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A Journey to Adoption: a Reading by Garrison Author Corinne Chateau at Desmond-Fish Library
Garrison author Corinne Chateau will read selections from her newly released memoir, The Road to Cali- A Journey to Adoption at the Desmond-Fish Library in Garrison on Sunday, March 2, at 2pm. A question and answer period will follow.
Chateau was at a crisis point in her life. She knew the time was running out if she had any hopes of becoming pregnant and having a child. Until recently, her focus had been on an acting career. She'd been a regular on a daytime soap opera, appeared in movies, Broadway and television. She'd worked with the likes of Katherine Hepburn, Anne Bancroft, Shelly Winters and such illustrious directors as Arthur Penn and Elia Kazan.
As the biological time clock was running out for that child, something was stopping her. Was it the fear that she'd have to give up her career ambitions? Or was it something even deeper? Ms. Chateau confronts her ambivalence, doubts and fears in a memoir recounting the steps leading up to her decision to adopt.
Through a series of odd coincidences, doors kept opening and pointing in the direction of the Republic of Georgia. When she and husband Brian are told of a baby boy born October 12, everything changes. Suddenly it was no longer a question of if, but of how- how soon!
Chateau and husband Brian, (who must postpone the opening of a play he is starring in) travel to Georgia to see the infant boy and complete the paperwork. That same day, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze declares a moratorium stopping all international adoptions. But for Chateau and husband, it's too late. They are smitten and determined to do everything in their power to bring home this child.
The next grueling months the couple launch an all-out effort to lobby the Congress, the Senate and anyone who will listen to try to convince President Shevardnadze to release their baby. Finally, the couple take it into their own hands and go back to Georgia where they will spend another six weeks - each day visiting the baby Cali at the "Baby House" and pleading with the Georgian authorities to allow them to finalize the adoption. The suspense continues up to the very last day, as they have to switch cars and drivers on the way to the airport- a high government official warns it may not be safe if they are recognized. President Shevardnadze's wife has given orders not to let the baby go.
The Road to Cali has been described as more than an adoption book, but the story of a woman's journey. It is also the story of the making of a family. For Chateau it is a story about "never giving up" and the "discovery of a love beyond anything (she) could have imagined."
Corinne Chateau was born in New York City and attended Barnard College. A long-time member of the famed Actors Studio, Corinne has appeared on Broadway, off-Broadway, in television and films. She attended NYU Graduate Film School and is a fellow of the American Film Institute. She has also been a teacher of acting in the graduate departments of NYU and The New School. Corinne, her husband Brian, and son Cali divide their time between NYC, and Garrison. The Road to Cali is her first book.
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