Thursday, November 19, 2015
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Where does it go?
FUNDRAISER FOR RUTHANNE has 6 days left and we are half way to our goal. So far 6 of the hidden gift cards have been found. The lucky winners are Jenny Capell, Darla Stout, Jennifer Frampton, Meg Thunell, HEather Fillmore, and Jan Brodinski. If you are one of these winners please email me at keciajcox@msn.com to claim your prize. THere are still 2 hidden gift cards left and everyone who donates is entered into the drawing for the apple tv as well.
We are so thankful for all who have donated and shared so far! We would love to see this grid completely blacked out for Ruthanne!
The children like Mia, and Ruthanne, who (were) are living in orphanages in foreign countries are literally living on borrowed time. Whether it be health needs or malnutrition, or age, it really does matter that they get home to their families as quick as possible. For the children in these baby homes, they are given a time limit to when their chance for a family is past. When their chance for life, has past.
When children turn 4 they are sent from the baby homes to adult mental institutions....a fate that no child deserves...
Mia turned 4 the same week we committed to her and was scheduled to be transferred to the adult mental institution ...where she would likely have died within the first year there.
This is the post I wrote in 2011.....This post is why these children do not have years and years to wait for someone to come get them.
Ruthanne is 3 and facing that same fate without the help of her family coming for her, she too would have had to take a ride that she never deserved. so please help us raise the rest of the money the Engers need to bring her home!!
(REPOST from Mia's adoption blog 2011)
What is this car all about? Mia is so eager to know.
Where does it take you?
Where does it go?
There have been many times while we have been here that I have really been hit by the frightening reality of what could have been.
Mia wants so badly to go for a ride in one of the many cars she sees coming and going from the orphanage each day.
She knows enough about it to know that it takes you somewhere. Somewhere new.
Had we not found her and come for her when we did, Mia would still have gotten to go for a ride in one of these cars but it would have been to a very different place than she will be going on Friday.
I can't bear the thought of what could have been for her.
She could have woken up one morning and thought it was a day like any other, then to her surprise she would have been taken outside and placed in a car.
She would have been excited, thinking this meant her dream had come true. She was finally going to be able to go for a ride in one of these magical machines that took you somewhere.
She would be thinking her turn had finally come,
maybe on the other side of this car ride was a family waiting for her...
But instead she would have been taken to a place like this....
My friend reposted this video yesterday (one of Mia Kareen's advocates had made this video when they were raising money for our sweet girl...even before we knew she was out there) and watching it again with Mia's picture at the end just really hit me hard. The tears were flowing as the it really sank in that THIS would have been Mia's reality. It has always been hard to imagine such a thing really happening, but being here with Mia now just haunts me to the core, to know that she would have been taken to live her life in a place like this and she could have been there right now.
She would have been taken away from the ladies who had cared for her all her life. Taken away from the only friends she had ever known, and the only life she had ever known, only to be left alone in a world where she did not deserve to be, in a mental institution.
She would not have understood why she was brought there.
Was it something she did?
Was it forever?
She would not have understood that the ONLY reason she was brought to this place was because she had down syndrome. It was not her fault that she was there.
Only a few weeks after committing to her, we learned that she was already scheduled to be transferred soon. Fortunately the director at the orphanage was willing to keep her at the baby house until we came. But had we not found her when we did, she would have been moved to this horrible, unimaginable place... forever.
As I have watched her these past few weeks and have seen the light she possesses shining through
I can not bear to think that instead of the sparkle shining through her eyes, she would have lost all hope and that sparkle would never have been found again.
Thanks to Andrea and Reece's Rainbow, the many people who advocated for Kareen to help us find her, the many people who prayed for her, the many people who donated and raised money for her, the many family and friends who have supported us and loved her from the beginning, and for the hand of the Lord placing us on this path,
Mia Kareen will leave these walls in 3 days...
FOREVER....
she will get to take that car ride she has been waiting for
and finally see what is on the other side of these walls
but this one will take her where all her dreams can come true.
This car ride will take her to a place she deserves to go
Please check out our fundraiser for RUTHANNE and see how you can help literally save a child!
Thursday, October 9, 2014
who says your not perfect?
"You've got every right to a beautiful life....
Who says you're not perfect?
Who says you're not worth it?
Who says you're not pretty?
Who says you're not beautiful ?
Who says?"
When we were in Ukraine for 32 days getting Mia, my little brother made this video of our girls and Mia to send to us. So fitting for the transformation of a child who was left because she was not "perfect" . BIG THANKS to all who are helping with our fundraiser for our friends adopting. It's so great to see the grid filling up as people give for a child. Tomorrow We will announce the gift card winners we have so far. If you haven't had a minute to check it out please do
http://kkcox.blogspot.com/…/from-abandoned-and-aloneto-love…
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
From abandoned and alone...to loved and cherished
Our fundraiser for Ruthanne ends in a week and we need your help!!!
