Adopted Chinese Girl Meets Birth Parents

 
A girl born in China and adopted by a Michigan family finally got to meet her birth parents in a fairy tale ending, reports CBS News.
 
Kati Pohler was born to Qian Fenxiang and her husband Xu Lida in 1995.
 
The couple had violated China’s one child policy and also feared they would not have the resources to care for their daughter.
 
They abandoned her on a bridge, leaving a handwritten note.
 

“Our daughter, Jingzhi, was born at 10am on the 24th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, 1995. We have been forced by poverty and affairs of the world to abandon her. Oh, pity the hearts of fathers and mothers far and near! Thank you for saving our little daughter and taking her into your care. If the heavens have feelings, if we are brought together by fate, then let us meet again on the Broken Bridge in Hangzhou on the morning of the Qixi Festival in 10 or 20 years from now.”

 
Ken and Ruth Pohler were handed that note when they adopted Kati. The note left a deep impression on them.
 
10 years later, Qian and Xu  went back to the bridge hoping to find their daughter. They carried  a big sign with their daughter’s name and words very similar to the note. They got there early in the morning, but left disappointed after waiting until 4 p.m.
 
Ken and Ruth sent a friend who was often in China on business to that bridge that day while they stayed in Michigan with their daughter Kati. They instructed their friend to find Kati’s birth parents.
 
“We remembered the 10th-year promise in the note,” Ken said to the South China Morning Post . “We prayed about it and talked to a friend who often traveled to China for business. He said he could ask a friend called Annie Wu to try and find the birth parents on the bridge. We didn’t want to involve Kati in something as vague as this. But it was important to us that the birth parents knew their daughter was adopted by a family who love her very much and provide her with a good home.”
 
Wu missed Qian and Xu by just minutes, but she saw a TV crew there and asked if they had seen any signs of Kati’s parents. The crew allowed Annie to look over the footage, and just by chance, they had footage of Katie’s parents holding their sign.  The station broadcasted the story and word got back to Qian and Xu who immediately arranged to meet with Annie with the help of the news crew.
 
“We took what we could from Annie, and saw no more need for contact,” Ruth said. “We thought that we should wait for Kati to grow and see if she wanted more information. She’s our daughter. Yes, she has her birth parents but a deeper relation­ship with them would really complicate matters.”
 
They asked Annie to cease all contact with Katie’s birth parents. Annie changed her phone number, leaving Qian, Xu and the media no way to contact her.
 
Years later, a documentary filmmaker Chang Changfu set out to tell Qian and Xu’s story. He tracked them down, took what information they had about the Pohlers and went in search for them.  It took years, but Chang succeeded.
 
However the Pohlers refused any meeting with Qian and Xu because they did not want to stir up the past.   Through it all, Kati was left in the dark.
 
“They told my brothers about it. So I was the only one left in the dark,”  said Kati to CBS News.
 
However, when Kati turned 21, she began to ask questions about her birth parents. That’s when Ken and Ruth knew it was time for a reunion. Arrangements were made to meet on the bridge.
 

 
The reunion was captured by the film crew.
 

 
“They are very real to me now,” said Kati.
 
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