Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Blind Denver man adopts blind child from India

From CBS News:

People will adopt older kids. They'll adopt disabled kids and neglected kids. Kids who can't read, kids who can't talk - there are people willing to adopt.

But all those things in one child? CBS News Correspondent Steve Hartman reports there are few who want that.

Born blind, Pandu (pictured) was dumped at a hospital gate in India. At the orphanage, he was the one child who was there year after year, until last year. That's when the 5-year-old got swept up by a Denver couple who said he was just what they were looking for: a little boy with his father's eyes.

Jason Fayre (pictured) teaches blind people how to be self-sufficient. So when he and his wife Lalena, who can see, decided to adopt they chose not to just give any child a home, but to give one special child a real chance - a chance he would have never had otherwise.

"I think we can offer something to a blind child that maybe a lot of other families can't," said Jason.

Pandu is so much better than when they got him. After 5 years in a crib with virtually no human contact, they say Pandu was almost wild. But a year later he's in a mainstream preschool, and he's beginning to speak for the very first time. He's even learning the finer points of picking out a pumpkin.

Of course, he chose a Braille one; like father like son.

"Pandu and him have always kind of had this connection," said Lalena.

Although it'll be years before Pandu can fully appreciate the enormity of his good fortune, there's no doubt he understands something pretty special is happening to him.

You don't have to be a blind man to see that.