YOU can make a difference.......AND win an iPad!

An old man was walking down the beach just before dawn.

In the distance he saw a young man picking up stranded starfish and throwing them back into the sea.

As the old man approached the young man, he asked;

"Why do you spend so much energy doing what seems to be a waste of time?"

The young man explained that the stranded starfish would die if left in the morning sun.

"But there must be thousands of beaches and millions of starfish, exclaimed the old man.

"How can your efforts make any difference?"

The young man looked down at the small starfish in his hand

and as he threw it to safety in the sea, he said;

"It makes a difference to this one!"

YOU who have already given, have helped make a difference for one child.

YOU who have shared this story, and giveaway with friends and family, have helped make a difference for one child.

YOU who have prayed in our behalf, have helped make a difference for one child.

YOU who have put our buttons on your blogs, have helped make a difference for one child.

YOU who have stretched yourselves to donate, have helped make a difference for one child.

YOU who are part of this journey with us, are making a difference for one child.....you are helping us literally save a life!

YOU are making a difference for this one!

We THANK YOU for what you have helped us with so far and pray that you will continue to spread the word about the giveaway that will change a life......the giveaway that will bring an orphan home!

****Here is the repost of the giveaway details*******

We are kicking off our fundraising for Kareen with an iPad giveaway!

iPad Giveaway for KAREEN!

Kareen is a 4 year old little girl with Down syndrome who was given up at birth and has lived in an orphanage in Eastern Europe ever since. In her country a child with special needs is only held in an orphanage until the age of 4 or 5 and is then transferred to an institution where conditions are bleak and offer little hope for living a fulfilling life. Kareen's story has touched our family, and we are committed to bring her home. The cost of international adoption is very high, and we could use your help!

Donate now through Saturday, February 5th, when one lucky person will receive a Brand New 16GB Wi-Fi iPad

For every $10 donated, you will be entered into a drawing for the iPad (i.e. $50 equals 5 entries). Also, if after donating, you advertise this giveaway on your blog or facebook, you will get an additional entry. Simply leave me a comment with your name and the link to your post.

Ways to Donate:

• Go to www.kareensjourneyhome.blogspot.com and click the “Chip in “ button
• Bring a check or cash by our home. You may email me at keciajcox@msn.com for our address.
• Tax deductible donation (must leave me a comment with your name and donation amount to be entered into the giveaway, since this site is kept confidential) http://reecesrainbow.org/sponsorcox

Every dollar helps, and brings us closer to having our little angel home safe.

Thanks for your Support!!!

- Kris & Kecia Cox

***Feel free to grab one of the buttons from our sidebar for your own blogs***

They are in the mail!

Our first official packet of documents is in the mail to Kareen's country!!!!

Although this isn't the big one (the dossier), it is one step closer to our little girl and it feels so good to have them on their way! I have to admit I got a little teary when Kris sent me the text with this picture and said "they are on their way" Now on to getting the dossier finished up ASAP!

(Aren't those official gold seals so pretty? They better be for costing $15 for each paper!!!)

*******THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT SO FAR ON THE GIVEAWAY! REMEMBER THERE IS ONE MORE WEEK TO ENTER THE IPAD GIVEAWAY SO KEEP SPREADING THE WORD!!!!!!*************

Prayers

I have already had a heavy heart today learning of the passing of this sweet little angel Sandra. Sandra is in the same country as Kareen and is just older than Kareen. Sandra left this life, never knowing the love of a family, and it breaks my heart! It makes the urgency of getting Kareen home, even more so.

A daughter of a fellow adoptive family wrote this sweet poem for Sandra:

