Celebrating our little Babushka's birthday

What a magical day it was! We went with the Matroyshka theme because it tied in Mia's heritage and because I am obsessed with them...oh and also my brother has deciced the nickname Babushka is fitting for Mia so it was all perfect.

All day we kept wondering what she was thinking.....

What Miss Mia may have been thinking.....

For days everyone kept telling me my birthday was coming but I really had no idea what they were talking about.

What is a birthday?

Why is everyone so excited about it?

I woke up one morning and my family started singing this song to me....

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday dear Mia....

Then went I went downstairs I saw a sign my sisters had made me wishing me Happy Birthday (Bila is the name Bree calls me) so I figured today must be the day everyone's been talking about.

I went to church and everyone sang to me in my primary class....I was a little shy but thought it was fun.

When I got home from church I got to put on my special birthday dress for the party.

I got to welcome all my visitors

We all got to watch the birthday DVD that my dad always makes for our birthdays. Mine had all of my videos on it

I learned how to say I was now FIVE

My mom had lots of help from friends and family to make all my fun birthday treats and when I saw an entire table of cookies and treats.....I knew I was going to like this birthday thing!

I stood close by to the table waiting for mom to give me the go ahead to eat one of the yummy treats

and when she said it was ok, I was SO happy!

We had Matroyshka doll suckers

Matroyshka doll cookies

Drinks with Matroyshka doll labels

and a gorgeous Matroyshka doll cake,

I kept a close eye on that cake, waiting to get the chance to eat it!

and guess what?

It was all for ME!

It was all to celebrate ME!

I really enjoyed the part where everyone sang the birthday song to me and I got to blow out my candles on my cake!

Bree helped teach me what to do, and told me to wait until they were done singing before I blew out the candles.

Dad even let me blow the candles out a few times because I had so much fun doing it. He said I had to make up for the last 4 years that I didn't get to do this.

Of course I LOVED eating the cake and ice cream!

I was really enjoying this day and just when I thought it couldn't get better....

Dad told me to come sit down and open my presents....

What? you mean all these presents are just for ME?!!

I was giddy I was so excited!

I got to open lots of fun things....

I only needed help a few times...see how I can sign AND say help now?!

Then I was able to play with all my new toys!

I had such a wonderful day celebrating my birthday! I never knew such a day existed!

I am sure happy that I get to do this every year from now on!

My mom said if she hadn't been on bed rest she would have had a big celebration with lots of friends and people who had made it possible for me to be home with my family and celebrate this way. She always tells me about the many, many people who sacrificed and gave in my behalf so that I could come home to my family and experience these kind of special occasions.

Thank you Heavenly Father for blessing me with a family to celebrate my "first" birthday with, and for answering my prayers through so many wonderful people!

"Abandoned at Birth....

......Because she had down syndrome"

When my oldest, Kyra, watched this ABC special video about Bree and Mia, and saw that the reason Mia's birth parents abandoned her was because of down syndrome she was deeply saddened. I had never realized that Kyra did not know this was the reason her parents gave her up.

Kyra came to me and said "mom I thought Mia's birthparents gave her up because they couldn't take care of her...not because she had down syndrome. Is that really why they gave her up?"

I said "yes it may have been some of both, but the main reason was because she had down syndrome"

Kyra said "that makes me so so sad. I really wish her birthparents could come to our house, because than they would see her and see how fun she is and they would feel really bad they let her go"

This has always been one of my wishes to0, that some day her birthparents would know that she was worth being loved.

Tomorrow, we get to celebrate the day Mia was born.

For the first time in her life, Mia will get to celebrate the day she was born.

She will be honored and celebrated for the light that she is. She will get cake, and presents, and attention just for her!

Last year, we celebrated the birth of this little girl that we had never met from across the world, wishing and hoping that she was ok.

Here is the post from that day a year ago

celebrating our little "Kareen" without her here

Last year we announced our "official commitment" to Mia the night before her 4th birthday.

Last year we had cake in honor of Mia, but this year Mia gets to have her own cake with us to celebrate her life!

As her birthday approaches I think of how we have no pictures, or records, or stories to share with her of the first 4 1/2 years of her life.

I think about how when she does birthday posters at school she will have no baby pictures to share and no first steps pictures, and no firsts smiles, and it makes me sad.

I want Mia to know that she was not abandoned because she was worthless. Rather she was abandoned because she was meant to be with us and she was meant to teach us, and all those who have followed her, more about life than we thought we knew.

As Kris and I have talked about this we thought maybe it would be fun to compile letters to Mia for her birthday. Letters written to Mia, from anyone who has followed her journey home, and/or knows her.

So for Mia's birthday present we want all of you who have fought for Mia, prayed for Mia, and followed any part of her journey home, to send us a little note or letter, written to Mia telling her how she has affected your life.

You can leave them in the comments or you can message me on facebook or you can email me at keciajcox@msn.com. These can be sent anytime over the next few weeks.

We want to compile letters to share with her one day so that she knows that she was meant to be.

How fun will it be to sit down with her one day, when she is asking why she has no baby pictures, and show her a book of letters that will show her that she not only changed her own families' lives for the better, but that she touched many, many others as well.

Mia Kareen you WERE meant to be and we love you so much!!

This song on this video is amazing and makes me cry (although that isn't too hard to do...haha!)

Happy Birthday tomorrow Miss Mia!

What a year

2011 will always be a year to remember in our lives.

