“Burn Your Fingers and Learn”: Kanchan Gupta on Raising an Adopted Daughter
When Kanchan Gupta and her husband decided to adopt, they expected the process to take a while.
My Adoption Stories
Real Adoption Stories Shared Here.
Articles
Articles written about the adoption experience – read to learn more.
Interview with Leena Kallammanavar
Clips from my interview with Bangalore Urban’s District Child Protection Officer, translated with English subtitles. Leena Maam shares her perspectives on child welfare, her time at Shishu Mandir, and problems children face in society today.
Is India’s Child Welfare System Inefficient?
I met Leena Kallammanavar during a summer internship with the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) of Bangalore Urban Central, where she serves as District Child Protection Officer. She had entered the field in 2008 as a Child Development Project Officer, spent seven and a half years running a Government Girls’ Home and Shishu Mandir, and…
Issues Facing Children in India: Bangalore’s District Child Protection Officer’s Perspective
Leena Kallammanavar has spent nearly two decades working inside India’s child protection system, and she still describes her job in the same way she probably did on her first day in 2008: as a coordination problem. “We don’t work in a cocoon or as an individual person,” she told me. Her department, the District Child…
Behind Child Protection: A Conversation with District Child Protection Officer Leena Kallammanavar
When I arrived at the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) in Bangalore Urban Central for my internship this summer, I expected to learn about India’s adoption system. I also learned that adoption is only one small part of a much larger network dedicated to protecting children.
The Complex Story Behind R. Marin’s Family
R. Marin is the pen name of a 49-year-old writer, born in Italy and now living in France, who has spent the last several years turning his own life into a series of novels rather than a conventional memoir. His first book covers his life from birth to age eighteen.
Neither Adopted Nor Free: How Italian Law Impacted Author R. Marin
R. Marin is the pen name of a self-published author whose first novel, Despite it All, I Made It Through, traces his life from birth to age eighteen. His childhood was shaped by an absent biological mother, a devoted foster mother, and a legal status that never quite matched the family he actually lived in.…
“Despite It All, I Made It Through”: Author R. Marin on Writing His Way Through His Own Adoption Story
R. Marin didn’t set out to write a memoir. The Italian-born author, who now lives in France, took his pen name from his given name, Roberto, paired with the French word for “of the sea.” Over the past several years, he’s used that name to turn his own upbringing into a multi-part novel rather than…
“Nobody Wants to Adopt a Black Boy”: Racism and Bias in the Adoption World
By Teesta Bhola-Shah For many families, adoption is presented as a beautiful, uncomplicated story about love. But for my own mother, Devi Bhola, the adoption process revealed something far more uncomfortable: a system deeply shaped by racism, like many things in our society. During a candid interview about our family’s experience adopting my younger brother,…
How A Photo Book Changed My Family Forever
By Teesta Bhola-Shah When people hear the word adoption, they usually picture a happy ending. A baby comes home, a family is complete, everyone smiles in the courtroom photo, and that’s the story. But after sitting down and interviewing my mom about my younger brother Jay’s adoption, I realized how much people do not see…
Behind the Scenes: How Literary Agent Alessandra Sternfeld Helped Bring ‘A Mosquito in the Ear’ to Life
In a story as personal and emotionally layered as A Mosquito in the Ear, the role of a literary agent is to refine language and shape pacing throughout the story, but also to preserve what is important and what isn’t. For Alessandra Sternfeld, senior agent at am-book, the responsibility was to protect Andrea Ferraris’s story…
Sarvari Ferraris and the Inspiration Behind ‘A Mosquito in the Ear’
By Teesta Bhola-Shah A Mosquito in the Ear is not your typical coming-of-age story. Told through the lens of a graphic novel, it follows the journey of one family’s international adoption experience, tracing the story of a young girl from India into a new family, and the challenges and connections that unfold along the way.…
Drawing a Family Into Being: Andrea Ferraris and the Story Behind A Mosquito in the Ear
For Andrea Ferraris, storytelling has never been a choice, it has always been instinct. Long before his story A Mosquito in the Ear became an internationally recognized graphic novel and film, it was his family’s personal experience, one that Ferraris felt compelled to capture in the only way he knew how.
A Mosquito in the Ear: One Family’s Honest Adoption Story through a Graphic Novel
For Andrea Ferraris, adoption has had a huge impact on his life. In his graphic novel A Mosquito in the Ear, the Italian author captures how that single word changed his familiar world, pulling him and his wife Daniela into a long, uncertain journey filled with paperwork and waiting for a child they had yet…
Adoption over Time: Change, Policy, and the Complex History
By Teesta Bhola-Shah For much of the twentieth century, adoption in America followed a familiar pattern. Agencies facilitated placements, birth records were kept private, and contact between biological and adoptive families was rare. Today, that system looks very different. Through decades of firsthand experience, Richard Pearlman has watched adoption evolve from a largely closed process…
The Adoption Chronicles: Preserving the Stories
In a world where so many stories disappear with time, the Adoption Chronicles Project exists to make sure adoption stories are not forgotten. Founded by Richard Pearlman, the project is built on one central idea: to chronicle the modern era of adoption before its voices fade away. When explaining the project, Pearlman starts with the…
Richard Pearlman: A Life in Adoption and Storytelling
By Teesta Bhola-Shah Richard Pearlman does not describe his career as something he carefully mapped out from the beginning. Instead, his path into adoption work began almost by accident. “I inadvertently became involved in the field of adoption in the early 1980s,” he explains, reflecting on a professional journey that spans more than four decades…
Indian Child Welfare Act – A Deep Dive into one of the US’s Most Interesting Pieces of Adoption Legislation
A while back, I started MyAdoptionStories to talk about adoption from a personal perspective, especially because of my adopted brother. Early on, my research included learning about the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978, which is a policy that sets standards for Native American adoption. When I started researching this act, I realized there…
Adoption With Special Needs – What You Should Know
Adopting a child is a complicated experience for everyone who goes through the process. Let’s discuss special needs adoption.
2025 Adoption Wrapped
What a year 2025 has been! In 2025, while adoption wasn’t a topic that many people had on the forefront of their minds, some real changes occurred behind the scenes. Whether you’re adoptee, adoptive family, birth parent, or just curious about adoption, there’s so much to look back on and be proud of. Let’s dive…
A Cradle in Delhi: How One Mother Found Her Daughter at Palna
By Teesta Bhola-Shah Before adoptive parent Ria Patel ever became a mother, she was already working to help children. Her first job after earning her Master’s degree was with the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, a philanthropic organization in India that funds community and social projects. One of their most meaningful missions, she said, was building a…
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