Biography Adoption

The story begins with her early years spent in El Salvador with her mother and grandmother, Rosa Eva and Mamita Ines. Anna was eight years old when she set out to immigrate to the US on foot; from that point on, she moved from one foster home to another. The struggles she faced, the people she met along the way, the relationships that came together and fell apart—they have shaped and transformed Anna into the woman she is today.

A gifted young man endured a tormented childhood at the hands of his mentally troubled adoptive mother. Told that his birthmother had died to give him life, he shouldered the blame yet still found the strength to attempt the impossible. With a week’s worth of clothes and a guitar, he left his small town for New York City to make his mark as a singer/songwriter.

Cuong was born during the Vietnamese war and was transported in a cardboard box, by soldiers, to Australia where he was adopted. Other children objected to his exotic appearance, so different from that of his curly-haired, blue-eyed family, but his adopted family always reassured him and his brother stuck up for him against bullies. Through Cuong's eyes, children can learn about the pain of being different and the joy of being loved, by people who adopt, adore and stand up for him.

Born in 1938 and adopted soon after, Kate Foley grew up in London during WWII. The Don't Touch Garden explores what it is to be adopted, both for the child and the adoptive parents, through a wide range of poetic styles and complex emotions.