Wish You Were Here is an achingly beautiful account of the process of international adoption. Written with astounding insight and compassion by first-time author Marise Fleurisca, it brilliantly captures the emotion of a child searching for her own past and waiting to be part of a family. Lana Lovelace was orphaned at the age of four. Her mother, single and terrified of raising a child of her own gave up her rights as a parent. Lana is given to an orphanage in Russia where she grows up knowing that she'll never see her mother again, yet hoping that one day she will know the joy of having a mother and father and belonging to a family. Will Lana find her new family? Will she find any clues to her past? Does she have her happy ending? Fleurisca takes a sensitive subject and transforms it into a poignant story of loss, hope and the universal theme of wanting to belong-seen through the eyes of a child. A gem of a first novel, Wish You Were Here gets to the heart of complicated emotional issues with amazing clarity and sensitivity. Marise Fleurisca is a business analyst and part-time writer. Ms. Fleurisca is currently writing the sequel to Wish You Were Here and has written a number of children's books. She is the second of nine children and lives in Carol Stream, Illinois.