Celebrating with a 5K

ONE week, yes 7 days from now, we will be on a plane crossing the ocean to meet our little girl!!!! So what better way to celebrate then to gather with friends and family for a 5K?!! My friend Jamie did a fabulous job putting it all together and we can't thank her and her family enough for all they did!!
We made these cute bracelets that say "I was part of Kareen's Miracle" to give as a small token of our gratitude to those who have supported us and given to Kareen these last few months so PLEASE if you are reading this I want to send you one of these!! PLEASE email me at keciajcox@msn.com with your address (and how many you would like) so I can send you one because we would not have been able to do this without all of YOU and this is just a small way we can thank you!

This truly is a miracle that we are all a part of! One little girl is being rescued and given life and every step of this has been miraculous!

Kyra and Adrie were excited to help hand out bracelets with help from their cousins Mazie and Ellie
This was one of the highlights of my dad today!!! I GOT TO MEET ANYA!!!! For those who don't know Anya (and her mom Heather), Anya was adopted through Reece'ss Rainbow and brought home from Russia just 6 weeks ago and having followed their journey and moved by it all as we started this process, it was SO great to meet her in person!!! What a doll she is! I can't wait to continue meeting up with Heather and Anya when Kareen gets home!

We are so grateful to each and every one of our friends and family who came out to support this event today!









Jamie and I. Jamie told me today that the reason she put on this 5K was because she had a dream about it and knew she needed to do it! I am thankful for her willingness to help and for her inspiration!

Jamie changed Kris's number to a 2 since I had the #1.....thanks Jamie for proving who runs things around our house...haha!




My brother Jess was the winner of the 5K! Love the orange in the mouth JBear!


I loved seeing all the kids who were willing to participate too!



Lisa had already run 10 miles this morning and still came out to support us. Kris even found her along the trail carrying Adrie on her back as she ran because Adrie had fallen and hurt her foot.....wish I would have been there to get a picture of that!





















As I look through these pictures I get emotional thinking of the AMAZING support we have had through all this. We have the greatest friends and family who have been nothing but supportive of this decision and we are full of gratitude for each of them as well as for the friends we have made along this journey who have given so much to our soon to be little girl. As we prepare this week to leave we are again grateful for the friends and family who are stepping up and taking care of our kids while we are gone. WE COULD NOT DO THIS WITHOUT THEM! We love you all!

***If you are local, check out Channel 2 news tonight...they were at the race and may have a story on it*****

The countdown is on...

Now that it is May, things are moving in fast forward and the real countdown is on. We now have 12 days until we leave for U******.!!! We are getting things in order for the kids and our room is full of piles of things to take. I found this really cute book called the "Red Thread". It is an adoption fairytale about a King and Queen who feel something tugging at their hearts and they realize they have red thread pulling at their hearts and they journey across the ocean and to a far away land where no one speaks their language and the red thread leads them to a child who has been pulling on the red thread and waiting for them to come. It is a perfect analogy of what we have felt the last few months and soon we will get to meet the little girl at the end of that thread!

Our Russian language map also came in the mail from amazon....we heard this is a great little friend to have with you in U******.
We started packing the suitcase for the orphanage donations. We have lots of darling blankets and burp clothes and hats and mittens that we are going to take to donate to her orphanage.

We packed them in vacuum bags

and then sucked the air out and compressed them down

Kyra loved vacuuming the bags

Our room is full of bags and bins with things to take
We have started packing the toys and books to take for Kareen
We found these cute books on amazon called "kids like me..." and they are full of pictures of kids with down syndrome that teach ABC's and colors.

After we packed the orphanage suitcase Kris looked at me and said "well we just packed one of our suitcases....now I am starting to freak out a little!" It is really starting to feel strange that after months of working towards this, we are almost there!

We started laying out some clothes to take for Kareen, in hopes that we get to bring her home on the first trip. Although it is usually not the case, we are hoping and planning for both scenarios just in case. If we don't get to bring her home then we will just bring her things back on the second trip.

For those who don't know the process, this is the general way it works.

We will have our SDA appointment on May 17 and hopefully be able to pick up our official referral on the 18th. Then we will take the overnight 11 hour train ride from the capital city to the region where her orphanage is. We will then meet her...hopefully thursday sometime but possibly not until friday. Then you file a court request and you wait for a court date. While you are waiting for a court date you have visiting time periods each day to spend at the orphanage with her and then your other time is spent doing necessary paperwork and some site seeing in between. Once you receive a court date that is when you are granted legal custody of the child and by law their is a 10 day waiting period after court that allows for a family member to petition the adoption. In most cases of children with special needs, the family has signed away their rights since birth so this waiting period wouldn't be a real issue and if the judge decides to waive the waiting period, then you would get to immediately start the process of all the necessary paperwork through the embassy to finalize the adoption and bring her home with you. If the judge decides not to waive the waiting period than we would go home and then travel back after the waiting period and then finish up the process. So for everyone's sake, we are praying the judge waives the 10 day wait, but unfortunately it seems to be more common to not get it waived.

