This was such a good example of how any adoptee feels when they reunite with their birth family. There was the added tensions of the language barrier and what the family didn't want to share and that made it even more interesting. This book really highlights the dichotomies faced by all adoptees. Trying to fit in with your birth family is often like tying yourself into a pretzel. Mei-Ling does a great job of keeping her own identity throughout the process. I really enjoyed this book.

Lucky Girl is the aptly named story of Mei Ling Hopgood who was adopted as a baby from Taiwan by American parents. Growing up in Detroit, Mei Ling never gave much thought to her birth family until contacted by the nun who arranged her adoption. Mei Ling's Taiwanese birth family was excited to meet her and reconnect with her. Mei Ling's adventures meeting various members of her large and boisterous birth family brings to the surface her many conflicting feelings about her adoption. Throughout the book, Mei Ling takes us along with her as she experiences all of the tumultuous emotions connected with becoming re-connected. This is a heart warming memoir that is a very satisfying read. ( )

Lucky Girl is a memoir by award-winnning journalist, Mei-Ling Hopgood, about her experiences as an adoptee suddenly confronted by the reality of her biological family's reemergence into her life. Hopgood's memories of her reunion and subsequent frequent interactions with her biological family give this type of memoir a unique perspective. Her obvious frustration with a language barrier (her biological family is Taiwanese, while she was raised in Detroit) are one hurdle, while her growing awareness of the family's dark secrets and troubled lives is another. Hopgood's tale is honest and emotional, exploring her ambiguous feelings about some members of her biological family (most importantly her biological father and mother) who remain tantalizing out of reach to her. Hopgood has the journalist's eye for detail and language, but it is also an intimate account of her heartbreaking and enormous discoveries about being an adoptee and coming face-to-face with the reasons for her adoption. Recommended.
(Read August 2009) ( )

ei-Ling was born in Taiwan and at seven months old, she was adopted by a loving American couple, Rollie and Chris Hopgood. The Hopgoods also adopted two boys from Korea. The three children grew up as all-American kids and Mei-Ling was never really curious about her birth family or her life in Taiwan before her adoption.

One day, after Mei-Ling had finished college and was working as a journalist, her adopted mother called her and told her that Sister Maureen, the nun who had facilitated her adoption wanted to see her. Mei-Ling decided to meet with Sister Maureen and when it was suggested that Mei-Ling could probably find her birth parents, Mei-Ling declined. Several months later, Mei-Ling asked Sister Maureen to write to the hospital where she was born. This started communication and eventually visits between Mei-Ling and her birth family.

Mei-Ling Hopgood’s memoir, Lucky Girl does give her background, but mostly focuses on her contact and relationship with her birth family after she was an adult. And, what a family it is! I don’t want to give too much away, but her birth father is a domineering man with archaic ideas and her mother is a submissive woman. A lot of this is a result of their age and culture, but it was all quite a shock for Mei-Ling. Mei-Ling was thrilled to discover that she has seven sisters (only Mei-Ling and one other sister were given up for adoption, though). Mei-Ling struggles to understand her mother and the choices she made, but her meetings with her birth family only reinforces what she already knew – that she is a lucky girl.

I really enjoyed Lucky Girl – it’s a beautiful tale of self-discovery without a hint of self-pity. Mei-Ling readily admits that there were times when she felt different when she was growing up because there weren’t many Asians where she lived, but she’s also quick to point out that the Hopgoods were wonderful parents who encouraged and loved her and helped her become the strong woman she is today. When she says, “Giving our children even a fraction of the love and generosity that my mom and dad shared is the best legacy that I can think of leaving,” she is of course speaking of her adopted parents. After reading her book, I think she will leave a fine legacy. ( )

In 1974 Mei Ling Hopgood was adopted from Taiwan by Rollie and Chris Hopgood in what was to be one of the first international adoptions. After about seven months of bureaucratic red tape, Mei Ling was finally able to join her American family. Growing up in Taylor Michigan ( a suburb of Detroit) with parents whom she loved and who loved her dearly and with two younger brothers who were adopted from Korea, Mei Ling lived an all American girlhood and barely gave a though to the family who gave her up. But her birth family showed up out of the blue wanting to meet her and would not take no for an answer.

Her birth family turned out to be a middle class family of Chinese ancestry living in Taipei, defying Mei Lings expectations of a poor peasant family living in the country. Along the way she also met her sister Irene Hoffmann, also given up at birth by their birth parents to a couple from Switzerland.

Mei Lings memoir deals sensitively with the conflicting emotions she has felt about meeting a family who is so different culturally from her in ways she can't ignore. She also deals with how she felt growing up in the seventies near Detroit as one of the few people of Asian descent and facing barely disguised anti Asian discrimination while at the same time considering herself to be fully American.

This was a wonderful book which was hard to put down. I would highly recommend it. ( )