Saira Khan was reduced to tears as she opened up about the process of adopting her daughter Amara from an orphanage in Pakistan. Appearing on Tuesday's Loose Women with her little girl, the 48-year-old described the moment she met baby Amara for the first time. "All I remember is when they put her in my arms, she was mine," she shared with the panel and audience. "That was it. I looked into these eyes, huge eyes, and they were staring back at me like that. Going through the adoption process for nine months, I knew in my head, this is the bit where the process kicks in."
Admitting to knowing nothing about Amara's birth mother, Saira became tearful as she said: "We know nothing but I always say, and I'm going to take this moment to say it to whoever is out there. Thank you for putting her in that cradle." On the difficult first few days surrounding the adoption, Saira discussed the traumatic moment that Amara was taken into intensive care. "I got a phone call six days after going into Pakistan and they said, 'A baby girl's been abandoned,'" she explained. "I didn't choose, Amara was the baby that was there. I took her to the hospital, and that’s where the doctor said, 'Saira, this baby isn't newborn, this baby's four days old,' because they could see the umbilical cord, it was aged."
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Saira, who also has ten-year-old son Zac with her husband Steve, continued: "Although she didn't come out of my tummy, that bond that when you have a baby put into your arms, at that moment I had to make a decision. I don't know what's wrong with this baby, I will never know about her medical condition, what do I do? The doctor said, 'Do you want to carry on or do you want to take the baby back?' And I said, 'This baby is mine and whatever happens to her, I am taking her back to the UK.' And I did. She was in intensive care for seven days."
She continued: "I am her mummy. She had another 'tummy mummy' which Amara knows about. We celebrate the way she's come into our life. I am so grateful that I had infertility problems because I would never have had this beautiful child in my life." Informing the other women about the orphanages that exist in Pakistan, Saira revealed: "Basically, in a country like Pakistan where children are given up, mainly girls for whatever reason, this particular charity has got 350 cradles, at bus stops, in shopping centres, at the side of the roads, and what you do is you put your baby in there if you don’t want your baby, you ring the bell, you walk away, and the people from the orphanage will come and take it."
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