Bonnie Cuzzolino is not just a children’s book author who writes a story about adoption. She is the proud mother of little Jillian Mei, whom she adopted from Hubei, China, in November of 2001 when Jillian Mei was only twelve months old.
This is no ordinary adoption story. Letter of Love from China is a children’s book that reflects part of Bonnie’s own daughter’s story to find her place and know her actual birth date. It is written to reflect one scenario of how a letter might read from a birth mom based on her belief that her daughter was loved and is still in her birth families hearts.
“My book,” says Bonnie, “is for those families who also believe that their child’s birth mom’s acts showed that their child was loved. What makes this book extraordinary is that it helps children understand that even though their mother had to give them up for adoption, they still loved them.”
I interviewed Bonnie to find out more about this poignant and heart-rending story of how she came to adopt her beautiful daughter, Jillian Mei.
Q. Thank you for this interview, Bonnie. Can I ask if you and your husband were childless and that was the reason you chose adoption?
A. My husband and I were both previously married. I was childless and my husband had two birth daughters, now twenty-three and twenty-six years old. I had fertility problems that led to our decision to adopt.
Q. How did you come to choose Jillian Mei? Did you particularly choose a Chinese child to adopt?
A. We are older parents and China was one of the few countries that preferred adoptive couples be older—older means wiser in China. US adoption offered risks of having birth parents change their mind. I always adored Chinese children and from the time I was a child I felt I would have a black haired baby someday. I also admired Chinese culture. I soon had my husband hooked also as he looked at photo’s of Chinese children.
We did not choose Jillian Mei. China chose her for us. We let them know the age and sex of the child we wanted. That’s it! They make the match. Somehow the matches always fit the families. Divine intervention.
