Lucky Baby: A Novel

Written by Meredith Efken

Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

Meg Lindsay has everything a woman could want except happiness. Can an adopted Chinese child bring her what she lacks? All her life, Meg Lindsay's mother told her what a disappointment she was. Try as she might, Meg never measured up, and the emotional bruises still hurt as an adult. In Meg's opinion, no one could be a worse mother than the woman who gave birth to her-that is, until Meg has a child of her own to care for. Two young girls lived in an orphanage in China. Unwanted because of a deformity and the lack of family registry, Little Zhen An was destined to spend her childhood in the orphanage. Her only friend was a slightly older blind girl, Wen Ming. After Meg and her husband, Lewis, adopt one of the girls, Meg's love for her new daughter grows daily, but the tension, fear, and uncertainty of motherhood drive Meg to the brink of despair. Fearing that she is becoming the kind of mother she hates, she fights circumstance, rebellion, a loving but at times tense marriage, setbacks, and the native selfishness that lives in all of us. Meg's journey is a magical one as East meets West and as imagination aligns with reality. Lucky Baby spans the world, bridges the gap between heart and soul, and shows that the greatest power on Earth is forgiveness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oasis Audio
• Release date: Apr 13, 2010
• ISBN: 9781608146703

Reviews for Lucky Baby

[carolee888 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lucky Baby by Meredith Efken is a brutally honest telling of the emotions that some families deal with when adopting. The author adopted a child herself but this not her story is sort of the worst case scenario. Meg Lindsey had a cold and controlling mother so she never saw herself as a mother. Her husband also had parental problems. His father was aloof and cold and his mother left him when he was a child and he never saw her again. What is unusual to me is the use of magical realism. That is magical events that occur in an otherwise realistic story. It does seem to fit into the story very well.I am not sure when Meg decided that she wanted to adopt but the idea took over her life and yet she still had doubts that she could be a good mother.In Shanghai, two little girls, one soon to be blind and the other had a hare lip, were becoming close friends. Wen Ming and Zheng An bonded tightly together because they found themselves being rejected by the others in the Children’s home.This book through its story teaches many lessons about love, the differences between mother and child love and the difficulties that may arise with adoption. One thing that I really liked is the counseling was a part of the healing process and the characters, all of them, mother, father and children all learned from life. Religion itself is not a focus of this book, but rather a focus on being open, honest and forgiving.I highly recommend this unusual and spell bounding book.