Georgia girl's adoption leads family on journey of faith

ATLANTA - At home in Hampton, Georgia, Julie and Nick Akin's days revolve around homeschooling, and taking care of their four kids.

"Addy is almost 11, Jude is 6, Tanvi is 4, and Milo just turned 1," Julie Akin says.

Tanvi has been part of their family for two-and-one-half years now.

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"She has completely changed our lives," her mother says. "I tell everyone she has changed us, and I am so glad we will never be the same."

The seed that brought Tanvi into their lives was planted back in 2018, when Nick, a Christian worship leader, and Julie, a stay-at-home mom who runs a side business, went to a church event hosting a group that is helping orphans in Uganda.

"We'd always talked about adopting one day, but it was just talk with no action, like, ‘How cool would it be to adopt a child?’" Nick Akin remembers. "So, we came home, and we really started praying about it."

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He says they gave themselves a month to mull it over, trying to make sure they were not acting on their emotions.

They also started researching international adoption, looking at which country might be a good fit.

"And, we found out there are an estimated 31 million orphans in India," Nick Akin says.

They settled on India, and a few months later, their adoption agency sent Tanvi's file.

They were sitting together in their car outside a drug store, when they first saw her photo.

"We opened it up, and there she was with those big brown eyes," Nick Akin says. "And, we just looked at each other, like, 'That's her! That's her!'"

The adoption agency shared what they knew about Tanvi's medical issues, that she was 22-months-old and unable to sit up on her own.

In December 2019, the Akins flew nearly 8,000 miles to Delhi, India, where Tanvi was living in an orphanage.

They were struck by how tiny she was.

"She was almost 2 years old and only weighed 14 pounds," Julie Akin says.

And it was becoming clear Tanvi's medical challenges would be daunting.

"I think it was good that we didn't know all the details up front, because I think it would have scared us to death," Nick Akin says. "But, it was like one step at a time."

Tanvi had been born without a sacrum, the triangular bone that stabilizes the lower spine, and she was missing three lower vertebrae.

She was born with caudal regression syndrome, a rare, complex birth defect in which the lower half of the body does not form correctly in the womb, causing severe gastrointestinal issues and other complications.

"It was scary," Julie Akin says.  "We said, 'Yes, (we're) scared,' but we knew that she was our daughter. The file, she'd never had an x-ray. She had seen a doctor, but nothing really official."

When they picked Tanvi up each day that week from the orphanage, to get to know her, she seemed to have no reaction to them.

"She never smiled," Nick Akin says. "She never cried.  She would just sit there with a blank stare the whole time. We'd play with toys, (went on) a 20-hour plane ride, not a tear. No tears."

Touching down in Atlanta, their family and friends gathered at the airport to welcome the couple home and meet Tanvi, but her expression never changed.

"All those pictures, everybody is smiling, and (there's) her, kind of solemn, in every photo," her father says.

They would soon understand why Tanvi was not smiling; she was in severe pain.

"Within 2 days of coming home from India, we realized her needs had become an emergency," Julie Akin says.

When they brought her to the emergency department at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite, doctors told the Akins that Tanvi's digestive system had completely shut down.

Hospitalized for 11 days, she would undergo surgery to attach an ostomy bag, creating an opening in her abdomen that would allow the waste or urine to leave her body, relieving the pressure on her digestive tract. 

This would be the first of 4 surgeries at Children's Healthcare, including a complicated operation to correct birth defects on the lower part of her body and another to stabilize her spine.

"It's amazing, just the strength that God gave us through all of it," Julie Akin says. "I never thought, 5 years ago, if you had asked me if I could change an ostomy bag, I would have been scared out of my mind, and thought never.  But things like that just became second nature, just became life."

The first time Tanvi smiled, she was sitting on the floor of their home with her new siblings.

Two years later, her family has become Tanvi's whole world.

"Everywhere we go, it's 'This is my mom, this is my dad, this is my Jude, this is my Addy, and this is my Milo," Julie Akin says.

With weekly physical therapy, Tanvi has progressed from not being able to sit up without falling over to using a walker designed for her.

"She's getting to the point where she'll hold the walker, and let go for a minute and talk to you, and put her hands back on it, which means her legs are getting stronger," her father says.

And the little girl once so shutdown has become their social butterfly.

"I take her into Walmart, and she's on her little walker, and she says, 'Can I go say hi to friends ?' " Nick Akin says. "And, by friends, she just means everybody, everybody in the store.  She just walks through and goes, 'Hi, hi," and everybody is smiling at her, everybody.  She's just bridging gaps. She is an amazing child. "

The Akins say they have faced a lot of unknowns, but they have never once questioned their decision to adopt Tanvi.

"I would do it again in a heartbeat," Julie Akin says.  "She is our child, and we fight for her, every single day, every chance we get."

If you would like to follow Tanvi Akin's story, follow her parents on Instagram @nickakinmusic and @julie.d.akin.

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