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Summary: Great reading on China Adoption!!
Review: I must admit that this is the ONE book that WILL make you cry! We have done this "amazing" journey ourselves (adopting in China) and it is the best book I have ever read, and even recommended to my entire family to understand the tedious process of our daughter's amazing adoption. I have bought three copies (one to keep for my daughter) and 2 for relatives! Amazing reading! You will read it over and over again and never get tired of it! It is a book I will treasure forever!
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Summary: Outstanding and Highly Recommended
Review: I ordered this book after hearing the author interviewed on NPR. I was not disappointed. Although this book is about many things (the author's own experiences with the Chinese adoption process, for instance), the most truly valuable aspect of the book is the insight it gives into the Chinese political and cultural situation that has led to the current child abandonment situation. Evans presents a culturally sensitive explanation of the history and the culture. This book has helped me answer many of the questions that I frequently am asked about Chinese adoption. I'm considering buying several copies to give to family and friends.
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Summary: Compelling book, but not for everyone
Review: I read this book at the urging of my brother and sister in law before they adopted their daughter in China. While the material was fascinating, and the situation tragic, this is not a book for everyone.
To summarize this book, currently the Chinese government has restricted most of the country to a single child. Because the Chinese society places a higher value on boys than girls, thousands of baby daughters are being abandoned and placed up for adoption. Delving deeper and deeper into this tragedy, Lost Daughters of China is a thought provoking book worth the read.
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Summary: I Want to Adopt in China
Review: I really enjoyed this book and it increased my desire to adopt a little girl from China. The only problem I had with this book is that some of the stories were repeated and I had to stop and think "Okay, she mentioned that in Chapter 2" and go on. When she describes the day she picked up her new daughter and cried upon taking her in her arms, I cried too. If you are considering adoption in China, start with this book.
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Summary: Perfect for adoptive extended family
Review: I was delightfully surpised by this book. I'm an aunt-to-be of a neice from China and have been looking for any information I can find for family members of adoptive parents. This book turned out to fit the bill perfectly. Evans beautifully interweaves her own story of her daughter's adoption with a broader, factual picture of international adoption from China. Although this is only one family's experience, it enlightened me on what my relatives will and are going through on their adoption journey. It also filled in many of the gaps in my knowledge of China's infamous "one child" policy and how this affects women and children's lives in China every day. It is chilling when Evans gives statistics on the number of China's daughters that have been lost. And yet at the same time you can not help but be filled with hope to read of the perfect matches between adoptive parents and their Chinese daughters. Evans approaches her subject with obvious thoughtfulness and care and you can't help but care right along with her. I recommend this book not only for adoptive parents but grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends of parents adopting from China.
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Summary: Not bad content, but a little whiney.
Review: I was expecting a little more from this book. I didn't get it. Maybe if I hadn't already read a lot of the books the author references, I would have been able to deal with the author's eccentricities she herself describes. (Making a "shrine" to her child-to-be.) I wouldn't recommend NOT to read it, but I wouldn't put it at the top of the list either.
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Summary: Required Reading for Potential/In-Process Adoptive Parents
Review: In short, this book was the single most influential factor in my decision to adopt a baby girl from China. A sensitive blend of fact and feeling, it leads the reader through emotional ride from horror to inspiration. In it, the author provides an in depth view of the unfortunate circumstances in China that provide simultaneous good fortune to those of looking to adopt healthy infants from outside our country. Moving through the author's tale, you can't help but come to believe that these precious baby girls aren't 'abandoned' by their mothers. Rather, in the face of tremendous odds against the babies' survival, the mothers perform a tremendous act of love in ensuring these children are born and live to find their American families that are anxious to love and nuture them.
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Summary: Compeling Memoir of Chinese Adoption
Review: It's not often you find a fun read that is also a page turner. I could have read this book in one sitting! Karin Evans has written a beautiful story about her adoption experience. She also explores Chinese culture and discusses what it must be like for a Chinese woman to give up or even abandon her daughter. I chose this book because of my interest in Chinese culture (my boyfriend is Chinese) and I was not disappointed. Karin chronicles her struggle to get through the paperwork and the long wait to adopt her beautiful daughter. The book made me laugh & cry and it will touch you deeply.
