| The Lucky Ones: Our Stories of Adopting Children from China Contributor(s): Rauhala, Ann (Editor), Wong, Jan (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 1550228234 ISBN-13: 9781550228236 Publisher: ECW Press OUR PRICE: $17.96 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 2008 Annotation: From the early stages of the adoption process to bringing the child back home, this collection of personal stories reveals why parents who have adopted children from China feel--despite the challenges they've endured--truly lucky. In one account, a woman contemplates her daughter's lost heritage during a visit to a Chinese fertility temple; in another, a mother of Chinese descent reflects on the striking connections between her grandmother and her adopted daughter. One mother explores loss and grief among those who are abandoned, while another parent contemplates her child's inevitable difficulty learning English after hearing only Mandarin. A father creates an imaginary world for his daughters by writing stories about a girl detective solving crimes in Shanghai, and a single professional woman discusses how her daughter filled a void in her life. The memoirs are organized by the experience: beginning with infertility, moving to acceptance of a multiracial family, anticipating the adoption, reflecting during the trip to China, and, at last, realizing a unique destiny--turning bleak beginnings into happy endings. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Family & Relationships | Adoption & Fostering |
| Dewey: 362.734 |
| Physical Information: 0.54" H x 5.99" W x 8.93" (0.78 lbs) 216 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Chinese - Topical - Family - Topical - Adoption |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: "What a lucky girl " Everybody who has adopted a daughter from China has heard that one. And every parent has said, or thought, in reply: "No, we're the lucky ones." This anthology sets out to explain why people who have adopted children from China feel as though they've won the lottery.Since the late 1980s, as many as 7,000 Chinese-born girls have been adopted annually and now live in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. They are officially orphans, victims of a rigorous birth control policy limiting most families to one child. These thousands of girls have formed an international Diaspora, a human wave with no exact parallel and yet numerous points of comparison -- sharing issues with war orphans from Vietnam or even with Chinese workers who built the New World's railroads.The memoirs collected in The Lucky Ones are organized beginning with infertility, moving to acceptance of a multiracial family, anticipating the adoption, reflecting during the trip to China and, at last, grappling with an odd destiny -- turning terrible beginnings into happy endings.The story of these girls is compelling as a narrative of hope and optimism but it may also become a story of dislocation and crisis of identity. These baby immigrants add unusual texture to the lives of the families they join -- they come here not by choice but by someone else's design. |