At the 2014 Holt Gala and Auction in Portland, Oregon, Holt adoptive mom Andrea stood to speak. She told her story of bringing home her daughter Rini from China — a little girl with severe congenital heart disease — and the struggle to save her life. Here, Andrea again shares the story that captivated an audience of families, adoptees and Holt supporters at the Portland event, as well as her appeal to help save the lives of other children with serious heart disease... children just like Rini.

Why are we here tonight?

I am here because as I sat next to my dying child in the cardiac intensive care unit of Seattle Children’s Hospital one year ago, I made a promise to her that she would leave a legacy and I would honor it. Whether she lived or died, there would be meaning to all she had endured.  She is no more or less special in the eyes of God than any other child, no more or less worthy of a family, of hope and a future, but she survived and has a name and face and I hope that her story will inspire everyone in this room to give generously tonight so that other children may live.

Rini is our youngest child of six — five adopted from China through Holt, four with varying degrees of congenital heart disease.  Born with complex single ventricle heart disease, Rini was declining quickly as we raced to complete our adoption.  With Holt’s help and expedites granted at each step, we were ready to travel just over three months after we applied for her adoption — gratefully so, as we learned just two weeks prior to our trip that she had spent much of the prior two months in and out of the ICU of a Chinese hospital, was in severe heart failure, and her eligibility for adoption was being called into question by officials in her homeland.

On the day we were scheduled to adopt her in China, we instead learned through the tearful voice of our Holt guide, Jane Hu, that she had been readmitted to the ICU as we were flying over the Pacific.  We were taken to meet her at the hospital, where the doctor handed us a frail, sickly 22-month-old, barely able to muster the strength to cry.  We were asked if we still wished to adopt her. Of course we did!  That night, however, we learned that her adoption had been blocked.  She had been declared unadoptable. But we saw things differently. Long story very short, thanks to the fortitude and diplomacy exhibited by Jian Chen, Sue Liu, Beth Smith, Catherine Han, Jane Hu, Phoebe Xuan, Anson Su, and the entire China program staff at Holt, we were permitted to adopt Rini a few tumultuous days later.