A frank and engaging memoir, Following the Red Thread is a mother's full answer to her daughter's childhood question: 'why did you adopt me?' Making sense of her early experiences as both the preparation and her motivation to adopt, Kerr draws on the Chinese concept of the red thread to detail her long march towards China and the adoption of her much loved daughter. Along the way, she encounters many different 'Chinas' and comes to love the infinite variety that is the People's Republic on the cusp of the third millennium. Kerr's deep desire to adopt is intertwined with her journey back to faith. From an outright rejection of Christianity in her teens, she rediscovers her faith and realises a childhood promise to serve God overseas. Ultimately, in seeking out her daughter, she finds herself.