After Sorrow Comes Joy [Paperback]

Cherie Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2000

After Sorrow Comes Joy

Cherie Clark, the internationally famous nurse and mother of ten children, has devoted more than thirty years of her life to helping orphaned and abandoned children.

This book, planned to be the first of a trilogy, starts with her early life in Peru, Indiana, and leads the reader quickly through her awakening concern for war-torn Viet Nam, resulting in the decision to adopt three children of mixed race from that country. Eventually, as a nurse, Cherie decides to go to Viet Nam, along with her husband and seven small children, to open a home for abandoned and orphaned children. The book is a moving and dynamic account of her ceaseless struggle to nourish and find adoptive homes for hundreds of children, while living within the hell that followed the American withdrawal from Viet Nam. The story culminates in April 1975 when, through Operation Babylift, Cherie is safely airlifted out with her children, only to return to help others escape on the last planeload of babies to be rescued from Viet Nam.

The final two chapters give a glimpse of what is to come in the rest of the trilogy. Following her departure from Viet Nam, a restless Cherie went to Calcutta and met with Mother Teresa, who invited her to come and work with her. Determined to carry on her work with orphans, Cherie returned to India with her own young children in 1976. There they lived in some of the poorest slums as she opened dispensaries and clinics and rescued thousands of babies and children from orphanages, prisons, and the back streets of Calcutta. In the process she helped nearly ten thousand children find adoptive homes in America and throughout the world.

In 1988 Cherie accepted an invitation to join a delegation to become one of the first Westerners to travel to Viet Nam, by then an entirely communist country. Returning to Saigon after an absence of twelve years, Cherie felt she was returning home. Picking up from where she had been forced to leave off years before, she began working with Vietnamese officials and plunged headlong into the task of helping the poor, the unwanted and the orphaned. This book has 130 dramatic pictures to take you through the journey. This is a story that will inspire you as well as bring you to tears. It is one of those books that simply cannot be put down.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Cherie Clark is a courageous, giving woman who embodies a love that transcends color, race, religion and politics. She is fiercely determined to give all children a chance in life that fate has seemingly cheated them out of. Cherie founded the International Mission of Hope, now a thriving and respected organization, funded solely by donations, which is involved in feeding and caring for children and elderly people, helping with disaster relief and reforestation, and facilitating the adoption of some 250 children every year. Cherie's group has also built a rural health care clinic in My Lai. She and most of her family currently live in Hanoi and operate child care centers throughout Viet Nam.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

By Paul J. Miller -- Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist

Cherie Clark, a woman of outstanding character and fortitude.

I've known Cherie and her ten children for more than a decade, and have traveled with her up and down Vietnam, watching her at work with sick, dying and unwanted babies and children.

As a photographer, I've lived a great part of my life capturing images through a camera lens, and over the years, I've developed a habit of observing life and situations as a series of photographs.

Whenever I see Cherie, a series of images passes through my mind's eye. I think back to all the experiences we shared over the years, and I see her in her own element: holding a starving baby, talking animatedly with some local official, playing with a group of kids in one of the centers, or, too often, looking tired and drained at the end of another eighteen-hour day.

Cherie is a caring and giving woman; she gives of herself deeply, never asking for reward, but receiving pleasure from watching as a life is saved or another baby lifted from the black pit of despair and loved back to health and happiness in one of the centers or hospitals she built and supports.

Like many strong-willed people, Cherie can be daunting at times as she burns with passion for her calling--an energy that often leaves strong men tiring in her wake. Walking through a small village, or marching down the halls of a government building, her long stride and determined manner personify the strength of the woman.

Never accepting a denial or refusal, she moves with an almost reckless ease from a normal situation to a bizarre, to beyond daring. I clearly remember how Cherie dealt with one such bizarre and dangerous situation. We were traveling late at night on the road from Saigon to Phnom Penh in an aged van, packed with supplies urgently needed in Cambodia. Rounding a bend on a roughly surfaced country road, we suddenly came face to face with a makeshift roadblock barring our way. As we pulled to a halt, Cherie jumped straight out of our van to face the young Cambodian soldiers, dressed in dirty fatigues and carrying the ubiquitous AK47's, who were guarding the roadblock.

Lacking a common language, she tried to explain our mission and our need to pass through. The situation became tense as the soldiers sullenly shook their heads. Her frustration mounted and reached critical mass. I felt the tension inch higher as Cherie quietly walked past the lead soldier and moved toward the barrier--I saw a carbine raised and aimed. In the pregnant silence, as Cherie raised the barrier, the only sounds were insects buzzing in the nearby jungle and our engine coughing on the cheap fuel.

The barrier was up, and the soldiers just stared at Cherie, nonplussed. They were the infamous soldiers of Cambodia, known throughout the world. How could this middle-aged Western woman just pass them by? The soldiers exchanged looks of consternation. Suddenly the gun was lowered, and the soldiers muttered to each other in desperation. What could they do?

