Thanks Mark.Originally Posted by mhall
For those that don't know HE is an amazing story and I will post it here.
Prabal Balak was found abandoned in a field in Katmandu Nepal on Dec 2, 2003. He was found with another boy about a year older than him by a police officer walking the beat and this field is notorious for kids to be abandoned. Both of them were taken to a local hospital and due to the umbilical cord it was "estimated" that he was born on November 9, 2003 so that is the birth date he was given. Balak, in Nepalese, means Boy and Prabal was just a first name given to him by the Police Officer that found him. Less than a month old and left abandonded. His picture was ran in the local paper for 3 months while he suffered in an orphanage outside of town. I say suffered because there are HUNDREDS of kids in this "place" with very little food and staff. After 3 months he was put up for adoption. We had started out adoption process in 2003 and got our paperwork and all the other stuff done in October of 2003 and waited and waited and waited for the phone call. On March 7, 2004 I got the phone call that we had a referral for a little boy. I immediately left work and went to my wife's work, after stopping and getting flowers and balloons saying "Its a Boy" on it to let her know about the referral. She screamed and cried when I knocked on her door and she turned around and saw me. All we got was an email with literally a postage stamp size picture of a baby with a turbine on his head and his mouth wide open from screaming. We got info about him being found and that was all. We immediately called the Adoption agency and told them YES we wanted the child. I was scheduled for my weight loss surgery on March 22, so I called my surgeon to cancel because we had to be in Nepal on April 1 to pick him up. My surgeon, THE IDIOT THAT HE TURNED OUT TO BE, told me we would move up the surgery to March 9th and I would be able to travel to get our son. I had my surgery, was sent home 4 days later, then back in the hospital for 2 weeks in ICU with blood clots in my lungs and that began all my medical problems. I did not get to travel but My mother in law was our backup and had went thru the same background check, medical checks, financial and every other body cavity thing they do to get you approved to be an adoptive parent, so she and my wife left for Nepal at the end of the month.
They flew from Cincinnati, to LA, to Bangkok Tailand, to Katmandu Nepal. There was another couple that met up with my wife in LA from the same adoption agency that was picking up their son in Nepal as well so they traveled together. My wife and mother in law get to Katmandu and find out that our son is not at the orphanage but staying at the attorney's house in Katmandu. Our son had been in the hospital 2 times that month with pneunomia and since we had already signed stating we wanted him, Nepalese law states that he had to be taken from the orphanage to the hospital for medical care. The latest time was 3 days before my wife got there so they left him at the attorneys house. My wife, mother in law and the other couple got to pickup our son the next day first. Then they went to the orphanage outside of town to pickup the other couples son. There was hundreds of kids in this run down place all very hungry with very little food. They would run up to the 4 of them all holding up their arms wanting to go with them. They found out that 22 kids had died of pneumonia that month in the orphanage because they did not have any referrals signed to be taken so there is no law protecting them so they are left at the orphange to fend for themselves. Our son was lucky in that we had signed the referral. The first night in the hotel, called The Yak and the Yetti, which was the previous ruling families home, and our son had beans and lentl in his bowel movement. 4 months old and they are feeding him table food. Long story short, 22 days in the hotel, because the Nepalese govt kept stalling the paperwork - I think it was just to keep them in the country spending more money, $34,000 out of our own pocket all comes to ONE TOUGH 6 yr old - Joshua Alexander Prabal Lumpkins
The boy that was found with Joshua in the field was adopted by a couple in Columbus Ohio and we did Genetics testing hoping they were brothers but they are not related. Not related by blood but related forever in being abandoned and found together left alone by 2 sets of parents in the same place relatively at the same time.
Reply With Quote