Maureen puts Christmas on hold for love of orphan

A WOMAN who moved to France two months ago so she could adopt an Indian boy born with only one limb will celebrate Christmas without her husband and family.

British-born Maureen Attig, 52, and her retired Irish-American husband, Don, 68, who lives in Donoughmore, Co Cork, are both considered too old under Irish and British law to adopt the five-year-old orphan.

But Ms Attig, who once worked in France, wants to live and work there until she can adopt Tony under French law.

Tony has a little stump where his right arm should be; his only limb is his left leg that is missing a thigh bone.

He rolls around the floor of the orphanage that he shares with more than 200 children with physical and mental disabilities in Dharmapuri in India.

So far, it has been an uphill struggle for Ms Attig since she moved to France last October.

She still has to find a job but she has moved to Blaye - about 48 kilometres from Bordeaux, where the prospects of finding one are much better.

The good news is that she has discovered that the adoption procedure involved in adopting the boy will not be as difficult or as expensive as she originally thought.

Ms Attig, who became a mother to four grown-up children from Don’s first marriage, has no children of her own.

After a series of miscarriages and fertility treatment she got cancer and, to beat the illness, had all her reproductive organs removed. Ms Atti first met Tony three years ago when she worked for six weeks in an orphanage in Pondicherry in southern India, where most of the children have intellectual disabilities.

Leaving him in that orphanage was heart-wrenching for her because she knew the bright little boy was not getting the kind of education he needed.

Upon returning to Ireland she trawled the internet and eventually found another Indian orphanage called the Mercy Home run by Brother Louis Rayan. Tony moved there last April.

Ms Attig is recovering from a debilitating chest infection; her job prospects are excellent and she has built up a good rapport with adoption authorities.

Her husband is 100% behind her mission to adopt Tony even if it means not spending Christmas together. “Tony is Maureen’s very special child. He calls her mammy and does not understand why she is white and he is black, which is great,” said Don.

Ms Attig will spend Christmas with a friend who has a hotel in the town.