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Cindy Champnella (www.cindychampnella.com) is the author of The Waiting Child: How the Faith and Love of One Orphan Saved the Life of Another (St. Martin's Press, March 2003). She is an acclaimed speaker who has presented to numerous civic, community and religious groups all over the United States and has appeared on several TV programs including NBC's "The John Walsh Show," dozens of nationally syndicated radio programs including "The Mitch Albom Show" and "The Al Kresta Show" and the internationally syndicated "Voice of America." She has had features published in numerous publications including Ladies Home Journal and Women's Weekly is a feature writer for Adoption Today and a former guest columnist for The Detroit News. She is a keynote speaker at conferences and forums including a recent appearance at Duke University.
In July of 1999, Cindy Champnella embarked on a life-changing event with the adoption of her daughter, Jaclyn. Each day brought new stories about her life back in China and the child Jaclyn called "her baby," a young boy she cared for while at the orphanage. Champnella began to realize that her daughter had determination and courage beyond her years. "Living with Jaclyn was like living with a very short mother who has had her baby wrenched from her arms," Champnella says.
Profoundly affected by Jaclyn's relentless advocacy for another, Champnella began writing emails to friends about the pain this child held within her over the loss of "her baby." Almost overnight a network of those following the story grew, and unbeknownst to Champnella, her emails were reaching people all over the world. Soon her writings were picked up by various publications, and before long, many were clamoring for this story to be told in book form; this is what launched Cindy's writing career.
After returning from the orphanage, Champnella began to realize that her old life was over. "The Chinese have a saying: 'The journey of discovery comes not from seeing new lands, but from seeing with new eyes.' And for me this proved to be true. Suddenly everything in my world looked different," says Champnella.
Determined to change her life, Champnella discovered that her purpose in becoming a child advocate. She turned her volunteer work into her life's focus. In addition to her "day job" as Executive Director of Human Resources for Schoolcraft College, she runs support groups for adoptive families and is a volunteer fund raiser for Warm Blanket Orphan Care. She also brings inspriring messages of hopefulness, even in the darkest circumstances, to various forums.
Champnella is married with three children including two adoptees from China. She has a B.A. from Albion College, an M.A. in business and a M.A. in psychology from Central Michigan University and a PhD. in psychology.She resides in Farmington Hills, MI. All proceeds from her first book were designated for the charity, Half the Sky Foundation. This foundation, which was founded entirely by parents of Chinese adopted children, is intended to benefit children who live in Chinese orphanages. All proceeds from her new book, The Twelve Gifts of Life, are designated for Warm Blanket Orphan Care.
COMING SOON...a new book :
THE TWELVE GIFTS OF LIFE: Finding Extraordinary Meaning in Ordinary Moments
by Cindy Champnella, PhD.
Each our our lives is really a collection of stories--the totality of which has shaped who we are. Maybe what we fear most in life isn't some terrible tragedy befalling us but that our lives will be ordinaary. As Frankl discovered when he studied those who survived the horrors of Auschwitz, the distinguishing difference between those who lived and those who lost hope was a strong belief in the greater meaning of their life.
This is the premise of The Twelve Gifts of Life. It is a collection of true stories that have defined and shaped the author's life and the deeper meaning found in the context of the ordinary. Readers will be inspired by it, touched by its simple yet powerful truths, tearful at its poignancy and refreshed by the candor of its tealling.
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