In the night sky a lost star was born

Unfortunately in an era when love was worn

She waited her turn to finally shine

But was only shown one bright line

HE gave her the choice to choose her light

And she accepted at last one fine night

The cold world lost another soul

And sweet Sandra had to pay the toll

HE told her she had one task to take on

To shine her brightest when the world turned dawn

The lost star was no more lost, but now found

In a paradise of love, with love's only sound

So, I already had sweet Sandra on my mind today, and then I came home and checked my email and there was an email from the director of Reece's Rainbow that said she finally talked to Kareen's orphanage and she is still at the baby house for now, but is scheduled to be transferred to the institution VERY soon. (I don't know how soon "VERY" means) and that we need to get out dossier (the international adoption packet) ASAP. So of course, my heart was racing and I was worrying about our little girl and as I am sitting at the computer worrying, my sweet little Bree walks in with the iPad (if you don't know Bree, she is OBSESSED with the iPad and does NOT like to share it, and she knows how to work it better than I do) and hands it to me and says "mommy, watch" and she points to the iPad. Well I was expecting to see Toy Story 3 on the screen because that is what is on there ALL day, but instead it was a video message that our church puts out (we have some of them on our iPad) and these are the words that were being said at this exact moment "My peace I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. The Lord will stand by thee and will still give thee aid..." As I sat in tears with Bree at my side, I looked into her face and she was just smiling her sweet smile as if to say, "she will be ok mom, my sister will be watched over". Then Bree gave me a hug and took her iPad back and walked away as she turned toy story back on.

So this is the peace I will have to hold on to as we continue this journey. We are doing everything in our power to get this paperwork all done as quick as we can so we will just have to keep praying that the Lord will keep her in the baby house until we can get her and bring her home.

I will do a post at a latter date regarding our gratitude for the support we have recieved but for now I have to say that I truely can NOT put into words the emotions and the gratitude that Kris and I have felt the last few days as we have watched this fundraiser unfold.....there are. No. Words! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! We are witnessing the Lord's hand working miracles for this sweet daughter of His.

***Remember you still have another week to enter the iPAd giveaway! See post below for details********

iPad Giveaway

We are kicking off our fundraising for Kareen with an iPad giveaway!

iPad Giveaway for KAREEN!

Kareen is a 4 year old little girl with Down syndrome who was given up at birth and has lived in an orphanage in Eastern Europe ever since. In her country a child with special needs is only held in an orphanage until the age of 4 or 5 and is then transferred to an institution where conditions are bleak and offer little hope for living a fulfilling life. Kareen's story has touched our family, and we are committed to bring her home. The cost of international adoption is very high, and we could use your help!

Donate now through Saturday, February 5th, when one lucky person will receive a Brand New 16GB Wi-Fi iPad

For every $10 donated, you will be entered into a drawing for the iPad (i.e. $50 equals 5 entries). Also, if after donating, you advertise this giveaway on your blog or facebook, you will get an additional entry. Simply leave me a comment with your name and the link to your post.

Ways to Donate:

• Go to www.kareensjourneyhome.blogspot.com and click the “Chip in “ button
• Bring a check or cash by our home. You may email me at keciajcox@msn.com for our address.
• Tax deductible donation (must leave me a comment with your name and donation amount to be entered into the giveaway, since this site is kept confidential) http://reecesrainbow.org/sponsorcox

Every dollar helps, and brings us closer to having our little angel home safe.

Thanks for your Support!!!

- Kris & Kecia Cox

***Feel free to grab one of the buttons from our sidebar for your own blogs***

I knew her....

The decision to adopt Kareen came as quite a surprise to many because it came about so suddenly and it was never really something we had seriously talked about. We didn't even really say much to anyone until we were really serious about it; which all came about very suddenly, in about a months time.The day we told my family that we were going to bring this little girl into our family, my dad shared this story:

He said he had been at our house and gone in to use the computer and saw this little face (Kareen's picture) pulled up on the screen and he said to himself "I know her...." He didn't know ANYTHING about it and didn't even know we were considering adopting, let alone that we were considering this child. Well he kept this to himself and then a week later my mom emailed him her picture and said "Kris and Kecia are seriously considering adopting this little girl from Eastern Europe and they need our prayers in making this decision" Well when my dad saw this same picture, he said he knew we were going to become her family. Of course he didn't share any of this information until after we had made our decision!

As we were sitting there that night talking to my family about Kareen and the process of adoption and such, I became very emotional worrying about the possibility of her being transferred to an institution. Although we would still probably be allowed to adopt her if she was transferred, I still couldn't bear the thought of her spending one minute there. My wise father calmly said to me "Honey, the Lord already had your path to her laid out well before a month ago. He will protect her and watch over her until you get to her"

I am grateful for his faith, because it is getting me through those moments of worry and anxiety about it. I will continue to have faith as we embark on this journey!

Opinions

Well the opinions have started....

some people think we are crazy and can not fathom why we would do something like this......

to that I say,

if you had felt what we felt about this and about this little girl....you would do it too! There is just no denying the feelings and the hand of God in this process!

I mean why wouldn't we want more of the love that Bree has brought?