Cherie climbed aboard, and amid much waving and smiling thanks, we slowly drove through the roadblock. It was five minutes and a few miles before we dared to speak. The bowel-wrenching fear finally left me, and the tension eased in the van. Cherie had done it again, risking her life to help some poor children she hadn't even met.

Such is the strength of Cherie Clark. When all the trite words have been put aside, there remains, at the core, a humanitarian of indomitable spirit who will walk into harm's way without pause, confident of her role in this world to help the needy.

I have read After Sorrow Comes Joy from cover to cover. Much of the story I knew before the book was written, but now I find myself reading about Cherie and her work with an interest that makes me keep turning the pages to share her life-changing experiences with her.

There is a message for everyone in this book--for the babies, children and adults who were saved by Cherie's efforts; for government bureaucrats who initially shunned her directness; for you, the reader. Look at Cherie Clark, and hope that you have the fortitude to give so deeply of yourself for a cause you believe in.

Paul J. Miller
May 23, 2000

Product Details

• Paperback: 290 pages
• Publisher: Lawrence & Thomas Publishing House (June 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615115624
• ISBN-13: 978-0615115627
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #558,568 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars required reading, August 26, 2000

By 

Susan M Moir (Bend, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Sorrow Comes Joy (Paperback)

AFTER SORROW COMES JOY should be required reading for all adoptive children and their families. Like the map of a family tree, this is where our children's history starts. Every adopted child deserves and needs to know where his story begins. For those adopted from Viet Nam and India this is it. But After Sorrow Comes Joy would be enjoyed by anyone who likes an engrossing tale. It's a tale filled with love and disgust, heroes and villains, sorrow and joy. The message is much more than "just another adoption or social workers memoir." It's also a lesson in the story of mankind and the parts played by every day heroes in the making of history. After Sorrow Comes Joy is one of the finest books I've read and it's the gift my family and friends will be receiving. Be sure and purchase it today.

Susan Moir /Mother of 3 children adopted from IMH India

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting!, August 15, 2000

By 

Allison Martin - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Sorrow Comes Joy (Paperback)

After Sorrow Comes Joy is the riveting autobiographical story of Cherie Clark's entry into the world of international adoption. It culminates in her dramatic, humanitarian efforts to aid the babies and children left disolute by the aftermath of the Vietnamese American War. Inspired by her own adoptions and a meeting with Mother Teresa in India, Cherie responded to the call of her heart to journey to Vietnam where she founded the International Mission of Hope. After Sorrow Comes Joy documents the story of how Cherie found a home in Vietnam caring for the sick and abandoned babies and children trapped in a frightened and poor war-torn country.

Following the end of the Vietnamese-American war, Vietnam was still torn in two by fighting between the North and South Vietnamese armies. Americans, Europeans and thousands of Vietnamese people were rapidly fleeing the country as city after city fell to Communist rule. This stirring account describes how Cherie Clark cared for the babies and children of Vietnam during this period of chaos, uniting them with families and medical care and food that they needed to survive. It is also an account of bureaucracy gone amoke. Normal channels failed as families and even basic government services were caught in the a war crashing down upon them. During this upheaval the heroism of the Vietnamese and Americans who cared for the orphans and abandoned children is heart wrenching. After Sorrow Comes Joy brings this tulmultuous time back to life with clarity and intimacy.

Readers will find themselves captivated by many of the scenes in this book - including Cherie Clark's heartfelt return to Vietnam 20 years after the war, her children's escape from a collapsing Vietnam, her first visits to the orphanages that many continue to adopt from today, and several kidnapping attempts including that of her own daughter.

After Sorrow Comes Joy is informative and engrossing on many levels. It is an historical account of the beginning of adoption in Vietnam. It is a personal account of a family's growth through adoption. It is a stirring documentary of a period of history that for years has remained best forgotten, but which still startles in its immediacy. Hundreds of pictures flesh out the dramatic stories. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Vietnam, in the antecedents of Vietnamese adoption or in the International Mission of Hope. Rarely do adoptive parents get such a personal glimpse into the lives of those who will be assisting them as they find their own forever families.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Awakening, August 9, 2000

By 

Jessica Medinger, Airlift Adoptee (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Sorrow Comes Joy (Paperback)

As an airlift adoptee, this book was a powerful way of connecting to a past I know so little about. Cherie's book opened my eyes to the circumstances that led to my adoption and helped me gain a better understanding of the conditions at the time and the heroic efforts Cherie and the many others took to save our lives.

For many of us adoptees, we will never know our birthfamily and this book is as close as we can get. This wonderfully written, poignant, honest book gives us back our past and give us a connection to the country that released us from her embrace before we could recognize her smells and understand her culture.

I recommend this book with all of my heart to any airlift adoptee who is struggling to understand their humble beginnings. In these pages, you will find your past and can begin the road to understanding and reconciling the pain of not knowing where you started.