Baby Found in a Plastic Bag in the Woods Spurs Hundreds of Adoption Offers

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/us/georgia-baby-india.html

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A Georgia newborn who defied the odds of survival after being abandoned in a plastic bag in the woods is winning over the hearts of prospective parents, hundreds of whom have offered to adopt her, the head of a state adoption agency said Friday.

Tom C. Rawlings, the director of Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services, said there had been more than 700 adoption inquiries since deputies with the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office found the infant on June 6. That is in addition to 200 families who were already on an adoption waiting list maintained by the state, he said.

“I even had somebody message me on LinkedIn,” Mr. Rawlings said. “This is an amazing outpouring of love. She’s a precious, beautiful, little child.”

The baby’s dramatic rescue, which was captured on a body camera by the sheriff’s office and posted on YouTube, had been viewed more than 1.3 million times as of Friday night.

Baby India is in protective custody and has been placed in a temporary home, according to Mr. Rawlings.

“She likes being held,” he said. “She’s smiling a lot. She’s actually doing really well. She’s a very healthy weight.”

Investigators from the sheriff’s office are still trying to determine the identity of the baby and her mother. A family in Cumming, Ga., about 40 miles from downtown Atlanta, heard the baby crying around 10 p.m. on June 6 and called the authorities. Mr. Rawlings said the family and emergency responders who found her apparently came up with the name.

The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

The infant is about three weeks old and could be of Latino descent, according to Mr. Rawlings, who said his agency was working with the juvenile and superior court system to place Baby India with an adoptive family on an interim basis within the next few days. It typically takes six to 12 months for an adoption to be finalized, he said, adding that it would be up to the family to decide whether to keep the name India.

“I think it shows the fact that there are so many families that want to have a child and want to adopt a child,” he said.

In 2018, 1,200 children in Georgia’s foster care system were placed with adoptive families, from newborns to those as old as 18, Mr. Rawlings said. At any given time, about 300 children are in the system waiting to be adopted, he said.

Because of the confidential nature of the work the agency does, he said, the state often cannot discuss child welfare cases. The release of the rescue footage and photos of Baby India by the sheriff’s office — in an effort to find her mother — allowed the state to discuss her case.

“It gave us an opportunity to show the public just what some children go through,” Mr. Rawlings said.

Georgia officials are also using Baby India’s case to draw attention to the state’s Safe Haven law, which allows a mother to leave a baby up to 30 days old with a hospital, institutional infirmary, health center, birthing center, or police or fire station in the state without being prosecuted.

Not all children who are abandoned are as fortunate as Baby India, said Mr. Rawlings, who recalled the story of a baby whose body was left in a cooler on the side of the road in January in Troup County, about 65 miles southwest of Atlanta.

“This is a story that could have been tragic,” he said, “but is going to have a wonderful ending.”