Minnesota mom and foster care advocate gets life-changing surprise

MARSHALL, Minn. – Bella Xiong makes it look easy. But every parent knows it's not.

Bella's challenges go deep, starting when she herself was just a child.

"We were like 5 or 6 and my mom just left us with my dad, and my dad ended up doing like some crazy stuff that dad's are not supposed to do, so he got locked up," Bella said.

She and her sister ended up in foster care, moving from home to home.

"It's that like hole that you can't really fill because you never had that as a child," she said.

Bella says she found faith along the way and stayed the course. She met a man in California who became a friend, then something more.

"Everything in a man that you would want. To provide and to care, also be a family man," she said.

They have two little boys, and a third on the way. And just when it seemed she had everything she wanted, it was taken away.

In February 2021, on a road near Sacramento, her husband was killed by a drunk driver.

"It's really unbelievable, even getting that call from the sheriff, stuff like that. It can't be him," she said. "He was just going to work, night shift, and it's still traumatic to me. I don't with that on anybody because grief is really hard."  

She moved back to the Midwest, to Marshall, Minnesota, to rebuild and refocus.

"People are like, 'Oh my gosh, why is your life so sad, and all this stuff is happening to you?' But the way I see it, just like, you come to earth to come and learn experiences and to evolve your soul, right? I mean, that's my perspective," Bella said.

Amidst the heaviness, she's an advocate for kids who age out of the foster system.

"Being in foster care, we really do need that one person, that one mentor to teach you things in life," she said.

It's a perspective she recently brought to New York City, as she was asked to be a guest advocate for One Simple Wish, a nonprofit supporting kids in the foster system. 

The woman who's taken so many losses received a gift: a brand new car.

"It was really beautiful. And I was just like somebody really cares," Bella said. "You are important, you really mean something to this world."

A woman who's had a hard road, but kept a soft heart.

"Just opening up your eyes that you are in it but you are gonna surpass it because there's better days ahead," she said.

Bella is half way through her college degree and wants to work in family care. Her dream is to go into counseling.