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

From the Publisher

The Waiting Child is an extraordinary story of human resilience in the face of tremendous odds. Adopted by an American family at age four, Jaclyn goes 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. Jaclyn inspires two families, several agencies, and two governments to cooperate to reunite her with "her baby." Everyone who reads this story will believe in the power of love to change the world.

Mary Quattlebaum - Children's Literature

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, Cindy Champnella tells us in The Waiting Child. And sometimes they are right in our own families. When Champnella adopted her daughter Jaclyn from China, she discovered a feisty four-year-old with a mission. In the orphanage, Jaclyn had cared for a tiny toddler named Xiao Mei Mei. She would not rest until "her baby" had a new mama, too. In this moving tribute to love and tenacity, Champnella paints a picture of tedious bureaucracy, overworked orphanage staff, and the kindness of those who helped bring Xiao Mei Mei home to America. Champnella's book is both informative and inspiring. Three cheers for Jaclyn—and for her good-humored, good-hearted author-mom, too! 2003, St. Martin's Press,

Kirkus 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.

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