LAYTON, Utah — Inside Heritage Elementary School in Layton is where you will find Chao Tian teaching students her native language.
Tian is a teacher in the Chinese Immersion Program at the school.
"The first year, 2013, I came here as a guest teacher," said Tian. "At that time, only two years with my J1 Visa."
She then returned to the school a few years later.
"The second time I came back with my working visa from 2017," said Tian.
On Wednesday, the final day of school before the winter break, she could be seen teaching her students holiday songs in Chinese.
"I feel like they pick up very fast," said Tian.
Tian is originally from the Shandong Province in China, about two and a half hours from Beijing.
While she and her oldest daughter live here in Utah, a big part of her family is back in China.
"My husband took my younger daughter back home and to take care of my parents," said Tian. "My mom [got] cancer... She had to go back to China because she didn't have insurance here."
That was four years ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the last time she saw both her husband and youngest daughter, Selina, in person.
Through that time, Tian has communicated with her daughter, who is now six years old, through video calls.
"I lost a lot of time with her growing up," said Tian.
Ashley Peterson is in her fourth year teaching at Heritage Elementary School in the Chinese Immersion Program and her first year teaching alongside Tian.
"She told me that Selina just thinks she's just a screen that she's a woman in a screen that talks to her, and that just was so hard," said Peterson.
FOX 13 News spoke with Peterson, Principal Heather Gross, and Tian's former co-worker Josh Law on Wednesday.
They say Tian spent countless hours filling out paperwork and getting visas for months to try and get both her daughter and husband here to the Beehive State.
After being given the clear to buy plane tickets to have her husband bring Selina here, Law says another setback took place.
"A month or plus ago, her mother had her heart issues and needed to go into the hospital and have major surgery," he said. "And so once again, that plan of having Selena come over and they could be reunited was put on hold yet again."
Now, the community is stepping up to help Tian reunite with her daughter.
Law created a GoFundMe Monday night. By Tuesday, it had reached and eventually surpassed its funding goal.
"It's going to help pay for the flight of Selena to come over, as well as ... looking at maybe the father will be able to bring her as well," said Law.
The money leftover, Law says, would go toward medical costs Tian's mother has incurred.
"It just speaks to who Chow is and who this community is, and it's a wonderful gift," said Gross.
"We are her family and we want to be able to give her this gift of being reunited with her daughter and to see her husband again," Peterson added.
It's a gift Tian says she is truly thankful for.
"That's the best present for me. I just want to hug her so much," said Tian.
Law says the hope is to have Selina here by the first part of January, just in time to start school when everyone returns from winter break.
