Motherhood From the Heart: Cindy Chupack on Celebrating Family in All Forms with ‘We Waited for You’ Picture Book
variety.comCynthia Littleton Business Editor A birthday ritual at her daughter’s preschool gave Cindy Chupack the inspiration to write her first children’s picture book.
When her daughter Olivia was a toddler, Chupack, a veteran TV and film writer and two-time Emmy winner, was invited to read a special picture book to the preschool class to celebrate Olivia’s birthday.
As she turned the pages, Chupack quietly struggled with lines like “You were in my tummy” and other references that did not reflect her experience of starting a family through adoption. “I remember wanting to have something that would address all the different ways that families are formed,” Chupack told Variety of the spark that led her to write “We Waited for You: Now We’re a Family,” with illustrator Emily Hamilton. “I wanted something that would be validating to parents who have gone through a lot to get their child.” Chupack drew on her own experience to craft a rhyming story that explains the steps along the way and the anticipation that adoptive parents face.
Chupack went through many rounds of fertility treatments on her five-year journey to becoming a mother. “There’s something that feels almost disloyal to an adopted child to talk about everything you tried first,” Chupack says. “I think it’s important to talk about it.
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