Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family

Content Warning: The source material and this guide include extensive discussion of terminal illness in a child.

In large part, Finding Chika is about the many forms families can take and the wide variety of parenting opportunities available for those with open hearts. Family’s importance is evident from Albom’s first account of the Have Faith Haiti mission, where children and staff have created their own unique type of family that touched Albom deeply. Through his time with Chika, Albom learned still more about how rewarding family life could be. Chika’s entry into the Alboms’ lives allowed Albom to take on the role of father figure for Chika and Janine to take on the mother role. Albom reflects on the way that he and his wife seemed to naturally fall into the parental role without question. By remembering and striving to embody the values that his father taught him about protection, safety, and warmth, Albom became the father he never expected to be. He concludes that Chika “made [him and Janine] a family” because she filled the void of what they saw as a missed opportunity to be parents (231).

Albom’s family also taught him about both himself and the world. Chika challenged Albom’s notions of parenthood because she experienced pain and trauma that he could not protect her from.