Dear 2011-

Thank you 2011 for all you brought our family

You took us on a journey that we never knew existed and that we never thought possible, a journey that changed us all.

You led Kris and I to Ukraine for 32 days

You saved a precious little girl from a life she never deserved

You placed her into our family as if she had been with us forever.

You taught us that sometimes your children come to you in ways you had never expected and yet they are yours just the same

And we are forever grateful for this gift.

You taught us about love, tolerance, acceptance, unselfishness, and gratitude as we met so many new friends this year and witnessed so many amazing acts of kindness by so many.

You taught us about faith, and following the promptings of the Lord.

You showed us what a difference a little love can make in the life of a child

You taught us to really appreciate our health as we spent LOTS of time in doctors and hospitals this year

You surprised us with an incredible gift of pregnancy with twin girls.

As 2010 came to a close we had 3 beautiful girls and thought we may never have any more....

And now, we have (almost) 6 beautiful girls.

You taught our girls a new kind of love as they sacrificed and opened their hearts to their new sister, no questions asked.

You tested our faith both through our journey to Mia

and then again in Oct. when we were faced with the scary news about our twins condition.

You blessed us with the miracle of modern medicine to intervene and save our twins lives

You tried our patience and endurance as Mom has been on bedrest for 3+ months now awaiting the arrival of these precious twins, and once again showed us how many people care and how many people are willing to reach out to help.

We look back at 2011 with awe and gratitude for all the miracles we were able to be a part of.

It was not without challenges and trials but all together this year has changed us forever and we are grateful for each moment of it.

In case you missed it...

(Both videos will automatically start so pause one before you watch the other- The first video is the one that aired on TV last night, the second is the online video that is the story of Bree and Mia)

So many emotions brought up again watching this piece on ABC world news last night.

Cried tears of happiness that Mia was safely home with us

Cried tears of joy watching some of the moments that changed our lives forever

Cried tears of heartache for the children left there without families to love them

Cried tears of gratitude for the miracle that this journey continues to be

It was almost like a dream....did we really travel across the world?

Did we really live in a foreign country for 32 days?

Did we really bring our daughter home only 7 months ago?

Watching the story with Mia sitting in our laps was almost surreal.

She would have been destined for the life in an institution...

there are no words to express how wrong that would have been...and how wrong it is for those who are there

Once again we were able to relive the miracle of this journey last night and it was incredible

For the full, more in depth written story go HERE

Back when ABC contacted us about doing this special, we were very nervous to add one more stress to the already stressful and emotional journey we were embarking on, but we knew that if this piece was handled properly and in the right spirit, that it could be a moving force for more children to find families. So we jumped right in and started sending videos and pictures to ABC of every step of the journey and then met Abbie Boudreoux and Sarah Netter when we arrived in Ukraine.

We had lots of fun with these two ladies for the few days they were with us in Ukraine...lots of laughs and memories of our wild ride there

And were so excited to have them come visit us again in our home a month after Mia came home.

Kris and his entourage of girls he hung out with in Ukraine

This is what our home looked like set up for the formal interview...

It was funny because when they came to our home, I was deathly sick with morning sickness and totally had to fake it through interviews and such.

We had prayed all along that this piece would be positive and would be a force for good to enable more awareness and attention to these other waiting children and Reece's Rainbow and we are so grateful that it was done so well!

By far the hardest part of this journey for us was walking away from the orphanage and knowing there were SO many other children being left behind. We wanted to scoop them all up and take them home.

Being there we knew how much these children wanted families because they lit up when we would come in the room to get Mia and they called us "Mama and Papa". And it tore our hearts out! So being able to continue to spread awareness was all we knew we could do to help these kids and we appreciate ABC for letting us do that.

Thank you to ABC and these ladies for fighting for this story and spreading awareness.

Last night the Reece's Rainbow website had so much traffic after the story aired that the website crashed...which is a good reason for it to happen but not good that it crashed at a peak moment when people were trying to see what they could do to help, so PLEASE continue sharing this story and videos so that people can go to Reece's rainbow and hopefully be moved to help in some way.

Thanks for all your love and support! Yes we were the faces to this particular story but we could not have brought Mia home without the help and support of SO many!

BIG NEWS

Literally it is big NEWS.... Last Feb. just after we had committed to adopt Mia we received a call from Andrea at Reece's Rainbow saying that she had been contacted by ABC world news and they wanted to do a story about Reece's Rainbow and wanted to follow a family in the process from start to finish. ABC decided to follow our journey to Mia.

They came with us to Ukraine which was quite an adventure for them, and we were glad to have a few more English friends for a few days. We had lots of fun stories that we couldnt share at the time because we couldn't say they were with us. they were there with us when we met Mia for the first time and stayed with us for a few days there. Then when we got homemwith Mia they came to our home for a few days to film Mia in her new family and do a follow up.

we had to keep this a secret for the last 10 months but now the story is supposed to air TOMORROW NIGHT MONDAY DEC 26 ON ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH DIANE SAWYER. I beleive it is on at 5:30 mst so set your dvr and spread the word!

when we were first approached about doing this my first thought was "no I do not want a national camera crew following this crazy, nerve wracking journey with me" but when we thought of the potential for good that this could have for the other waiting children on Reece's rainbow we knew we had to do it. our hope is that it will bring. More national awareness to Reece's rainbow and that more of these children will find their forever families before it is too late!
So tune in tomorrow night with us! we can't wait to see what they put together!