And this is why........
Over the past couple months as Mia has had so many medical procedures, appts, 2 surgeries and hospital stays, we have been asked alot about her birth history. And as we have retold what we know about her entrance into this world, the emotions come flooding back as we explain to others the plight of children born with down syndrome in these foreign countries.
Mia was born at 34 weeks. We don't know all the details, and we don't even have a picture of her baby years, but what we do know is that she was born with the cord wrapped around her neck in a traumatic birth, and that she spent a few months in the hospital....completely alone. Within the first few days, her birth parents found out she had down syndrome and they walked away.
Mia spent the first few months of her life laying in a hospital bed with strangers coming and going and no one to hold or comfort her. She entered the world completely alone.
Once she was healthy enough to leave the hospital she was sent directly to an orphanage to live for the next 4 years of her life.
As I have been by her side through the recent surgeries and hospital stays, my emotions have been so raw thinking of her doing these types of things all alone when she was so young.
In the orphanage, if a child got sick, whether it was a cold or something more severe, they were transferred in a medical van like this one, to a 'treatment facility or hospital/doctors of some kind" off site where they were left to be treated until they were well again and could return to the orphanage.
With so many children living together, they didn't want all the other kids to pass sickness around so any type of cold or sickness meant some kind of isolation, usually off site, with strangers and fear of so many unknowns.
It did not mean snuggles and hugs to make you feel better, or reassurance through the pain, that things would be ok.
This knowledge has always made me sad, but until the last few months it hadn't really sunk in,
what this was like for a child,
for my child.
To be taken somewhere unfamiliar when you are sick and hurting,
every time you are sick or hurting,
and then to be left there and have no idea what was coming next,
If you have children, you know how many times they get sick with even little things like colds, those first 4 years of life, and to think of Mia having to experience each of those times all alone, usually in isolation, just breaks my heart!
Its no wonder Mia had so many fears while we were at the hospitals recently.
Any child would be nervous being transferred by ambulance to a hospital and having to stay there for a few days, but most children are not afraid that their parents or family will not be there by their side. Most children have no reason to fear that they will be left alone...
But Mia did.
Even after 3 years of constant reassurance of the love of a family, she is still haunted by those feelings of abandonment that determined her first few years of life.
And when I think that I, her mother, never got to hold her as that sweet innocent new baby and teach her that she had someone to love her, just breaks my heart all over again.
When she woke up from her knee surgery last week and they brought her into the recovery room she was holding back tears and as she was choking back tears she said "Home... mommy, daddy, Kyra Adrie, Bree...babies,,,,home? "
I almost lost it right there in front of all the doctors as I looked deep into those eyes of hers and saw that fear that she felt at that moment.
She feared that the feelings of her past were going to take over, and that she was going to be left there and taken away from this family and home that she has grown to know and love.
When I told her we were staying right there with her and would take her home soon, she said "ok", and breathed a sigh of relief, and wiped her tears.
Was she remembering all the times she suffered through sickness and pain alone and never knowing who or what was next? It seemed that way by her reactions.
Whether or not she remembers specific memories from her first 4 years, I don't know for sure, but given the experiences with her the last few months, she must still remember the feelings.
The feelings she used to know so well, of fear, sadness, and loneliness....
feelings that no one was able to help take away from her for 4 long years.
We have always said that the hardest part of Mia's adoption was leaving the doors of that orphanage seeing what we had seen and knowing what we knew, and only being able to take one child with us.
I will always be haunted by the faces of the other lost children that I couldn't save, the other children who will only know these feelings of fear and abandonment that Mia still tries to suppress every day.
Those particular children in Mias orphanage may never have a chance again, given the current state of unrest in their city and country. So all I can do to help ease my heartache for those left behind is pray for them, and pray for those other waiting children who can be saved.
One of those waiting children is Ruthanne
Ruthanne has the chance to be saved from this life of loneliness and fear . She too has down syndrome and has been living in an orphanage all alone.
They have taken the leap of faith that it will all come together and work out , somehow, so that they can bring this little girl home before she has to spend one more day alone.
She doesn't know it yet, but she is already loved and soon she will know what that feels like.
When just like Mia, Ruthanne will be taken from lonely orphanage walls and given a family like she could never have dreamed was possible.
When we were fundraising for Mia it was one of the most faith trying parts of the process. It was the most difficult thing to do to ask people for money, to ask people for help, and every time a donation came in it was sacred to us.
