Spirit Baby

“There’s 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 mother’s 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.

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 love—the love between a man and a woman, and the love of a woman for her children, unborn and born. 

Nina Little of Erie, Colorado

Nina Neilson Little is a newspaper reporter, turned elementary literacy specialist, turned author. Today she writes, blogs, and is active on social media where she connects with other moms on parenting topics. She lives in Erie, Colorado with her husband, boy/girl twins, two large mutts, and a bearded dragon.