Fiction Friday: Story Starters
By Leslie Lindsay Sometimes story ideas just fall into your lap. While on a recent vacation to Door County, Wisconsin, I chatted with a grandfather of two while my two swam in the pool. The topic of discussion–why, (grand)kids, of course! This man–whose name I never got, shared that his oldest grandchild was adopted from China. I listened as he dove into the story–his son and daughter-in-law had been unable to conceive. They were both eager for children. They looked into adoption and fell in love with a young Chinese girl–9 years old. The family wrote letters back and forth to the girl, and finally–after about a year–the adoption was final. Can you imagine bringing home a 10-year old who had spent most of her life in a Chinese orphanage? According to the grandfather, this little girl was found at 5 days old in a middle-class Chinese marketplace. For a short time, she was in a foster home when she was about three years old. Otherwise, her entire existance was spent in an institution. Being …