Why wouldn't we want to give this sweet little muffin hope and love and a FAMILY?!

Of course we worry about the unknowns and of course there are concerns, but one thing I found while this decision was weighing heavily on our hearts was this perspective that a father shared on my friends (I can call you that right Bethany?even though we are virtual friends?) adoption blog back when she was going through this journey. It is even titled

"Why Not?"

When Charissa came
to me and asked me, "Can we adopt a little girl
with Down Syndrome?". I didn't say anything. I just thought.

Then she said, "... there is a little girl in Ukraine that needs a family." I didn't say anything except.. mmmm.

I began to go over and over in my mind how MY life would change. How would this affect ME. What if this happened what if that happened. How would this little girl integrate into our family?

So, here is a list of questions I asked, prayed over and meditated on for several days:
- This is a huge commitment
- Will she talk, eat, walk
- What will Word of Faith folks think of me having a child with a disability
- How will my life change with this little girl
- Will my kids accept her
- Will my kids rebel
- Will my kids be safe while I am half way across the world
- Can I afford this
- and many other thoughts

Then I had this thought.. What is this little girl thinking:
- When is my daddy going to come kiss my neck and throw me in the air?
- When is my daddy going to come help me get my eyes fixed?
- When is my daddy going to help me learn how to eat, walk, talk?
- When is my daddy going to take me out of this crib and put me on his shoulders?
- When is my daddy going to hold me close at night before he puts me to bed?
- When is my daddy going to tell me he loves me?
- When is my daddy coming to get me? Why's he taking so long? I'm ready!

God defends the orphan! He will defend me and my family..

What a blessing little Ava has been in my life! I just cannot imagine life without that little girl. Jesus will increase your ability to love every child you bring into your home. He'll work miracles in your heart and in the hearts of a whole lot of other folks too.

Don't be afraid to LOVE! Love heals.

I am grateful to this father for sharing these feelings because it helped me when we were having these same questions go through our minds. And it helps me now!

Happy Birthday Kareen!

Dear Kareen:

Today is your 4th birthday and my heart is very full! I am completely overwhelmed by the love and support you (and we) already have from family, friends, and all your "prayer warriors". I can not begin to express the amount of love we have felt in your behalf already. You are loved by so many, and you don't even know it yet! My heart is aching today as I think about how we can not be with you today on your birthday. I want so badly to be able to kiss you and hold you and let you know you are loved and that you have a family on your birthday.

Your sisters are SO excited to welcome you into our family. They want to honor you today and celebrate your birthday. We will be having cake later and they made you birthday signs that are hanging in our house.

Kyra's says this:

-I love you

-BSF=best sister forever

-I can't wait

-Your gonna have so much fun

-I'm so excited!

Adrie's says "Happy Birthday Kareen! I love you!"
They also made you birthday cards
Kyra and Adrie have been excited since the moment we showed them your picture and asked them what they thought about becoming your family. They talk about you every day and at night your dad and I will walk past their room and hear them talking about all this things you will get to do with them one day. They talk about how you may have never had a story read to you, and they are going to read them to you. They talk about what your favorite color might be, and your favorite food (Adrie asked me what kind of food they eat in "your world"), and what your favorite character and princess will be. They talk about taking you to Disneyland. They knew before we did, that you were meant to be part of our family.

When this decision of adoption was weighing heavily on our hearts, and we were trying to explain that we were still deciding and still praying to know if the Lord wanted us to take this journey, they knew they answer was yes! Adrie said to me "Mom why wouldn't Heavenly Father want you to do this?" and the night we prepared to go to the temple for answers to our prayers, Kyra looked at me and said "Mom you know the answer is going to be yes!" and through my tears I said "how do you know?" and she said "I just know!" What amazing big sisters you will have soon!

The night we told Kyra and Adrie that we were officially going to commit to adopt you, they immediately stood up and dumped out their piggy banks and made this jar for you! They wrote "Kareen's money" on it and have scowered the house and the cars for every penny they could find to put towards the cost of your adoption. They gave every penny they had and they did it happily. They have all sorts of plans to help with raising the funds to bring you home. The other day they asked if they could make bookmarks and sell them on the side of the road (in the snow). When I told them we should wait, they said "ok we can just do it when we have our lemonade stand for Kareen"

You are already teaching your sisters and family about loving unselfishly as we start this journey.

