BEIJING, Oct. 29 -- For eight years, Christian Norris, a Chinese boy adopted by an American woman from Easton, Maryland, was tormented by the thought: "Was I abandoned by my Chinese parents?"

    This disturbing idea led to the 18-year-old rejecting all things Chinese.

Christian Norris, 18, at an emotion-charged reunion with his family in Beijing, after 11 years. He was relieved to know that he had been separated from his parents accidentally and not abandoned.(Photo Source: China Daily/ Wang Xiaoxi) Photo Gallery>>>

    But his mother Julia Norris knew well that he could not be separated from his past. His rejection only showed it pained him to live with a blanked-out memory. The best way to make peace with his past, she felt, was to go back and face it.

    She tried to help in every way possible but it was not until this spring that she saw a ray of hope. She sent an e-mail to Baby Come Home, a non-profit volunteer group based in Tonghua, Jilin province, whose mission is to help reconnect lost children with their birth parents.

    Working on clues from Norris' fragmented memory, the Chinese volunteers finally fulfilled a dream of the remorseful parents and their long-lost son. Years ago his parents, both doctors in West China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region where Norris was born, had published a medical paper under their real names. And the young boy had memorized their rough pronounciations.

    In late August, accompanied by his adoptive mother, Norris met his biological parents in Beijing after a gap of 11 years. Facing his teary parents, Norris stood with a impassive face for the first few hours, smiling only occasionally at past events mentioned by his birth parents.

    It was then that the young man was told of his accidental separation from his father Jin Gaoke at a bus stop in their hometown. Ten months later the boy was identified as an orphan in Luoyang, capital of Central China's Henan province, and joined thousands of Chinese kids adopted by American families since 1980s.
    

    Embracing his parents at last, Norris said, "I'm pretty clear that I wasn't abandoned."

    He had finally found the answer he had been seeking for so long.

    Norris' case was Baby Come Home's first success with establishing contact between Chinese children and their adoptive parents from abroad. In two years, the group's 14,000 registered volunteers have repeated the miracle nearly 70 times.

    After the happy reunion with his birth family in Beijing, Norris went on a tour of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, with Julia.