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Summary: Evans Has Done a Tremendous Service by Writing this Book
Review: Karin Evans has done a great service by writing this book. While it is an invaluable resource to present and future adoptive parents of Chinese children, it is also an important reminder for everyone of the situation in China that has lead to the abandonment of countless baby girls. Evan's story is tremendously moving, although she never resorts to gimmicky heartstring pulling. She tells the barefaced truth about Chinese adoption, complete with the anxiety, frustration, confusion and utter joy that accompanies the process. She also very intelligently outlines the underlying factors that enable Americans to adopt Chinese babies in the first place. While never accusing or pointing a finger, she thoughtfully presents well-researched information about China's one-child policy and the cultural preference for male children, and discusses government attempts to curb population. She explores the anguish experienced by Chinese birth parents who must give up their children in hope of giving them a better life, and she is respectful of the painful decisions these parents are forced to make. In addition, Anchee Min's brief preface is haunting. Lost Daughters of China is not only for those considering Chinese adoption, but for anyone interested in child welfare and/or Chinese social policy.
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Summary: excellent and thoughtful insight
Review: My wife and I adopted our oldest daughter from Tonglu, Zhejiang, China in August, 1995. It was a wonderful experience and I am forever grateful to my daughter's birthmother, her orphanage caretakers and even the Chinese government for making my family possible. Several things were striking about Karin Evans "Lost Daughters of China". First, the striking similarity and commonality of thought that prospective adoptive parents experience before during and after the adoption is amazing. It is as if Karen could read my thoughts about the paperwork anxiety, the diplomatic anxiety, the waiting, the shopping for baby things, the thought that this very baby was destined for us, the thought that my daughter's birthmother loved her so much that she made the supreme sacrifice so that my daughter could live a productive, fruitful and full life, the dealing with ignorant questions from well meaning strangers, etc. etc. Karen does a much better job of translating these thoughts and feelings into words than I have ever been able to do. Second, Karen Evans as well as many China adoptive parents I have spoken with talk about the extreme difficulty of the adoption in terms of the dossier, the waiting time, multiple snafu's, etc. It is not an easy process under any circumstances. However, for anyone considering a Chinese adoption, and who read this review, use Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI) in Denver, Colorado. This organization has now completed more that 3,200 adoptions from China as of this writing. People all over the USA have used them. It is run by two wonderful Chinese nationals and I know no one who doesn't give them the most glowing reviews. Karen could have saved months by using CCAI. Third, unlike several of the reviewers who objected to the speculation about the birthmother's thoughts and state of mind, I appreciated this perspective. For people who have adopted from China and have no history of their daughter at all, informed speculation may be the best we ever have to hold on to regarding our daughter's immediate heritage. I also found the Chinese family profile (the abandoning family) very informative and useful. Fourth, and this is my only real objection to this book, the idea that adoptive families of Asian children cannot live normal lives irritates me. I have been innundated by authors and lecturers primarily, over the past seven years that continue to remind me how I need to force feed Chinese culture down my daughter's throat. They tell me that because my daughter looks different than her parents, she is going to have all kinds of special issues requiring special treatment ranging from therapy to Mandarin language classes, to learning to use chopsticks, etc. I think there is some kind of subtle racism at work here. I don't think there would be nearly the furor over the adoption of a baby of Swiss descent by American parents for no other reason than that they would look alike. I tell my daughter that she can be proud of her Chinese heritage and I will support her exploration into her cultural heritage as far as she wants to take it. But, and this is a big but, she is American now. She is as American as I am and as American as her school mates. I have no great affinity towards Britain where my ancestors came from and I don't think she should have her ancestry forced on her anymore than rest of us do. Maybe I am being naive, but I just want to raise my Asian daughters as daughters. I want normalcy. Is that asking too much? Is that impossible? I don't think so. Regardless, this is a great book. It is an easy read and I recommend it without hesitation.
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