Read the back story of this precious child and her trip from Armenia to America here.
Today is six
months that Karene has been in America. First and foremost I want to say
that I give every bit of credit to her survival to the Lord God ALMIGHTY!
I witnessed things over there that I cannot even put into words. If
you've ever read Joe Beams book about Spiritual Warfare then you know what I
mean. Why He chose her/us to fight for so mightily for I don't know but I
am so terribly grateful. I also want to acknowledge the amazing things
that were done for us by the hands of our friends and church family. Due
to the circumstances surrounding her homecoming I was not able to keep record
of all that was done and by whom. I kept thinking that I would sit down
and make a list and write out notes but it's been six months and I am no closer
to sitting down or remembering it all. Please know that even though you
didn't get a personal handwritten note your prayers, love, gifts, food, visits
and concern were all greatly appreciated. It makes me somewhat sad that I
don't have a list of all that was done just because it would be so very
impressive and a great testimony to those outside of God's family. Many
of you passed on our prayer requests to people that we don't even know and if
you did this please forward this to them.
A short report on
Karene: She continues to progress although sometimes it is three steps
forward, two steps back, she is at least going in the right direction.
She has a custom made wheelchair, qualified for disability which will help
provide therapies and other resources she needs and has had no problems with
her shunt since her last hospitalization. Her weight is hovering around
25lbs. which is acceptable except that all her nutrition is going through her
feeding tube. She has once again given up eating by mouth. For now,
I think we will move on and tackle that issue at another time maybe when she is
more secure emotionally and can understand intellectually. The next issue
will probably be getting her physical therapy to straighten her feet and occupational
therapy so she can begin to do written work to get her ready for
schooling. I forget to include her language because she has so incredibly
adapted to speaking English that we almost forget that she spoke only Armenian
until she came over.
Again, thank you
for every diaper, sticker, dollar, meal, snack, card, ride, prayer, favor, hug,
song, and effort of kindness. May God doubly bless you and yours,
The Hardins
Update on the Hardins....
Read the back story on this here.
The surgery we
waited 4 weeks and came almost 10,000 miles for is now over! Karine came
through very well and is resting. We praise God for the blessing of
American medicine, skill for the doctors and most of all His sustaining power
when her physical body could not do it by itself. They are even talking
about discharging this weekend!
We cannot express
our gratitude for all the prayers, food, encouragement, cards, visits and help
we have received since we started this God adventure. Even if we have
been distracted with the urgent or emergent we want you to know anything you've
done has not gone unnoticed. At night when I'm home with whoever is not
on night shift at the hospital to talk to the kids about what they are grateful
for. While food seems to be the main thing on their list, usually one or
two will come up with something that makes me smile to know that they realize
is more important than their bellies. They are learning important lessons
about how God's family takes care of each other.
Mightily blessed,
Kathy Hardin
How many of those pro lifers ever adopt???
Well the Hardin family, whom I am proud to call friends, are as pro life as they come. Just take a look at their van covered in pro life stickers...their 8 home-schooled children.....their entry into pro life oratory contests.....avid and trained sidewalk counselors and in several pro life arenas.....I can count on them to march in the parade and help with any pro life event.
They have worked and fund raised for over two years to raise the money to adopt this special needs child from Armenia who had never been outside her orphanage in her 4 years of life. While the prayed and waited for the bureaucracy to move, they almost lost her as Kathy Hardin received a call to make an emergency trip as their to be daughter, Karene was critically ill.
She was sick and down to only 15 pounds. This hospital was without the basic necessities to treat her. I must admit when I received the broadcast email of what was happening, I was greatly discouraged. The Hardins have a strong faith and when they finished the email by telling us to take a front row seat and watch what God can do; I must admit I felt that she could not possibly survive even if they were able to raise the funds for an air ambulance from Armenia to Nashville.
Fast forward ... they were able to get the adoption accomplished in an emergency period of time, fly home on a commercial flight, get her into Vanderbilt for the needed surgery literally in the nick of time. Yea God !!!.....slap me across the face for my lack of faith.
Channel 5 covers the story
here, here and
here.
"For two weeks it was pretty touch and go and I was working on adrenaline," Hardin said.
Karine suffers from Spina Bifida and lives
with a shunt to reduce swelling in her brain. Just weeks before she was
scheduled to make the journey, the Hardin's said she underwent surgery
to correct the shunt, then developed meningitis, and lost nearly 20
pounds when the Armenian hospital withheld pain medicine and
antibiotics.
If you'd like to help with her medical costs, you can make a donation to
the Karine John Hardin fund at the Hendersonville branch of Regions
Bank.
You can also visit the following Facebook page for updates: http://www.causes.com/causes/588490-rescue-karine-hardin
