My name is David and when I was little I used to live in an orphanage.

For me the hardest questions on surveys aren’t the ones that require you to study. They’re the ones that others find pretty easy and usually take a few seconds to answer. But for me I will never be able to answer them correctly. “Where are you from?” “What is your ethnicity?” “What’s your background?” I will always stick to picking a random answer. They’re the hardest ones for me to even think about. And don’t even get me started when my elementary or middle school teachers would bring up stories to the class about where we’re from and would then have us go home and ask our parents about what our backgrounds are and we would have to then explain our family tree.

For most people, these are simple questions that can be answered without a second of even thinking, for me it always takes a little longer to figure things out and still does. That’s because when I was little I was born into a tough situation at the time, because my mom gave me up for adoption around the same time she had me as a baby. She brought me to an orphanage in Tundra where I was born and let me go, her last goodbye. 15 months later I was adopted by the greatest family ever in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania by Debbie and Joe Kester, mommy and daddy! It’s tough on me, especially as I get older. I never met my birth parents my mom or dad so I don’t know much about my past or where I’m from.

I didn’t know much expect for a few things, I was born in India in Tundra, which is based in south India which is an island in the southern Indian Ocean. I was only a baby and my mom was 14 years old when she had me. She named me Mahipal - which in India means King - I guess I was a king but around the time my mom had me, is about the time she gave me up for adoption in an orphanage in Tundra. I was there for six months until I became really sick and had to be taken care of ASAP.

The orphanage immediately moved me to a different orphanage in Hyderabad, India – a much bigger city than Tundra where they would be able to help me– things didn’t look good. I dehydrated twice and had surgery for stomach problems, intussusception. I was really sick and things were looking bad and bad each day. While in the hospital my parents (Debbie and Joe) wanted to adopt a boy from India, so they had the choice to pick me! However, at the same time I was sick and it was looking thinner to me leaving the orphanage at all. After 90 days and surgery I recovered and came to America to meet mommy and daddy!

I came to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania all the way from India on April 5, 1993 with a care giver who was in charge of taking care of me on the plane the whole way there to be greeted with joy by my daddy. That same day my dad drove to Pittsburgh (where the airport was) to come get me and then drove back to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where my mom who was waiting for me with my sister Sarah and my God Mother Aunt Linda.

Since then I grew up with an amazing family with my mom, my dad, my sisters Sarah and Rachel and brother Michael. Sarah and I are both adopted from different parts of India while Rachel and Michael are both twins from my mom and dad! Our house is very diverse and I love it. Growing up I have been in some situations where this has occur with others where skin color did play a part.

I was young and I remember being at a basketball camp when I was little, my parents dropped me off in the morning and picked me up later that same day. During the camp we learned how to pass, dribble, shoot, block, and everything else. I was really bad at the beginning but I always had so much fun, I didn’t care about how bad I was. I was really shy and very quiet so I didn’t have any friends, but towards the end of the camp, I was the one in charge of showing off my skills and helping everything else. I guess you can say I became a fast learner and the coaches were very impressed. During one of the days as camp was over we all were waiting for our parents and shooting the ball around court. As I stood there waiting for my dad one of the guys I was in camp with came up to me and said, “Hey I think that your dad is over there.” As he pointed to the tall dark man that just walked in, I looked at the guy that said that and said to him, “No my dad is white.”

Everyone is beautiful and living in such a diverse family I never see a difference between skin color with my parents or siblings or anyone else. I love the fact that I’m adopted and I love my family more than anything. To this day I think about if my birth mom or dad ever thinks about me or what they are doing, or if their even alive. But one thing I know is they are truly happy they gave their little boy Mahipal up to have a better life, and hey, I think they would be proud to see my family and hear all about my blog and what I’m doing. If you are having trouble having a baby and are ever thinking about adopting and or just want to adopt, do it. You can seriously make a positive difference in someone’s life. I love my family so much.

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Mahipal SoCal & @mahipal_socal