Where I Belong

My name is Hannah Joy Xiao Ai McKean. I was born in Jiaozuo, a city in Henan province in central China. As a baby, I was left on the steps of a hospital. I spent the first four years of my life in an orphanage and a foster home. I never knew my birth parents.

At four, I was adopted by a couple from Texas. Their son, who was in his twenties, had met me at the orphanage while serving as a missionary in China. He told his parents, and they adopted me.

Thousands of children from around the world are adopted each year by American families. Sometimes adoption can mean the difference between life and death.

Even so, growing