Book excerpt: The product of an affair, Maria Balais’s entrance into the world was kept a secret from her birth family. After she was adopted by a Filipino couple, Maria acquired the nickname, Pinky, and eventually immigrated to the United States with her new family. In a colorful memoir, Maria chronicles her life from her adoption to the present day through stories that describe her upbringing in two worlds—the South Pacific and the Southeastern United States—as well as the people who impacted her life along the way. Her anecdotes not only reveal moments filled with deep sadness, but also the amusing, celebratory, and joyous moments as she learned to embrace her bi-cultural existence, accept her uniqueness and identity, and ultimately carve a path to attain professional and personal success through perseverance, grit, and a dogged determination to always be the best version of herself. Pinky is the unforgettable true story of a Filipino immigrant as she journeyed from the Philippines to the United States and created a life for herself.