num_pages: 240
description: Much more than a story of International Adoption, Finding Katherine is a rich travelogue of, and pilgrimage to, modern-day Vietnam. In this remarkable and absorbing tale, the author, Ellen Fitzenrider, journeys to Vietnam to submit the paperwork to adopt a one-year-old girl from an orphanage in Lang Son province near the Chinese border. Planning on touring Southeast Asia for six weeks while she awaits the official adoption ceremony, she is stunned when a child different from the one in the picture that she had received is placed in her arms. The orphanage director then tells her that she may take this new little girl with her on her travels. So starts the family of mother and daughter for Ellen and Katherine Huong. Together they explore their new relationship with each other as well as the rich culture of Vietnam. From Hanoi in the North, to the Imperial City of Hue, to mystical Ha Long Bay on the South China Sea, their wondrous journey takes them from the heart of the city to the remote countryside, from temple and pagoda to former American prison. Along the way they meet shopkeeper and cyclo driver, Buddhist monks and nuns, other adopting families, and even a ghost. Throughout their journey, Ellen explores her spiritual roots, and how motherhood is redefining her Buddhist practice, and discovers that destiny is not always what you expect it to be.
language: English
title: Finding Katherine: A Spiritual Journey to Vietnam and Motherhood
titlecomplete: Finding Katherine: A Spiritual Journey to Vietnam and Motherhood
ratings_count: 9
publisher: Mindful Media, LLC