The Lucky Ones: Our Stories of Adopting Children from China

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: starting with infertility then realizing a unique destiny—turning bleak beginnings into happy endings.