Hometown Clinton - Fall 2016

Eden
BRINGING
“I THINK THIS IS EDEN.”
Jessica Followell stared into the eyes of a little orphan girl from
India on a two inch photograph. After months of paperwork and
prayer, Jessica and her husband Robby finally received a referral of a
girl available for adoption.
Robby and Jessica Followell, owners of followell fotography in
Clinton, became passionate about adopting a young girl from India
when they came across a documentary called “It’s a Girl” that brought
to light the horrific truth that families in some rural areas of India do
not want little girls. “The documentary was about some parts of India
and China where they kill their little girls just because they are girls,”
said Jessica.
Robby and Jessica’s biological daughter, Meg, was only fivemonths
old when they saw the documentary. “We have this little
girl [Meg] who we think is a princess, and we prize her. It’s a whole
different perspective in parts of the Indian culture where girls’ lives
are not worth living,” said Jessica.
Robby and Jessica connected with Children of the World, an
adoption agency in Fairhope, Alabama, to begin the lengthy
process of international adoption. “It is a journey of intensive
fundraising, paperwork, and applications,” said Robby. “I made the
joke that everyone should have to go through an adoption just to
get your life in order. You have to have wills, your net worth has to
be determined, and all these financial details that you would never
otherwise care to dig into. You have to have fingerprints for every
possible agency, and it’s extremely thorough.”
KERRI PUCKETT
HOME
“Children of the World was very helpful about stepping us
through the process of what was required and what was due when. All
these big sums that you hear of adoption costs were broken down into
intermittent payments over the course of several years. It felt very
doable not to see these big dollar sign amounts, but more so broken
down payments due at different points,” added Robby.
Robby and Jessica took their time with the process because Meg
had to be one year old before they could adopt from India. During this
process, they decided to name their future daughter Eden.
“Part of that paperwork process was choosing not only gender
but also your special needs profile. You choose ‘yes, no, or maybe’
to pages worth of special needs categories. All sorts of ailments,
conditions, diseases, and physical abnormalities that you have to
insightfully decipher what you would accept. It almost felt futile from
the perspective of a parent. You have no idea what you can handle,
so it’s almost haphazard,” said Robby. The Followells’ special needs
profile summary was a fairly healthy young girl up to two years old;
any abnormalities that could be surgically corrected was within their
preference.
“Then you work yourself to the front of the line to be chosen as
the next eligible parents for a referral to a specific child,” said Robby.
The Followells were on that list for a year after the paperwork finished
before they were matched with a little girl.
On February 7, 2014, Robby and Jessica received a call from Pat,
their adoption agent. “Followells, I have exciting news. I do have a
little girl that I want you to look at, but I need to say that she’s outside
of your preference parameters of your special needs profile. But I just
feel like you need to look at her,” said Pat.
At the time, the little girl’s name was Kaveri, which is a river that
runs through India. She was born around March 16, 2013, and a few
days after her birth, she was abandoned at a train station just outside
34 • Aug/Sept/Oct 2016 Hometown Clinton • 35
34 • Aug/Sept/Oct 2016