National Post (National Edition)
‘WILL YOU PLEASE HELP US?
HOSANNA CROWELL OF EDMONTON HAS BECOME KNOWN TO MILLIONS IN HER NATIVE LAND OF CHINA, AS HER ADOPTIVE PARENTS APPEAL FOR HELP IN PROLONGING HER LIFE
At around age one, she was abandoned outside a police station in Tianzhu County, China, without any clues as to her identity.
Now, 10 years later and living with an adoptive family in Edmonton, she not only has a name, Hosanna Crowell, but she’s also known to millions in her native country — all because of a moving letter circulating online that was penned by her adoptive mother and addressed to her biological parents, whose names and whereabouts are not known.
“We have never met,” the letter begins, “but when I look into my adopted daughter’s eyes, I see such beauty and I know that she must have come from a lovely family.”
Cathy Crowell and her husband, Greg, first laid eyes on the girl at an orphanage in Kaili City in May 2007, the same month she was abandoned. They happened to be doing humanitarian work in the region when a friend at the orphanage called them and told them about her situation.
The Crowells would come to learn that the girl had a genetic blood disorder that affects her production of hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.
It requires her to have regular blood transfusions.
But on that first visit — as she stared up at them with big almond-shaped eyes, while sucking on her index and middle fingers — they were smitten.
“This girl is a fighter,” Cathy remembered thinking to herself.
The more time the Crowells spent with her — including helping her with medical treatments — the more difficult it was to pull away. In December 2009 the couple, who have four grown children, got cleared to adopt Hosanna and brought her back to Edmonton the following month.
For years, they enrolled Hosanna in a Mandarin-English education program. Now, she is home-schooled but keeps up her Mandarin with a tutor.
Hosanna is a dynamo at sports — swimming, soccer and baseball, you name it — and loves Sunday family viewings of Road to Avonlea. The refrigerator is stocked with hot sauce to accommodate her fiery Asian tastebuds.
Even though she has thrived in her new environment, her transfusions every few weeks — she’s now had 194 — can be hard on her kidneys and spleen. Because she’s getting bigger, each transfusion requires blood from two donors. The fear of complications is never far off, Cathy says.
A few years ago, the family decided to explore the possibility of a bone-marrow transplant, which would almost certainly extend her life. But it would require tracking down her biological family.
Cathy and Hosanna travelled back to the region in 2012. They approached the orphanage director and other local officials, but it was a futile search.
“It’s like a needle in a haystack, especially in China,” Cathy said. “We kinda just gave up.”
A few months ago, they came up with the idea to write an open letter to her biological family and reached out to Canada’s Omni Television network, which carries programming geared to various ethnic audiences.
“Did you have a little girl that loved to suck her two fingers? Can you see from the picture that she was your little girl?” the letter from Cathy reads.
“She was with you for a year, and then from what we can assume she became very sick … and you probably could not find any help for her. I can understand how that must have been so difficult.”
Hosanna is a happy girl and will turn 11 soon, the letter continues, but a bonemarrow transplant could cure her.
“Will you please help us give Hosanna a long and healthy life?”
Moved by the Crowells’ “selfless love,” Bowen Zhang, a Vancouver-based anchor with the network, sprung into action. Recently, he and a friend in Beijing helped post Cathy’s letter, along with pictures, on the social media site Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook.
The posting has been viewed more than four million times and has been picked up by Chinese news outlets. The local government in Guizhou has even distributed 50,000 flyers across its mountain villages to help search for Hosanna’s family.
The Crowells say they have been overwhelmed by the response and numerous letters of encouragement from strangers.
“The piece of it going all over Guizhou, that’s vitally important to us,” Cathy said. “Somewhere out there are her parents. We hope and pray they recognize her from those early pictures.”
Something else that gives them hope is Hosanna’s name. They chose it because they liked the way it sounded. Only later did they learn it’s Hebrew for “Saved.”
SHE WAS WITH YOU FOR A YEAR, AND THEN FROM WHAT WE CAN ASSUME SHE BECAME VERY SICK … AND YOU PROBABLY COULD NOT FIND ANY HELP FOR HER. I CAN UNDERSTAND HOW THAT MUST HAVE BEEN SO DIFFICULT. — CATHY CROWELL, ADOPTIVE PARENT OF HOSANNA