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🇹🇼 Taiwan /Culture & Society

Foster parents bid emotional farewell to adopted son now thriving in Sweden

From Liberty Times · () Chinese

Translated from Chinese, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Sources not specified Outcome reported
  • A Taiwanese couple, who have fostered 16 children over 24 years, are bidding an emotional farewell to a boy named Xiao Li, whom they cared for from infancy to university.
  • Xiao Li, whose birth mother was a homeless woman with intellectual disabilities, was severely malnourished at birth but thrived under the dedicated care of his foster parents.
  • He has now been adopted by a Swedish family and is reportedly living a happy and stable life, with his foster mother keeping his photo as a cherished memory.

For 24 years, Liu Chen Shu-man and her daughter-in-law Liu Hsien-chen have opened their home and hearts to foster children in New Taipei City. Their latest charge, a boy known as Xiao Li, has been with them since he was six months old, growing into a young man now attending university. But his journey to stability was fraught with hardship from birth.

Xiao Li's birth mother was a homeless woman with intellectual disabilities who abandoned him. He was found to be severely malnourished, weighing only as much as a three-month-old despite being six months old. Liu Hsien-chen and her husband, Chen Ying-hsing, who is a model father recipient, worked diligently to improve his nutrition, and he eventually caught up to developmental milestones.

The couple, influenced by Liu Chen Shu-man, have fostered 16 children through the New Taipei City Home for Children. Xiao Li was matched with a Swedish family through the Chungyi Social Welfare Foundation. During the preparation for his adoption, Liu Hsien-chen shared with the prospective parents that Xiao Li loved to learn. The Swedish couple sent him Swedish fairy tale books and CDs, and Xiao Li diligently practiced, becoming proficient in speaking and understanding Swedish within six months.

In June 2013, Xiao Li moved to Sweden. The Chen family felt a deep sense of loss, having treated him as one of their own for six years. Liu Chen Shu-man, whom Xiao Li affectionately called 'Grandma,' keeps his photo in her wallet. The adoptive parents, Pual and Marie, wrote a heartfelt letter to the foster family expressing their gratitude for raising Xiao Li into a wonderful boy and promising to love him and ensure he has a beautiful life. This assurance brought comfort to Liu Chen Shu-man and Liu Hsien-chen, making them feel their efforts were worthwhile.

Thank you for taking care of Xiao Li and for making him such a wonderful boy. We promise you that we will love Xiao Li and will do anything for him. We promise Xiao Li will have a beautiful life.

— Pual and MarieThe Swedish adoptive parents wrote this in a letter to Xiao Li's foster mother and grandmother.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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