Meet me on the bridge: Discovering the truth about my parents after 20 years (FULL FILM) BBC Stories

look at the camera I'm Katie I'm from Michigan I was adopted from China when I was a year old so I'm gonna adopt it Katie was probably five years old she asked me whose tummy she came from what was young we had posted another Jade who is a survey by God thousand another state that I was also Hannah he was loved what picture do it so how so he over if I said you were born my heart is already known as wholesome so they pity you you me you and gives you to meet you I held back and a lot a lot of years I did not want this to happen but it's gonna happen and it's good [Music] for nearly 40 years China had a one-child policy to control population growth the penalties for having more than one child were severe including heavy fines and forced abortion so when Sri leader and chin from Shango pregnant with their second child they kept a secret personally I shall get an intern in your honor it's not naughty not boots not honest a trade that in Kanata yeah so you know what 300 you have to get us in China see ya know sitting out of this is young-soon not in 2000 the into the things were that these onions are Simba now I like be nice tonight somehow I found a really important para para para que también asana tamio casa da da da da watchin you know Juanita is you know what you thought this is to her a copy now all tell you what it immediately taken a course in my partner Vegeta ancient [Music] [Music] a year later in 1996 an American couple Kenan Ruspoli traveled from Michigan to see Joe in China to adopt a baby girl they called her Katie I grew up in a place that was very white very Caucasian but my community was so close and so tight that I saw myself as different but I was actually really accepted but then things started to become different when I went outside that community and that everyone knew me and knew my story and they expected me to act certain ways that like I just didn't realize I had to Katy was probably five years old and she came up to me we were at a meeting at church she asked me whose tummy she came from she did I come from your tummy and I said no you didn't come from my tummy you came from a lady's tummy in China but you came from my heart you were born at my heart and she was off running doing something else she that was all she needed to know and she was she was happy with that I guess there were time so I was curious but it never really got brought up so I remember so all my adoption like the files in the folder is like on the top shelf of my closet so I remember being younger and just like climbing and like pulling chairs like trying to reach it and then I just like open it and like I couldn't even like read the stuff but I remember doing that like a couple times if Katie had been able to read Chinese she would have found a very important letter it was a note that her birth parents had pinned to her when they left her in the market the orphanage gave us a document written in Chinese it was a message from the birth parents to the adoptive parents it sort of said we are giving up this child not because we want to but because of the way things are now in China China teens in Konya Ito Junius with Argentina versus is Soho bang bang left Charlie jet oh no yo chill Conan Tina 14 unison yeah awesome new home chumhum dough don't hardly sound the letter was signed from her heartless parents there was a heartfelt request to us and of course we read that we thought oh my we live on the other side of the world how is this gonna can we do this Hania sound in yep but happen okay long one call Michelle in them well the cello so they booked her although they can you wait started it a sensor shouldn't own under led to the sunny autumn like we did not really we thought to if we had had to give up our child we would wonder every day where that child is so we wanted to give some assurance to the birth parents Katie had a good home she was well being taken care of well and that we loved her very much we needed their birth parents to know that honchos legendary broken bridge is a famous meeting place every year on the seventh of July people go there to be reunited with loved ones when Katy turned 10 Kenan Roos sent a messenger to the bridge gentleman why should it intention - what can you what are you wait time from Utah has a pendant palette - oh can you weigh like you could only let you could so the Omaha today when she Pat's other Honda she didn't do so like I said she'll ever change yeah that's kind of a question man Hannah maybe your table - I had a terrific new jeopardy with a party but image audio CD in the general sunny bomber when Eugene televisual sunny this is a fun one which are which are ninja totes towel noise I was intimidated by Buddha Nakumatt readier coming boy dad what I don't mind so don't know why my ego don't miss the knowledge in the new Hansol Hansol the messenger arrived late and missed Katie's parents but she spoke to some reporters who were on the bridge to film reunions and a local TV program appeared for the parents