Your dad and I are so thankful for all those who prayed for you because we know that those prayers reached our hearts. Your dad left this sweet comment on Patti's blog last night as we shared our news of bringing you into our family with our friends and family.

"Patti- There aren't words to explain how much we appreciate the time and effort you have spent on behalf of our new little angel. We are so excited that our little Kareen already has so many people that love her and pray for her daily.

One thing that we pray for daily for our little Bree is that God will place friends in her life that will watch out for her and see the good that she has to offer. To see that our prayers are already being answered for our little Kareen through you and your great frineds and family is a witness of the love God has for all his children!

We are so excited to begin this new chapter in our life to bring home our little girl. We look forward to sharing our journey with good friends like you, and also look forward to a future reunion where Kareen can meet her "warriors"

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!"

Kareen, we want you to know how much we already love you and we haven't even met you yet!

Last night as I lay awake thinking about you I thought, " Is she warm? Is she healthy? Is she happy? Is she safe? Does she feel loved? " I pray every day that you are, and that Heavenly Father will protect you and will continue to bless our path to you.

Here is another birthday tribute to you at aunt Shaley's blog

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL! This is the last birthday you will have to spend alone! Your family is coming to get you!

We are expecting........

.........A TODDLER!

We are adopting this sweet little girl from an orphanage in Eastern Europe. She is 4 years old TOMORROW! She has down syndrome and her and Bree are one month apart, so we will basically have twins! It has been an very unexpected surprise that we are on this journey, but it has been nothing short of miraculous so far, and I am sure it will only continue to be more so as we go on.

I NEVER would have guessed that we would be starting a journey like this. I started followingthis adorable family on their adoption journey, and then found out that this family had also traveled this road, and then I recently followed this family and I would often joke to my husband and friends and family that "if I keep reading these blogs, I am going to do this." Well I was completely joking but I now know that it was all to prepare me for this! I have wanted another baby for a long time now (we have been trying for almost 3 years) and then after my awful miscarriage last summer I was devastated and just kept wondering "why?" "what does the Lord have in store for our family right now if it is not this?" Well, little did I know that it was Kareen that he had in store for our family. The way every step of this process has unfolded so far is nothing short of a miracle and nothing short of the Lord's hand guiding our path!

I have looked at the little ones on Reece's Rainbow (an International Down syndrome orphan ministry) on and off over the last year or two, but although of course I felt bad that these children were orphans, and theoretically wished I could save them all, I never felt "drawn" to one of them, or even felt like I should pursue this for that matter......until about a month ago.

At Christmas time Reece's Rainbow does an angel tree and tries to raise funds for these angels (since the cost of international adoption is alot). So lots of my friends had links and posts about the kids on Reece's Rainbow. As I got looking at them, I started to feel like maybe I needed to pursue this. So I started looking at what the process really entails and reading more details about others journeys. I started to look at individual kids and tried to feel "drawn" to certain ones. To tell you the truth, because I want another baby, I tried really hard to be "drawn" to a baby and it just didn't happen . As Kris and I were looking over the website one night, he actually saw Kareen and we noticed how close in age she was to Bree...only one month apart. But we kept browsing and that was that. But soon after that I came upon Lily's blog and out of the goodness of her heart, this amazing woman was doing fundraising for two angels on Reece's Rainbow, Olga and Kareen, and as I scrolled down the page Kareen's face came on my screen and I was completely overcome with emotion! I was sobbing and I thought "Oh my goodness, I think she might be mine!" Of course I kindof freaked out because I wasn't looking for this, I wasn't looking to adopt, and so I tried to move on..... but I could not think about one other thing! Kareen completely consumed me and my thoughts...day and night! From then on everytime I saw her picture I cried and even when I really thought about her I cried, and then I started picturing her with my other girls and it fit. But it was still scary, there were (and are) so many unknowns. Well after MANY hours of prayer, fasting, and soul searching. Kris and I knew that we were supposed to do this! Kareen was supposed to be part of our family! We both admitted that we had been dragging our feet a little because we were scared and we knew the easier answer would have been no, but we knew that we could not deny the incredible feelings we had felt about this little girl. The last few weeks as I have been deciding this and pondering, I have felt closer to the Lord's spirit than I can even explain. I KNOW he has led us to this girl and that we are meant to be her forever family!!

I am very grateful for the answers I have received to prayer and I am grateful to be embarking on this journey. I can all ready tell it is going to be amazing!