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Synopsis
"I didn't know if I could be a mother. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to be a mother. Nothing in my upbringing seemed to support motherhood."
So begins Corinne Chateau's odyssey to claim the mother in herself and embark upon an unexpected journey that will lead her to a child in the distant Republic of Georgia.
The Road to Cali is about not giving up. It is the story of a rescue--of both a child and oneself.
Kirkus Discoveries
A couple's decision to adopt turns into a heart-wrenching struggle to rescue a child from the confines of a cold Eastern European orphanage.
With daily diary entries, Chateau escorts readers through the labyrinth-like process of foreign adoption, from the motivations that inspired her decision to her ultimate journey home with a child. Chateau and her husband Brian were actors in New York who encountered fertility problems during their cursory attempts to have children. Several chance encounters left Chateau fixated on adopting. The author, once reconciled to
the idea of motherhood, needed to come to terms with the notion of casting one's lot, and finances, with complete strangers at an adoption agency. This proved to be no easy task, but it paled in comparison with what followed. Chateau chronicles the emotionally exhausting efforts she and her husband experienced once they met and fell in love with a Georgian infant, Kali, whose name was later changed to the titular Cali. His adoption depended upon a host of ever-changing and draconian protocols and paperwork in the Republic of Georgia, recounted by the author with mind-bending and heartbreaking clarity. Through the author's research and travels, readers are awarded a richly textured glimpse of the history and culture of the country, specifically the town of Tbilisi; tales of the generosity and altruism of its inhabitants are particularly stirring. More than
a decade has passed since Chateau's experience, but her intimate journal so poignantly conveys the wide range of emotions incurred during the adoption process only the most aloof of readers would be able to resist tears. Her prose, however, is sometimes marred by a nearreligious attention to detail, much of which could be spared at no expense to the narrative (such as descriptions of her trips to the hospital bathroom).
A winning, emotional journey that will satisfy readers' maternal instincts.
Copyright 2008 Kirkus Discoveries