Moy Moy's Story: It Never Gets Old

Moy Moy is so much a part of our lives we sometimes forget that's not true for everyone else. So here's her story once again: the story of Moy Moy, the reason for and the inspiration of much of the work of the Latika Roy Foundation.

Moy Moy is from a remote village in the Himalayas. Her mother had been sterilized after her 12th baby – but Moy Moy was conceived anyway. Determined to get an abortion, she came down to Dehradun – and chose the one obstetrician in the city who doesn’t do them. The doctor persuaded Moy’s mother to give birth and leave the baby for her to find it a home – a few months later, coming for a routine prenatal appointment, she went into labor on the bus. The bus pulled over and Moy Moy was born on the side of the road – 12 weeks premature, weighing in at 2 pounds.

Her mother wrapped her up in a shawl and brought her in to the hospital. There was no incubator so Moy Moy was parked in a small metal crib in the nurses’ station.

Two weeks later, the story gets more personal. An American couple, both doctors, was volunteering at the hospital. When they heard about the baby, the woman said her sister would adopt her. The sister was me. And the baby, miraculously, against all odds, came into our lives and changed everything.

She wasn’t meant to be conceived, but she was. She wasn’t meant to be born, but she was. She wasn’t meant to survive, but she did. She wasn’t meant to be our daughter, but she most certainly is.

And when it turned out she needed a special school and there was none to be found in our city, it never occurred to any of us that starting one would be a problem. Now, 17 years later, Moy Moy's school serves hundreds of children from all over the state and the country. Because of her, nearly 100 people have jobs and a purpose in life that has transformed them into extraordinary bearers of good news in a world desperately in need of it.

Indeed, whenever something needs to be done and the way looks dark and the task seems impossible, we think of the child whose whole existence has been a series of impossibilities and we realize, once again, that all things are possible with faith, love and the ability to leap into the unknown.

Just leap. The net will appear.