A Bittersweet Reunion: The Baltimore Sun- August 23, 2009

Our Family's Story.....

In the summer of 2000 I led a mission trip to an orphanage in China. I set out on this trip expecting to be taken in by all the little girls in the orphanage, but instead spent most of my time with the older children. One little boy in particular caught my attention. His name was Jiacheng and his engaging smile stole my heart. I knew I was supposed to do something to help this little boy, but I was 33 years old and single at the time. After returning to the US and praying for this little boy, I began the process to adopt Jiacheng. On April 5, 2001 the adoption was finalized in China and he officially became Christian Jiacheng Norris.

He adjusted very quickly to his new life in America and attached easily to me and my family. When he turned 14 years old, he asked me to help him find his birth parents. Unlike many adopted children, Christian had a lot of memories of his birth family and as he shared this information with me over the years I wrote it all down in the event that some day he might want to search for them. After searching on and off for three years, on May 31st, 2009 a non-profit organization in China that had been helping me in the search contacted me to say they had found Christian’s birth family.

It was such a surprise but the real shock came when we learned his birth family had never abandoned him but instead lost him in April of 1998 traveling back to his father's family village. The birth family searched for years but never got much help from the police. He was presumably kidnapped and sold to another family. Christian had always told me he remembered some man took him by bus and that they traveled for three days to another city. After that he recalls the man left him in a restaurant and never came back.

In February of 1999 the police three provinces away in Henan found him wandering the streets. When the police found him he was so traumatized that he couldn't speak so they just took him to the local orphanage, where he lived until I adopted him in 2001.

After finding his birth parents we immediately began planning a trip to China for a reunion in August 2009. I created this blog so family and friends could follow along with us on this incredible journey.

A Bittersweet Reunion

August 23, 2009

The Baltimore Sun- August 23, 2009

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