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| Is Proud
to Present |
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| For Ages 4 years
- Adult |
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| Reviews |
Letter Of Love
From China
is the 2008
Mom's Choice Award
Silver Recipient
in the Family Life
Children's Category. |
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Winner Of The 2007
Power Of The Pen Award
For Best Children's Book |
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Written from a birth
mom's perspective, Letter of Love from China
by Bonnie Cuzzolino, paints a loving and respectful
picture of a child's relinquishment in China. Through vivid and colorful illustration,
combined with clear, simple language with appeal to all ages, Letter
of Love from China has a poignant yet uplifting message. So often parents
struggle with positive ways to answer questions about why their child was abandoned
in China. This book will help parents answer these questions and communicate the
heartfelt and loving choice that a birth mom in China makes, and the cultural
context behind this decision. It depicts the relinquishment for what it is, a
selfless act of love. |
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Beth Smith,
MS
Director of Services
China Program
Holt International |
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I want to tell readers of
Mei Magazine about a book titled, "Letter Of Love From China". It is
an easy book for most kids, but it has an important message. The book is written
from a birth mother's point of view which I think is pretty unique. It tells the
honest and complicated life story of
many adoptees. The pictures are very nice, too. I think it is a good book because
sometimes we might forget that birth mothers have difficult decisions and may
feel sad about those decisions. One of my favorite parts is how the author describes
China. It is a beautiful place! |
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Sara, 9
Oct./Nov. 2007
Issue of Mei Magazine |
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"What Is an Adoptive Mother?
By Carrie Craft |
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Being an adoptive mother is not for every woman. She must possess not only the natural mother instinct but an understanding and appreciation of the situation that brought a child into her arms making her a mother.
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The adoptive family came to be by choices made, choices made by the first parents and by the adoptive parents. This bond the adoptive mother has with her child grows over time, like the child did within his first mother's womb. |
Day by day, touch by touch, with each tear, kiss, and memory made they became a family. Adoptive mothers have that special knack to let love grow. Adoptive mothers know that she's a mender of wounds, not just of the physical skinned knees with a band-aid and a kiss, but of the heart. She gives love, acceptance, and permission to ask and talk about the day he was born and of his first parents.
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Adoptive mothers are embracers, not only of the child with many hugs and kisses, but of the child's heritage and history. She embraces the facts of her child's past with strength for herself and the child. She's not only a memory maker planning family vacations, activities, and birthday parties, but also a memory keeper. Details of a birth, photos of the hospital, and of the parents who brought her into the world are kept along side the newspaper clipping that announced it all. All these things are kept in a special book that tells the whole story.
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She's a tier of shoelaces and of hearts. She weaves lives together into a tapestry of a new family, with many different brightly, colored threads showcasing their individualities and family origins. Together they create one unit attached to each other.
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Adoptive mothers are experts at finding lost objects, but understand and validate the profound, deep loss left by adoption. She allows the tears to fall and grief to be felt, allowing the mourning of the mom not there. She is secure in knowing that she's not a replacement, but a finisher of a race for someone who, for whatever reason, could not run any longer. |
This role is not for the weak of spirit, or the easily wounded. Loving a child not born to her but calling him her own, but this is what she does, it is her calling.
She is a mother. |
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| Bonnie Cuzzolino |
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| About the
Author |
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Award winning author Bonnie Cuzzolino and her family live
in New Jersey. Bonnie and her husband Ray are the parents to a beautiful daughter
adopted from Hubei, China in November of 2001 at 12 months old. She and her husband
are now waiting for a referral for their second daughter from China through Holt
International Children's Services. Bonnie has had a lifelong passion to write
children's books. This book is her first and is dedicated to her daughter, Jillian
Mei.
I believe that we are given the gift from God to love. For some people there are
circumstances in their lives that interfere with this ability.
Our daughter's birth mom chose to leave her in a place that she could be found
quickly and cared for,in a bamboo basket, wrapped warmly in blankets with a note
of her birthdate and a small amount of money. A decision that many of China's
birth moms who relinquish their children make.
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She did not choose other options that were available to her. She chose to give
her child a chance to live life. This in itself tells me that birth mom loved
her. For me actions speak louder than words. Her actions showed only love for
her child.
My daughter asked me what I thought her Birth mom might say to her if she could
speak to her. In listening to my daughter I chose to write a book from the voice
of her birth mom in the form of a letter to explain her story to her. What better
way to explain feelings than through a letter.
"Letter of Love From China" is a children's story book that reflects
part of my own daughter's story as to her finding place and knowledge of her actual
birthdate. It is written to reflect one scenario of how a letter might read from
a birth mom based on my belief that my daughter was loved and is still in her
birth families hearts.
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Jillian Mei |
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The book is beautifully illustrated with vibrant colors.
My book is for those families who also believe that their child's birth mom's
acts showed that their child was loved.
The story is based on a Chinese birth mom who writes her daughter a letter explaining
her love for her, reasons for her relinguishment, describes the beauty of scenic
China and the Holidays, prays for, meaning hoping for but not certain of, her
daughter's adoption by a family from a foreign land and ends by using the moon
as a mirror to envision each other's faces in times of thinking of one another.
It is my hope that my book with act as a tool to help open discussions with your
children about their birth families and the circumstances of their beginnings
in China.
You can explain the knowledge of their finding place and care in China as you
read the book with them. Talk about what ever other knowledge you have. Discuss
other possiblities that exist as to why they were relinguished. Ask them what
they think their birth mom might write in a letter to them if she could and what
you feel she might write.
We as parents can not give our children the exact details of their birth family's
circumstances. My book's main purpose is meant to assure the child of birth mom's
love,give them illustrations that enable them to relate to their own adoption
and some insight into the land of their birth.
"Letter Of Love From China", is also the perfect book for the nonadopted
child to help them have an
understanding of what International adoption is all about. It will answer some
of their questions about friends, classmates, neighbors and family members who
are adopted. It makes a wonderful gift for them.
God Bless,
Bonnie Cuzzolino
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| Jax Bennett |
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| About the
Illustrator |
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A long time famly friend of the Cuzzolino's, illustrator
Jax Bennett earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the Rhode Island School
of Design in 2004. She is currently pursuing her Master of Science Degree in Art
Therapy from Florida State University and is expected to graduate in August 2008.
Jax plans to work as both an art therapist and a children's book illustrator,
as well as continue to paint murals for private homes and businesses.
Please visit Jax's website:
www.jaxbennett.com
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ISBN 1-4243-0236-6
© Copyright 2006
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Holt International
Children's Services, Foster Care Program, in Eugene, Oregon.
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Purchase
your copy of
Letter Of Love From China |
Hardcover
10" x 8", 28 color pages |
| $17.95+
shipping |
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| To order by check or money order, contact:
Bonnie@plumblossombooks.com for info. |
| Please allow 3 weeks for check clearance and
shipping. |
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We offer a Bulk Order discount of $12.95
per book for orders of 6 or more books.
Perfect book to replace the party goody bag, great gift for children's clubs and
croups.
Explains to the non adopted child what International adoption means and why some
children's classmates,
friends and family members may not always look like their Mom and Dad.
Bulk Orders must be ordered by email
Please email:Bonnie@plumblossombooks.com |
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