Bettina is on a soul-searching quest for answers regarding her adoption of a child from India-as a Western parent. When she meets Bina, a little girl in an orphanage in Mumbai, Bettina's questions lead her into action, and she and her husband face a challenging struggle through the adoption process.
Two years later, they start all over again as they bring a second girl out of India and into their Western world, forcing them to face racism, a culture clash, and other challenges.
Based on actual events, Bettina's is the story of a mother's love for her daughters, set against an intricate tapestry of the international adoption process. Her story weaves together views of the nuns in children's homes, the struggle of secretly pregnant girls in India, the well-meaning parents, the corrupt child traffickers, and, above all, the children. It is a book about the family's experiences, both painful and joyful, as the girls grow up and reflect on their own adoption. It is as much a story about adoption as about life after adoption.
This is no fairy-tale story. It's an unflinching look at the adoption process fraught with red tape and bureaucracy, the brutal realities of orphanages, the psychological scars on children, the racism and prejudices, and misconceptions and xenophobia that adoptive families face. But this story also shows the strength of the parents and the children, as they succeed in coping with their difficult start in life and grow up into happy teenagers enjoying a pretty normal life.
About the Author: Bettina Schulz is a London-based journalist who spent over twenty years as a foreign financial correspondent for the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) before becoming a freelance financial journalist for DIE ZEIT.
Schulz lives with her two teenage daughters, both of whom she adopted from India with the help of the British social services, in London.
