Spirit Baby: Travels Through China on the Long Road to Motherhood

Theres an ancient Chinese belief that women possess two hearts; an upper heart associated with the standard Western heart and a lower heart tied to the uterus. They say that women hold dreams of infants lost children and babies never-meant-to-be in their upper hearts while babies destined to be born travel to their mothers lower heart.With my lower heart as empty as ever and my upper heart full of lost babies and broken dreams my husband and I planned an escape to China.When Americans Nina and Chris Little step off the plane onto Chinese soil they are a couple in crisis. Fleeing the heartbreak of yet another miscarriage the anguish of failed fertility treatments and the silence of their childless home they arrive in Beijing just in time for the spring sand storms.During their travels Nina discovers unexpected wonder in her world. Will she find the same in herself her marriage and her future?Part memoir part travelogue Spirit Baby weaves together themes of longing loss and learning how to live again while celebrating the healing benefits of travel.But more than anything Spirit Baby is about the power of lovethe love between a man and a woman and the love of a woman for her children unborn and born.