So basically there is no definite plan as far as timing goes. We really don't know how long we will be there, or when we will get to take her from the orphanage. It is a day by day process so it has been hard to plan for the kids since we don't know if it will be 2 or 3 or even 4 weeks. I have to really not think about how I have to be away from my girls for that long because it makes me so anxious and sad. If only I could bottle up Bree's magical hugs, Adrie's sweet smile, and Kyra's cute laugh to take with us! I am so grateful that my girls were willing to travel this road and are willing to let us go bring this little girl into our family. I know we could not have done this had they not been so supportive and excited and loving towards Kareen and this journey from the very beginning. They have been amazing!!!

I have pretty much just come to the conclusion that I am only going to get more and more emotional from here on out. In 12 days we will be leaving our 3 girls to go and find the little one who has been tugging at our hearts the last few months.

Kareen's family book

Thanks to Jennifer's blog I found this awesome place that makes customized photo BOARD books. So we made one to take to Kareen with pictures of our family, and it is a board book so she can't hurt it! LOVE IT! It turned out really cute! We also just ordered another regular photo album through iphoto of all of our extended family pictures to take as well. The board book is our immediate family and is for Kareen. The other one will be to show both Kareen and the officials over there so they can see how many people are waiting to love this little girl.

Bree is making good use of the book for Kareen right now and was so cute reading it too me!

At last I see the Light

The latest obsession at our house is Tangled. Bree watches it OVER and OVER on the ipad and she sings the song "At last I See the Light" and makes you hold her hands and gaze into her eyes and act it out just like the movie. Well although I have heard this song MANY times, I never thought of it pertaining to me and my family and this road we are traveling right now.

The other night I came home from a night out with my mom and sisters and Kris told me he had an early Mother's Day gift for me that he and Bree had been working on. He sat me down at the computer and showed me this movie he made and said it was to take on our phone and ipad so we could show Kareen.

It of course made me cry through the whole thing! The sweetest part about it was that Kris was the one who had found this new meaning to this song and he had taken time to place the pictures in the video to match the words. This new meaning of this song is totally what we have felt about this journey and it all started when Bree came into our lives and showed us that there was a lot more in store for us than we had ever planned.

Before Bree was born, we were blind to what the world of special needs had to offer our family. When we were told Bree had down syndrome, we were emotional and scared of the unknown and we were in a "fog" not knowing what to expect. When we became part of this new "down syndrome family" we saw everything looking different, and then the "fog lifted" and it became not just ok, but great!

"The world had somehow shifted and Everything looked different...."

Then comes Kareen and knowing that "now she's here, shining in the starlight. Now she's here suddenly I know" and "if she's here it's crystal clear, I'm where I 'm meant to go"

I didn't know that I was supposed to travel across the ocean to another country and bring home my daughter until I saw her face and "All at once everything is different, now that I see you"

"And it's warm and real and bright
And the world has somehow shifted
All at once, everything is different
Now that I see you, now that I see you"

All those days watching from the windows
All those years outside looking in
All that time never even knowing
Just how blind I've been
Now I'm here, blinking in the starlight
Now I'm here, suddenly I see
Standing here, it's all so clear
I'm where I'm meant to be

And at last I see the light
And it's like the fog has lifted
And at last I see the light
And it's like the sky is new
And it's warm and real and bright
And the world has somehow shifted
All at once everything looks different
Now that I see you


All those days chasing down a daydream
All those years living in a blur
All that time never truly seeing
Things, the way they were

Now she's here shining in the starlight
Now she's here, suddenly I know
If she's here it's crystal clear
I'm where I'm meant to go

And at last I see the light


And it's like the fog is lifted

And at last I see the light

And it's like the sky is new

And it's warm and real and bright
And the world has somehow shifted
All at once, everything is different
Now that I see you, now that I see you

I got my "Carrington" in the mail this week

I got this necklace in the mail this week!

You may remember Carrington who came home from EE malnourished and fighting for her life. Well when I saw that someone on Etsy was making these necklaces called "the Carrington" and all the proceeds went to help this sweet girl, I knew I had to have one. Not only would I be getting the cute necklace to represent my new princess, but I would be helping her at the same time.

So I now have the "from orphan to princess" necklace attached to the initials of each of my other girls.

Gotta love it!

When love takes you in

I am all over the place right now.

It still feels surreal that we are actually going to be meeting her in less than a month!

I have lists of things to do, things to get, things to remember, things to pack, instructions to leave, schedules to leave for the kids, etc. etc.

I can't sleep at night, because I lay there thinking of all the things to do and remember and my mind just won't shut down. I wonder things like what will her smile look like? will she be nervous to meet us? will she understand any of this? will she look a lot different than her picture? will my girls be ok at home? will I be ok away from them?

See why I can't turn my brain off?!

Then when I do fall asleep I dream about her and what it will be like to hug her for the first time and to see her smile for the first time. I dream about what it will be like to finally get to take her from the orphanage for good and what it will be like to welcome her home for good.

