My dear niece Tara has been in the middle of one of the biggest nightmares imaginable to a parent. Please see below for a letter from Tara, describing her legal ordeal. I kindly ask that you forward this fundraising campaign to your friends and family to broaden the awareness of her unique and anguishing situation. Thank you for your love and kindness in remembering Tara and her twin boys.

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Hi, I’m Tara Joensuu. I’m the daughter of Andrea & Erkki Joensuu and the mother and sole guardian of six-year-old twin boys Aston & Ender. We are Finnish-American and live in Espoo, Finland.

In August 2025, during weekend visitation in Finland, their father brought my children back to China without my permission. The Finnish government is treating this as a parental child abduction, and since then I have been doing everything I can, through legal and official channels, to bring them home.

Since the abduction, their father has not allowed me to see my children or have any contact with them. This has been very painful. Every day I worry about where they are, how they are doing, and whether they know I’m fighting for them.

I have worked through the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the U.S. State Department, the Finnish and U.S. embassies, and I am also pursuing legal action in China. This situation is especially difficult because China has not signed the Hague Convention on international child abduction, which many countries use to help return children in cross-border cases. Without that process, things move more slowly and are more expensive. Also, the Finnish custody decision cannot be enforced in China, so even when Chinese local authorities understand and are sympathetic, they have been unable to make the father cooperate or even allow me to see my children at all.

Since August 2025, I have made three trips and spent over three months in China trying to find my children, get help from local authorities, and move the case forward legally. I have already spent many thousands of euros on legal fees, flights, housing and living costs in China, required translation and document legalization. I also haven’t been able to work normally, because so much of my time and energy has gone into trying to find my boys and keep this process moving.

That’s why my aunt is starting this fundraiser—to help cover the ongoing costs of the legal and practical steps needed to bring my children back to Finland. If you’re able to help, thank you. If you can’t, sharing this fundraiser also makes a difference.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for supporting my family.

— Tara Joensuu