India’s Waiting Child Portal. Families adopting a waiting child with special needs, can be matched in around 6-12 months after being registered with CARA. An additional option for families that have NRI status (Non-resident Indian) or OCI status (Overseas Citizen of India), is to wait for a referral from CARA of a child with no special needs; however, prospective adoptive parents that are open to special needs will have a much shorter wait time.
Typical special needs can vary from minor to severe; however, many are manageable with proper medical treatment. Some common special needs we see in the children placed from India include: vision and hearing issues (including deafness and blindness), heart conditions of varying degrees, developmental delays, thalassemia, cleft lip and/or palate, hydrocephalus, and malformed and/or missing digits/limbs. Families that are open to these types of needs would be a great fit for adopting from India. In most cases, we see significant improvements in children with special needs once they are able to receive medical treatment and live in a healthy environment.
Recent Matches
So far this year, Nightlight has found new forever families for 6 children! In addition to this, 9 families were able to return home with their children this year. Below are the ages and medical conditions of children recently placed from India:
- 3 year old girl: microcephaly
- 2 year old girl: congenital deformity of feet
- 5 year old boy: leg spasticity & dystonia
- 3 year old girl: birth hypoxia
- 8 year old girl: no special needs
- 3 year old boy: low birth weight, premature
- 9 year old boy: no special needs
- 4 year old girl: cerebral palsy
Grant Opportunity
For families that apply to our India program in the month of October, Nightlight will waive their $500 application fee! Applications must be submitted by October 31st, 2022.
If you are interested in adopting from India or hearing more about our program, please reach out to Kate Resh at kate.resh@nightlight.org . You can also find more information on our India Program webpage.