The Waiting Child: How the Faith and Love of One Orphan Saved the Life of Another

by Cindy Champnella

Overview

The inspiring true story of a four-year-old Chinese orphan who convinces her adoptive American family to return to China to rescue the little boy she couldn't forget

Adopted by an American family at age four, Jaclyn traveled to her new home with a great burden. Her new family had to leave behind a little boy who had been under her charge at the Chinese orphanage where Jaclyn fought the odds against abandonment, institutionalization, and hunger---not for herself, but on behalf of this even smaller child, whom she regarded as her responsibility.

Jaclyn's saga spans oceans and cultures. The Waiting Child is an extraordinary story of human resilience in the face of profound loss and suffering---and a testament to the ability of a loving heart to prevail over great adversity. Jaclyn's unshakable determination to bring to her new life the child she had cared for in the institution, the one she believed with all her heart was "her baby," will change all assumptions made about the human spirit. In the end, this moving story affirms everything that is good and hopeful in life, when, after a two-year effort, the little boy is brought to this country as the adopted son of Jaclyn's American aunt and uncle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466850064
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/16/2013
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Cindy Champnella is very active in the adoption community and is a passionate advocate for and speaker on adoption issues. She and her family live in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Cindy Champnella, is a speaker and advocate for adoption issues.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	"The Waiting Child"	xi
	Preface	xiii
1.	The First Meeting	1
2.	Getting to Know You	17
3.	The First Farewell	25
4.	Finding Her Way Home	35
5.	To Know Jaclyn	41
6.	Jaclyn's New Life	51
7.	Jaclyn's Baby	61
8.	Jaclyn's First Birthday	69
9.	The Greatest Love	75
10.	China, Round 3	81
11.	Introducing ... Tan Dong Jin	91
12.	The "L" Word	103
13.	The Twist in the Road	117
14.	The Lessons Learned at Chinese School	123
15.	The Ever-Present Xiao Mei Mei	131
16.	Jaclyn's Past	137
17.	Two Steps Forward ... Three Steps Back	149
18.	The Darkest Hour	155
19.	The Four Freedoms	163
20.	The Long-Awaited News	173
21.	The Promise Fulfilled	183
22.	A New Beginning	193
23.	A Crack in the Wall	199
24.	Lee's New Life	209
25.	Jaclyn's Gift	221
26.	A Time for Healing	231
	Afterword	241
	List of Photographs	245

Editorial Reviews

Adoption activist Champnella describes how her four-year-old daughter persuaded her new family to help the little boy she left behind in China. The author is frank about the stresses and dilemmas she and husband Rick faced after they adopted Lou Jiao in 1999 and renamed her Jaclyn. Though sympathetic to the efforts scantily funded Chinese orphanages are making to take care of the thousands of abandoned children like Lou Jiao, she is also disturbed by some of their practices. While most employees are loving caregivers, such amenities as toilets, beds, and clothing are grossly inadequate, corporal punishment is common, and bullying goes unpunished. These conditions haunted Jaclyn’s dreams during her first year in America and made her difficult to handle, especially around bedtime. Cindy and Rick already had six-year-old Kate, and three-year-old Chinese adoptee Christy, but from the moment she became their daughter, Jaclyn was obviously different. Energetic and high-spirited, with an excellent sense of humor, she also talked obsessively about her "baby," worrying that he was being bullied and not taken care of. As she learned more English, Jaclyn campaigned to get that baby, Xiao Mei Mei, adopted. She prayed each night and constantly badgered her mother. In late 1999, Champnella took Jaclyn to China, met Xiao Mei Mei, and was immediately smitten. She and Rick decided to adopt the tiny boy, even though their finances were stretched thin and she could barely juggle her job as a school administrator with her family responsibilities. A happy solution to their dilemma was provided when the author’s sister Laura, another adoptive parent who had met Xiao Mei Mei on the same visit, declared that shewanted to adopt him. Champnella affectingly details how Jaclyn accepted this option for Xiao Mei Mei (newly christened Lee), finding joy in having him close and peace in no longer having to worry about his plight. Sensitively pitched, moving, and refreshingly unsentimental.

Kirkus Reviews

Many adoptive parents can tell amazing tales about how their children joined their amily, but few are as remarkable as Cindy and Rick Champnella's.” —Child Magazine

“Personal, tender, and inspiring, reflecting what can happen when there are plenty of resources, love, and faith.” —The Ann Arbor News

“Sensitively pitched, moving, and refreshingly unsentimental.” —Kirkus

From the Publisher