For years, I wrote other people’s stories. But there was one story I needed to tell–my own. In this New York Times Tiny Love Stories, I wrote about the birth mother who abandoned me and the adoptive mother who raised me.
Abandoned as a newborn on a Hong Kong stairwell, I languished in an orphanage for fifteen months, desperate for human connection. Based on three photos, a Chinese American couple adopted me. My adoptive mother suffered a severe mental illness and my adoptive father responded with violence. Determined to create a better life, I was able to overcome my past to create a fulfilling life as a writer. I enjoy a decades-long marriage and close relationships with our three young adult children. I am most proud that I did the work to stop generational trauma.