Girl Is Abandoned on Steps of Store as a Baby, Gets Letter Begging Forgiveness 23 Years Later

A young girl believed she was abandoned as a young baby on the steps of a store. 23 years later, she discovers her story is a lot more complex than that after receiving a letter from her birth father begging for forgiveness.

There are many reasons for why parents leave their children. Most of the time, it is due to the lack of resources and with the hope of giving the child a better life than they can provide.

In Changzhou, China, a young girl was abandoned at the steps of a department store only nine days after she was born. The abandonment became the talk of the town, with many wondering how the parents were able to leave the child so easily just shortly after her birth.

That child turned out to be Zoe Halbeisen. She was discovered by the store employees wrapped in a blanket after minutes of being alone on that doorstep. Knowing the child would need proper care, they chose to give her up at an orphanage. Despite this, they continued to visit her at the orphanage as they felt themselves growing close to her.

Zoe's discovery on the store's steps made headlines in China, with a narrative claiming her parents had left her and wanted nothing to do with her. It would take three years living in the orphanage before people showed interest in adopting her.

Valli and Stephen Halbeisen of Charlotte, Michigan, traveled to China to take the little girl home to the United States. During the adoption process, they were not told any information regarding the girl's birth parents, and were only shown news clippings of her discovery outside the store.

Born in China, Raised in America

For 23 years, the young girl believed this story and accepted the fact that she was once abandoned. She grew up in Charlotte, Michigan before moving to New York, where she currently works as a software engineer.

She was raised in a loving environment by Valli and Stephen, her adoptive parents, alongside her three siblings, whom Valli and Stephen adopted from China and Korea as well.

Admittedly, while Zoe never asked about her birth parents, she grew up in a town where she and her sisters were often the only Asians around.

It was while she was in college at the University of Michigan that she realized there were many more like her and she was just like everyone else.

Getting In Touch with Her Roots

In university, Zoe met many Chinese students who would go back to their hometown frequently. Knowing this, she planned a trip to get in touch with her roots, even if it meant going back to the department store where her birth parents once left her.

Little did Zoe know that trip would come sooner rather than later. She received two letters from people she had never met, but who would soon change her perception about her past.

Receiving Unexpected Letters

The letters came from Chen Xin Zhong and Wang Xu Mei, who claimed to be Zoe's birth parents. According to them, they had been searching for Zoe for the past twenty years until they finally found the means to contact her.

Zoe was initially skeptical about the authenticity of their story or identity, but the letters contained information that no one else could have possibly known.

Chen Xin Zhong wrote how he and his wife watched Zoe from afar for three years while she was at the orphanage. In fact, when he had to move away from the city, Zoe's birth mom stayed behind to watch over her, hoping she would one day return.

Chen Xin Zhong also begged for his daughter's forgiveness for leaving her two decades ago. He referred to her by the name they gave her, Long Chen. The letter also showed the pain and regret the coupled harbored through the years, with Zoe's birth father writing:

"I beg for your forgiveness for the mistake I made because of ignorance, which is the choice I regret most in my entire life. Long Chen, we miss you a lot my daughter. We will always miss you and wait for you."

Ultimately, the regretful dad asked his daughter not to blame her mother, accepting wholeheartedly that the fault was 100% his as he revealed the reason they left her at the store.

Her True Birth Story

Atfter reading the letters, Zoe learned another version of her birth story—the truth.

On the day Zoe's parents left her outside of the department store, members of the Chinese government had paid her family a visit. They demanded they give up Zoe, their second child, as it was a violation of the country's one-child policy. The government officials would only allow them to keep her if they paid a large fine, but they did not have the money.

So Chen Xin Zhong left Zoe at the department store, which was not far from where they lived. Their original plan was to watch over her from a close range and one day take her back.

Three years since that moment, they found out about their daughter's adoption. Her parents begged the orphanage to give her back, but they refused. So Long Chen left China and went with her adoptive family to the United States, where she became known as Zoe.

Accepting Her Reality

It took weeks for Zoe to accept what her birth parents had revealed to her. "I imagined they had left me there and walked away, but it's so much more complex than that," Zoe realized.

Although she wondered how meeting her birth parents would affect the way both her birth and adoptive families lived, she felt the need to reach out. She was able to get in touch with her birth parents for the first time through a video call on Skype, and it was very emotional.

Zoe recalls them looking at each other, smiling, with tears streaming down their faces. "It was very eye-opening," she admitted. It was through that call that she realized how much she affected her birth family's lives.

After their initial meeting, Zoe discovered she had two biological sisters, one younger than her. She also had aunts, uncles, and grandparents who were eager to meet her.

Meeting Her Birth Family

Months later, Zoe boarded a 15-hour flight from the US to Shanghai with her boyfriend and her adoptive father Stephen. Everything seemed like a fairytale down to the moment her birth parents embraced her for the first time after leaving her at nine days old.

Before her two-week trip, Zoe and her Chinese relatives exchanged messages and video calls through the internet. However, the actual trip to China was what made her get to know her sisters, parents, and other relatives some more.

The trip wouldn't have been complete without a visit to the department store that changed the course of Zoe's life. It was now a hotel, but it retained some employees, some of whom were those who had found Zoe years back.

The employees prepared a sign in front of the hotel that read "Welcome home, Zoe," and another banner welcomed her and her family at the banquet hall inside. The hotel management was gracious enough to offer them meals and share pictures of Zoe when she was still a baby.

Zoe had nothing but nice words to say about her time in China. "It was just incredible," she gushed. She plans to return to her birth country in the near future, as there were many things she still wanted to explore. However, at the time, her main focus was family.

In another inspiring adoption story, an Illinois woman adopted a starving abandoned girl from Ukraine, who would later become one of the world's best Paralympic athletes. Click here to read all about it.