I try to live the normal day to day routine too but it is hard to think of anything else right now other than preparing for this trip to meet Kareen. Yet I have to balance time with my other girls in the preparations too because we will be away from them for a few weeks.

I have so many thoughts and emotions to express right now but can't seem to put them into coherent words so instead I will sum it up with this amazing song and some pictures of our journey so far.

When love takes you in

I know you've heard the stories
But they all sound too good to be true
You've heard about a place called home
But there doesn't seem to be one for you
So one more night you cry yourself to sleep
And drift off to a distant dream

Where love takes you in and everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in

And somewhere while you're sleeping
[ Find more Lyrics on http://mp3lyrics.org/LY2q ]
Someone else is dreaming too
Counting down the days until
They hold you close and say I love you
And like the rain that falls into the sea
In a moment what has been is lost in what will be

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart

And this love will never let you go
There is nothing that could ever cause
this love to lose its hold

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in it takes you in for good
When love takes you in
Lyrics: When Love Takes you in, Steven Curtis Chapman [e

They know....

Today we are exactly one month away from our SDA appointment and we now have our flight booked from here to Atlanta, to Paris, to "U". (we are not supposed to spell out the name of the country on blogs and FB yet but if you don't know where we are going...and want to, leave me your email and I will email you). Wow!!!! Seeing a flight itinerary is making it VERY real!

As if I am not emotional enough right now, this post from a mom over there right now was the icing on the cake. I read it on friday, and cried and I can't stop thinking about it. I cry every time I think about this or read it (which I keep doing).

A little background to the story...the family now has custody of this little cutie Evan, and they are waiting for her visa to come through to take her home for good and this is what they experienced the other day as they took her to do some of that paperwork.

"Evan cried today......I knew it would happen, honestly I did. She is just the happiest little girl - so full of life and fun. One almost begins to think that she somehow by-passed the effects of orphanage life. Some would even say that because of her Down syndrome she might not even be capable of knowing what has happened over the course of her life.

We left the hotel room on Thursday afternoon and headed for the cab. She had the biggest smile on her face and was laughing as we got in the car, almost like she was thrilled to be riding in a car. She sat in the back between Clark and I - all smiles. As we were driving, she slowly became more and more somber and grabbed each of our hands and wouldn't let go. I noticed that she was biting her cheek and little bits of blood were evident in her mouth. How do you reassure a little girl that everything is going to be okay? Especially one who only knows Russian and how much of it she knows is a mystery - since she is nonverbal.

We kept leaning down and kissing her and squeezing her hand, but her eyes were wide with uncertainty. We stopped at the train station and everyone started exiting the vehicle and she lost it. Unsure of whether she was being returned or we were leaving her didn't really matter at the moment. I AM sure that either choice was not one that she wanted. She cried and she cried hard. How do you tell her or explain to her what FOREVER means? I held her, her Poppa held her, we murmured our love to her and said the word forever and then took her with us on the train.

I pondered the situation later on the train. So MANY people think that children with Down syndrome can be put into an institution and it will not have any lasting implications on them - they deem them incapable of any human understanding. Do they not know these children can feel and have emotions and bonds like all other human beings? After a little more than 24 hours with her Momma and Poppa, she KNEW she did not want to return. She KNEW that what she experienced in those 24 hours was better than where she had been.

The reality of that is a hard pill to swallow, when you think of how many orphans with Down syndrome have been transferred to an institution and will never, EVER, be able to KNOW THE DIFFERENCE.

It's sobering and also fills me with sadness. I wish I could do more. I wish you could do more. I may not have all the answers, but I do know this.....

The blessing of being obedient to God's call on our lives is evident in the smiles and tears of our sweet Evan and I am thankful beyond words that we chose to obey."

I haven't stopped thinking about this because although this little girl is only 4, she KNEW this new life she had been given in the last 24 hours was better than anything she had known before and it was what she wanted! Neither her age, nor her extra chromosome affected her ability to feel and know what love was. And she KNEW she wanted it. Bree is 4 and Bree has down syndrome and she KNOWS what she wants and she knows what being happy and loved feel like. Which makes it all the more heartbreaking to think of all those that may never know. Just because of a physical difference from the "norm" a child is deprived of this love.

Her last statement "I am thankful beyond words that we chose to obey" rings very true for me. I think everyday how grateful I am that we are on this journey and what a life changing and miraculous road it has been and we haven't even met her yet! Oh, every time I think about meeting her I just can't decide if I should cry or smile or both because it is now so real and we will be there with her before we know it! I sat and watched this sweet little girl today at church who was the same age as Kareen and had the same color eyes and hair and she was snuggling with her grandma and I leaned over to my friend and said "isn't that little girl so cute?" and she said "yes, and I can tell she is making you think about your baby girl right now". Well, most everything does make me think about her lately!

Kareen may not speak our language or understand fully what is about to happen in the next month or so, but I have no doubt that she will feel of our love and know that it is what she has always wanted. I would like to believe that she already does feel our love, even now. I just pray that we will be able to convey the assurance to her that she needs to know that she will be ours forever and that she won't have to be alone anymore!