Ai Liu, the severely burned Chinese orphan featured in the Daily Inter Lake last spring, arrived in the United States on Christmas Eve to begin life with her new American family and to start surgeries to reconstruct her face.

Debi Strong of Bigfork never received a nicer Christmas present. It was about a year ago that she first locked eyes at the orphanage with the little girl whose face looked like it had melted.

Ai Liu was 8 years old at the time and Strong was on a homeland tour with her husband Rich and Xaioxaio, the daughter they adopted as an infant from the same Maoming orphanage.

“It was almost exactly a year ago because we saw her on Dec. 29; that’s when we visited,” Strong recalled.

Unable to get Ai Liu out of her thoughts, she overcame her fear and spoke to the people running the orphanage about getting help for the youngster in America. She marvels that looking into Ai Liu’s eyes touched off a process that found the girl medical help and a forever family to love her.

“At the time, I was afraid to say anything. I’m glad I did,” she said with a smile. “I didn’t want to give them all this hope. I literally didn’t know where to start.”

Strong learned that police officers found Ai Liu wailing in the street when she was about 2. She had some life-saving surgery, then two more procedures in Hong Kong when she was a few years older.

No one knew who she was or how she received burns over 75 percent of her body. From the scarring pattern on her face, chest, arms and hands, Strong thinks that she must have pulled over a wok of hot oil. 

After so many years, the scars have begun to contract, tearing her eyelid and pulling her mouth open. When Strong finally received detailed pictures of the injuries last January, she began a long process of contacts with medical experts that led to Mending Kids International, The Children’s Burn Foundation and plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman and the Grossman Burn Foundation.

Grossman, a specialist in burn reconstruction, committed to perform the multiple surgeries Ai Liu needs up through age 18.

“The first surgery is the most extensive,” Strong said. “The biggest thing is releasing her neck.”

When she had an interview with the Daily Inter Lake in late April, Strong needed to find a host family in the Los Angeles area or someone to stay with Ai Liu at the Ronald McDonald House for a year. Her story and photos appeared on the Montana Life page of a Sunday paper.

“Your article got posted on Facebook and went all over the place,” she recalled. “I started getting calls like crazy.”

One of those calls was from Karen Yingling, the mother of two grown children and two adopted Chinese girls, Katie and Becky, a few years younger than Ai Liu.

“I’m thinking her girls are 5 and 6,” Strong said. “ One is special needs.”

Yingling heard about the Facebook posting from a friend who urged her to read it.

At that time, Strong was thinking she and another volunteer, a local nurse, would trade off traveling to Los Angeles to stay with Ai Liu. Strong found it difficult to give up going herself to help but she knew the Yingling family offered the best situation for Ai Liu.

The family lives just 20 minutes from one of Grossman’s clinics and a reasonable distance from the main hospital. She also had the younger girls to keep her company.

Reality set in as she and Yingling began the process of securing a medical visa for the little girl to come to the United States. Through her own Chinese contacts, Yingling learned they would not issue the visa because government officials feared something would go wrong in the surgeries.

“It was too risky and they were not sure who was responsible if something went wrong,” Strong said. “Karen was devastated and so was I. This was in June.”

From the beginning, Yingling had the idea of adopting Ai Liu in the back of her mind, but they were warned not to say anything as they applied for the medical visa. With the visa option gone, Strong said Yingling and her husband, Doug, had to make a quick decision about a permanent adoption.

Their family, very strong Christians, prayed together and came to a decision within two days.

“They were going ahead and adopt her up front with the understanding that they could still get all the surgeries and everything done through the foundation for free,” Strong said.

Needing $20,000 for the adoption expenses and fees, the two women jumped into fundraising mode. Strong sent an email request to her friends and the Yinglings asked for help and began selling T-shirts and greeting cards.

“The T-shirts said ‘Made in China, Loved in America,’” Strong said.

Strong’s friends raised more than $8,000 and the Yinglings secured the rest to make the $20,000 goal just a few days ago. The two women worked together to get the adoption approved.

 After many months of waiting and worrying, the final approval was received on Nov. 30 and Yingling made plans to go to Guangzhou in Guangdong province in China to pick up Ai Liu.

On Dec. 14, Yingling went to the provincial affairs bureaus to formally meet her new daughter for the first time. She describes that moment in her blog at http://casadealegria.blogspot.com.

 “They brought her out, and led her over and my heart just stopped. I sat down, she came over, took my hand. She looked into my eyes and held my gaze for moments, then leaned into me. It was like her heart knew that she was home.”

After days of paperwork, touring and getting to know each other, Yingling and her daughter, now named Cami Ai Liu, flew back to California to start their new life. Strong said the difficult transition should be a little easier for her as she enters a family situation similar to a family group she was with through the orphanage.

“It’s such a good fit for her,” she said. “The good thing is Ai Liu is the oldest. She gets to be the older sister.”

 Strong sees this as the conclusion of chapter one of Cami Ai Liu’s story. The 9-year-old quickly begins chapter two when she has the first of her surgeries very soon after the holidays.

Strong plans to make a trip sometime in January to meet Cami Ai Liu and her new family in person. Strong now believes that her first sighting of the little girl with the melted face was more than a coincidence.

“I was the conduit of something greater than myself,” she said. “Karen is the real hero. She is taking on the work of a lifetime. I’ll be the aunt.”

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.