Lets fill the grid for the Enger family! We still have a lot of squares we need to fill for sweet Ruthanne!!!
You choose your donation amount based on the squares that are still available.
We still have prizes left and everyone who donates will be entered to win an apple tv!
We have one week left to black out this grid with donations and bring Ruthanne one step closer to the life she deserves.....one step closer to finding peace and love that only a family can bring!
And this is why........
Over the past couple months as Mia has had so many medical procedures, appts, 2 surgeries and hospital stays, we have been asked alot about her birth history. And as we have retold what we know about her entrance into this world, the emotions come flooding back as we explain to others the plight of children born with down syndrome in these foreign countries.
Mia was born at 34 weeks. We don't know all the details, and we don't even have a picture of her baby years, but what we do know is that she was born with the cord wrapped around her neck in a traumatic birth, and that she spent a few months in the hospital....completely alone. Within the first few days, her birth parents found out she had down syndrome and they walked away.
Mia spent the first few months of her life laying in a hospital bed with strangers coming and going and no one to hold or comfort her. She entered the world completely alone.
Once she was healthy enough to leave the hospital she was sent directly to an orphanage to live for the next 4 years of her life.
As I have been by her side through the recent surgeries and hospital stays, my emotions have been so raw thinking of her doing these types of things all alone when she was so young.
In the orphanage, if a child got sick, whether it was a cold or something more severe, they were transferred in a medical van like this one, to a 'treatment facility or hospital/doctors of some kind" off site where they were left to be treated until they were well again and could return to the orphanage.
With so many children living together, they didn't want all the other kids to pass sickness around so any type of cold or sickness meant some kind of isolation, usually off site, with strangers and fear of so many unknowns.
It did not mean snuggles and hugs to make you feel better, or reassurance through the pain, that things would be ok.
This knowledge has always made me sad, but until the last few months it hadn't really sunk in,
what this was like for a child,
for my child.
To be taken somewhere unfamiliar when you are sick and hurting,
every time you are sick or hurting,
and then to be left there and have no idea what was coming next,
If you have children, you know how many times they get sick with even little things like colds, those first 4 years of life, and to think of Mia having to experience each of those times all alone, usually in isolation, just breaks my heart!
Its no wonder Mia had so many fears while we were at the hospitals recently.
Any child would be nervous being transferred by ambulance to a hospital and having to stay there for a few days, but most children are not afraid that their parents or family will not be there by their side. Most children have no reason to fear that they will be left alone...
But Mia did.
Even after 3 years of constant reassurance of the love of a family, she is still haunted by those feelings of abandonment that determined her first few years of life.
And when I think that I, her mother, never got to hold her as that sweet innocent new baby and teach her that she had someone to love her, just breaks my heart all over again.
When she woke up from her knee surgery last week and they brought her into the recovery room she was holding back tears and as she was choking back tears she said "Home... mommy, daddy, Kyra Adrie, Bree...babies,,,,home? "
I almost lost it right there in front of all the doctors as I looked deep into those eyes of hers and saw that fear that she felt at that moment.
She feared that the feelings of her past were going to take over, and that she was going to be left there and taken away from this family and home that she has grown to know and love.
Was she remembering all the times she suffered through sickness and pain alone and never knowing who or what was next? It seemed that way by her reactions.
Whether or not she remembers specific memories from her first 4 years, I don't know for sure, but given the experiences with her the last few months, she must still remember the feelings.
The feelings she used to know so well, of fear, sadness, and loneliness....
feelings that no one was able to help take away from her for 4 long years.
We have always said that the hardest part of Mia's adoption was leaving the doors of that orphanage seeing what we had seen and knowing what we knew, and only being able to take one child with us.
I will always be haunted by the faces of the other lost children that I couldn't save, the other children who will only know these feelings of fear and abandonment that Mia still tries to suppress every day.
Those particular children in Mias orphanage may never have a chance again, given the current state of unrest in their city and country. So all I can do to help ease my heartache for those left behind is pray for them, and pray for those other waiting children who can be saved.
One of those waiting children is Ruthanne
Ruthanne has the chance to be saved from this life of loneliness and fear . She too has down syndrome and has been living in an orphanage all alone.
The Enger family followed Mia’s story
and along the way, their hearts were led to this little girl in China named
Ruthanne.
They know she belongs in their
family, just like we knew Mia belonged in ours. They have fears, they have
unknowns, they have made sacrifices and witnessed miracles along this path to
their lost little girl, just like we did with our journey to Mia.
They have taken the leap of faith that it will all come together and work out , somehow, so that they can bring this little girl home before she has to spend one more day alone.
