The Drive

We traded in our minvan this week for a suburban and all the girls have been so excited to ride in the new car and check it out. As I was watching Mia explore the new car this week and get so excited to ride in it, I  remembered this post a year ago....(funny enough this post was on the same day a year ago as we bought our new car this week)

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

I got chills and tears re-reading this post as I still am frightened to the very core of the thought of what might have been for Mia. 

As I watch her do things now...

 capable and deserving of a LIFE....

and then I think of her instead sitting...and eventually dying... alone in a room with NOTHING....

I can't breathe!

As we watched the KSL story the other night our brother in law (who is also the father to a child with down syndrome) said he just lost it when he saw the picture of the kids confined to a play pen in Mia's orphanage as he thought of his own daughter sitting beside him being placed in that playpen all day where no one would get to see her personality and she would not get to play and explore and show people how amazing she is...all because she had down syndrome.

It is almost harder, ok it is harder now, that I know Mia and I know what she is capable of, to think of her being sent to an adult mental institution. 

Now that I know who she is 

and what she has to offer

I can not bear the thought of what might have been.

Seeing Mia thrive

makes me want to shout from the rooftops 

that EVERY child like Mia deserves to be saved, and loved, NOT shut away! NO child deserves to take "the drive" to a world they should never have to know

Susan is one of the MANY who deserves to be loved, not shut away

and because of the Lutkin family she will get that chance before she has had to experience too much life on her own...she will be one of the lucky ones

but the Lutkins can not do it alone

they need our help

Our ipad giveaway ends in just over a week and we have a long ways to go!

If you live nearby (or want to take a road trip ha ha) please come join us in a week on June 16 at our "Mia's miracle continues" celebration where we can celebrate AND pay it forward! It will be an evening of swimming, friends, food and fun AND we can help another child find her way home! We will have opportunities to donate that evening but the admission to the pool and waterslide will be FREE! Details are HERE! If you are not in the area you can still donate online!

Let's help keep one less child from having to make "the drive" they should never have to make