Books: Poignant memoir of adoption, fate and love

Beth and Alex aren’t even all that close, so it’s unexpected when Alex asks Beth to come with her as she travels to China to pick up her newly adopted daughter. Beth notices that Alex seems withdrawn and indecisive about the trip from the beginning, but chalks it up to nerves about the long plane ride and weariness from all the adoption red tape.

But at the orphanage, things only get worse. Presented with an undersized, spindly and frightened baby, Alex seems to crack. Instead of trying to bond with the infant, Alex distances herself further and further from the tiny stranger, alternately oblivious to and struggling with her own indifference, and finally admits that she may have made a terrible mistake.

Meanwhile, Beth is left to hold, feed and care for the child, and as she does she finds an intense connection growing between them. It doesn’t take long for Beth to realize that she can’t just walk away from this baby.

As she tours modern China with Baby and learns more about the dim future that awaits her there as a rootless orphan, she also dreams vivid visions of an ancient China and a rich, privileged life that is nonetheless full of sacrifice and longing.

Meeting Baby begins to look less like chance and more like destiny. And finally Beth is ready when the inevitable question comes: “Will you take her?”

Told in emotional, evocative prose, Beth Russell’s memoir is an affirmation that love can be waiting where you least suspect it. Her deep, profound love for her unexpected daughter shines through every word.

It’s also a heartwarming and heartwrenching tale of the realities of global adoption. But most of all, “Forever Lily” is a story of life-changing journeys: from chance to fate; from stranger to mother; from twice-abandoned orphan Baby to cherished, beloved daughter Lily.