She doesn't know it yet, but she is already loved and soon she will know what that feels like.
When just like Mia, Ruthanne will be taken from lonely orphanage walls and given a family like she could never have dreamed was possible.
When we were fundraising for Mia it was one of the most faith trying parts of the process. It was the most difficult thing to do to ask people for money, to ask people for help, and every time a donation came in it was sacred to us.
While we were in the process with Mia, Our friend explained it well when she said this " The first
thing we feel when a donation comes in is a little guilt because we know it
caused that family to have to give something up during tough times. We think of
each person or family and know it wasn't easy to give what they did.
Then the Spirit reasurres and reminds us that this is much
bigger than dollars and certainly much bigger than us. And the guilt is
replaced with gratitude.
Gratitude for abundance. Gratitude for friends, family and
even people we have never met, who are loving Kareen (Mia) along with us.
As gratitude finishes settling in, joy comes along for the
ride. We're that much closer!
"
I know most of you reading this have already helped over and over again with Mia and others that I have talked about, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that! I sincerely can never thank you enough for what you have done for our family and for Mia. So if you can't help financially then please help by sharing and finding others who can help.
To witness a child change from abandoned and
alone....to loved and cherished.... is really more then words can say.
It has reached the depths of my soul and changed me
in ways I could never have anticipated, and the only way I can help heal my broken heart for those who may never be saved, is by continuing to promote and advocate for those who can.
So if you can spare anything, please visit our FUNDRAISER for Ruthanne and lets help another little girl never have to live in fear of loneliness again. Lets fill the grid for the Enger family! We still have a lot of squares we need to fill for sweet Ruthanne!!!
You choose your donation amount based on the squares that are still available.
We still have prizes left and everyone who donates will be entered to win an apple tv!
We have one week left to black out this grid with donations and bring Ruthanne one step closer to the life she deserves.....one step closer to finding peace and love that only a family can bring!
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
It feels like HOME
3 years ago today this happened…..
After 6 months of waiting and working so hard to get this little girl home, and 32 days in a foreign country away from our other children, we finally came HOME! We had anticipated this moment for so long and it was even better then we could have imagined!
This video of her homecoming is one of my most treasured possessions because it captured these sacred first moments of love, the first moments when Mia finally felt like she belonged.
Mia had waited for this moment her whole life
This video of her homecoming is one of my most treasured possessions because it captured these sacred first moments of love, the first moments when Mia finally felt like she belonged.
Mia had waited for this moment her whole life
She had no idea how many people had rallied around her family to get her HOME!
I will never forget the overwhelming gratitude and love we felt that day as we witnessed the miracle of a little girl finally finding her HOME.
“If you knew how lonely my life had been
and how long I've been so alone,
if you knew how I wanted someone to come along
and change my life the way you’ve done.
It feels like I'm all the way back where I come from...
It feels like home to me...
It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong.”
What greater way to celebrate this special day then to continue Mia’s miracle, and help another little girl come home.
Pat and I were friends in junior high but over the years lost contact with eachother until one day, not long before we started our journey to Mia, my husband started telling me about this new co worker of his, Pat Enger.
It is amazing to watch how the common
threads of our lives weave together to create miraculous events in ways we
could never have imagined.
Mia’s path has now led Pat and Tiffany on a road to Ruthanne.
This is from Tiffany about Mia’s part in the road to Ruthanne:
“When the Cox Family first brought Mia home three years ago I was so thrilled for them. I was so impressed by the strength, dedication and faith they invested in ensuring Mia could be raised in a safe and loving family environment. I watched them in awe, and a little bit of envy, as I have always dreamed of adopting a special needs child but lacked the knowledge and courage I needed to make my dream a reality. I saw this sweet family do what I always knew in my heart I wanted to do, and they gave me the knowledge and the strength of faith to move forward with adopting a child in to my own family. I think I was afraid of the unknown, but seeing first-hand the process of adopting a child with special needs and watching this beautiful new family bond and grow over the past three years has inspired me beyond measure. I don’t think I would have had the courage to start my own family’s journey towards adoption if I had not been so inspired by Mia and her family. I believe with all my heart that there are others who have also been inspired by Mia’s story, and I pray that others will be inspired by my story as well when it is completed. The true and lasting love story of an adopted child with special needs and her family touches the lives of so many in miraculous ways, and spreads joy whenever it is shared. I feel so blessed to have been able to be a part of the beautiful story of Mia and her family. Now, three years later I find myself writing my own similar story....”
The Engers are stepping out of their comfort zone and
taking a leap of faith to bring this little girl into their home, and they need our help.
We want Ruthanne to feel like she is home.
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