to come forward Katie's birth parents went on the show and their story gripped the nation origins you're going ejg onea gonna share with others sir some sort of this was not what Canon Roose expected back in Michigan how can this be a news story through China and we were stunned I was petrified I was stunned the earth was petrified it was scary for me she's only a ten year old girl we don't want someone from China that she doesn't know contacting her and say where are your birth parents we really didn't think she was ready for that the fear was that I could possibly lose my daughter that there that the news media guided a story got it and that maybe they would take her back because now they knew who her parents were and it was like I I had bonded she was my daughter we had adapted her I was I did not want any connection meanwhile Katie's birth parents were still hoping to see that also use names - in there maybe she won't do it I'm Daniel Archie what's it all miss you Donna will learn now with his gentle that's your whole did that since it at that idea she one I'm gonna be our acacia president to the movie I wanted or not the tone and mayo on the other side of the world taking you nothing about this until last year after she turned 20 growing up I never really asked questions I had some like details in my head that like I was left somewhere and I was left with a note but I like it's been so long since I've talked about it I wasn't sure if that was true I asked my mom I'm just like what do you know about my adoption went I'm in the car and then she's like oh yeah there's something we probably should have told you a long time ago it's like oh this sounds interesting and she's like yeah well we're kind of like have contact with your birth parents mr. Schue and his wife came from us Katie discovered that her birth parents had appeared in a documentary called long wait for home and that the filmmaker was in touch with both families expectedly in their area for me it's it's still kind of hard to deal with to why my adoptive parents didn't tell me sooner there's the adoptive parents we don't know if our child really wants to know or does not want to know I understand their logic I just think it was bad logic because they're just like oh like you know we wanted to make sure like you were ready and blah blah blah but I don't think you're ever really ready of it and there's like well if you ask questions we would have told you earlier but we never really talked about adoption in the first place I didn't wanna you know they're just going through puberty and they're just they're finding out who they I didn't want to do that and then they're in high school and I don't know it just seemed like there was men she was going on to college and but hindsight I I wished we had just said Katie this is the information we have you may do with it what you want Katie found the DVD and decided to watch it through the chain new one more advances a higher BAM talk about a family affair mrs. afonso pena bourgeois hi affair my mother's old mama needs it's a Madonna was this oh poor charlie need aa woman not even way it's a house of my own empowerment Senate entitlement so he's old mission that door be getting some high they are similar my sentiments of potential you you weren't sure you and PI Union your dreams and said it's all machine that's legit Jason charity then turns to the Hydra Sanjana not feed on Jane college at all I don't have a chain dog that I'd see that gently off well thousand Awards its finale show Genesis anonymous evolutionism well that's all your little Emma Jamelle Bouie don't sit down cause your credit just it's all yet so but thought never made by my son had puzzle found their own what you found that others who's hitting my I actually watched at school in the library which is a terrible idea cuz I started crying I think that's when it became more real for me just kind of see in their faces and yeah here and what they kind of had to say to me and how much they cared there's a little bit of guilt see almost I'm just like wow they care so much but like I've kind of ignored them for the past you know 20 years the love was almost overwhelming this summer Katie decided to fly to China to meet her birth parents on the bridge just like her father had planned I know like my parent my adoptive parents left me and now I have this like well other love that like I never knew existed but I guess is always there I think my biggest fear in meeting my biological family is that somehow I'll like disappoint them more I mean in a lot of ways like obviously they feel like they've let me down but I also know how much pain they have gone through the most obvious barrier I think is this language and culture but I think ideally I would yeah I don't want this to be a one-time meeting so I do want some sort of continuing relationship I don't know how personal that will be but I think that's okay because I do want to be realistic is already known as awesome so they pity you you know you hang gives you to meet you the big day has arrived Katie and her birth family are