Finding Katherine…

A Spiritual Journey to Vietnam and Motherhood

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.

Review from a reader:

"Finding Katherine....is an excellent story about a single mother's quest to adopt a baby girl from Vietnam. Ellen Fitzenrider invites you to accompany her on her journey to Vietnam, and to share with her first hand the experience of what it is like to become a mother so far away from home. Her poetic and engaging writing style makes the story come alive. The author has a real gift in her ability to weave her own spiritual quest throughout the story, and in so doing she shares some powerful and profound experiences along the way. I highly recommend this book."

~K.R., Northern Virginia

 

Trade paperback, 240 pages

Includes map and adoption resources.

Want to take a sneak peek? Click on the 'Chapter One' button at the top of this page to read the complete first chapter of Finding Katherine!

Copies purchased through this website will be autographed.

FINDING KATHERINE $15.95

ISBN 0-9745694-3-7

 

Thanks to all who made a second printing of Finding Katherine possible!

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More than a story of international adoption...

Join a single Buddhist woman on her pilgrimage to Vietnam, to both adopt a little girl and to explore her spiritual roots.  Together they discover the twisting streets of Hanoi, mystical Ha Long Bay on the South China Sea, the silent Forbidden City, and visit with the monks of Tu Hieu Pagoda, root temple of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.

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