Synopses & Reviews
After eighteen years together, Christine and I are down to our last hour as a couple. By dinner we will be a threesome. It seems strange to stand so firmly atop a generational fault line, to know that in an hour you'll be a parent, to understand that your old life is disappearing before your eyes, that a new one is about to begin....
Aching to expand from a couple to a family, Jeff Gammage and his wife, Christine, embarked upon a journey that would carry them across a shifting landscape of emotion excitement, exhilaration, fear, apprehension and through miles of red tape and bureaucratic protocol, to a breathtaking land on the other side of the world where a little girl waited. When they met Jin Yu, a silent, stoic two-year-old, in the smog-choked city of Changsha in Hunan Province, they realized that every frustrating moment of their two-year struggle was worth it. But they also realized that another journey had only begun. Now there was much to experience and learn. How do you comfort a crying toddler when you and she speak different languages? How do you fully embrace a life altered beyond recognition by new concerns, responsibilities and a love unlike any you've felt before?
Alive with insight and feeling, China Ghosts is a journalist's eye-opening depiction of the foreign adoption process and a remarkable glimpse into a different culture. Most important, it is a poignant, heartfelt, and intensely intimate chronicle of the making of a family.
Review
"Gammage's beautifully written memoir, which weaves together emotionally wrenching narrative with insightful social commentary, will resonate with any American who has taken the same journey." Philadelphia Inquirer
About the Author
Jeff Gammage is a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He lives with his wife, Christine, and their daughters, Jin Yu and Zhao Gu, in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.