traveling to the broken bridge where they'll meet again Shanti Om a condo community massage in Oconee or Pusan Subin chinchilla Lord Irwin yeah well that may have a hernia Cydonia oh yeah I'm handed a stopped-up a wine I have not thought about my first words to my birth parents I was on some older what go what mermaid DJ Mia what she want in Menasha hall when I look at Tiger you better hope I ain't in that war or jointiy hon case you know there's just been a lot of build up to this point so I feel like feel like it's time it was definitely it kind of surreal walking across the bridge it's like looking at all the people [Laughter] [Music] [Music] after the meeting Katie spent a few days getting to know her birth family I think knowing that I have a biological sister is in some ways more mind-blowing and my doctor family like I don't have any sisters and I so it's it's really exciting I think the day after that I hung out with yeah my parents I think they were just like a lot of like small moments where I just saw like how much they really cared like it was really funny like one of the first things I think my biological mom said was like oh my like you're so skinny but then I like looked at my sister and I'm slick she's like so much smaller but she was like so concerned about the whole trip like she just like make me eat like everything the next morning Katy's father showed her where she was left as a baby Yokohama not the shooter one way they said I like ginseng today yaha believe me the answer being a opinion he really just wanted my forgiveness I understand for him why he needed forgiveness but for me I didn't feel like I needed to forgive them for anything like from my perspective I understand their situation as much as I think I can and like yeah they were stuck they were stuck in a system that was so broken [Music] but see Dada war metric achievers in that cell invasion can share had a for more than an hour para pa even OCW I think my biological parents their thankfulness towards my adoptive parents overrides any sort of resentment towards my adoptive parents mama yeah I'm Katie's biological mother Nima ha hello any man thank you very much my kins the pianets a man you sure we're taking care of Katie yeah now the Skype how was it was kind of it was really it was really weird it's like that was like wasn't obvious the most obvious times at like I have to a parent like two sets of parents we love her dearly and she knows that and we haven't lost anything today we haven't lost anything at all or just happy for her I'm just happy that she's come to this point I just hope there's a sense of peace and contentment with her and that you know if it's Allah if it means developing a relationship with with them that's that's good ginger kami alottoni anna says the younger so you need a different um someone in the yeah switch here mania to you them those are pinions also when I'm in LA teams it's homey cha-hee need to keep both our guinea to toto I'm not a very like traditional symbolic person but it was really cool to see like how much they have thought about me throughout the years that they like a safe exact same amount and so they gave that to me Cinzia Timberland Everson that bear will make you know not used to like being the spoiled but I know is super important for them and it was just like a very meaningful act Oh Jill had the omentum today to show a mystic element versus a paddle is it so oh yeah one thing I realized going on this trip that I almost I think did it more for my biological family Davina so suddenly it was a lot more traumatic for them and they've been living with a lot more emotion about it for so many years yeah it was good in different ways I think for us but for me like it was definitely fulfilling it did go didn't it has no hard elements are that I guess for like yeah for other adoptees who are like pursuing like reunion or searching I think it's important to just like be very aware of like your feelings and like there's not really a right or wrong way to feel during like any part of the process no matter how much you know about your adoption or why you're given up and how much you feel about it and how much it hurts or no matter what the circumstance I don't think it's good to suppress those feelings that might be hard to deal with [Music]

Channel: BBC Stories

Views: 6,299,834

Rating: 4.9180984 out of 5

Keywords: bbc stories meet me on the bridge, kati pohler now, kati pohler michigan, meet me on the bridge china, kati pohler story, kati pohler adopted, Kati Pohler, biological parents meeting, Meet me on the bridge, biological parents reunion, china adoption, adopted kids meet real parents, biological parents, biological parents search, bbc stories, bbc documentary, adopted, adoption story, adoption, documentary, bbc news, Hangzhou, china, chinese, Xu Lida

Id: GofREVeNbcw

Length: 25min 37sec (1537 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 08 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/waltsnider1]

I didn't expect to watch the entire thing, but it was really great. Thanks for posting this.