PowerLiving with Kimberlee Langford
PowerLiving with Kimberlee Langford
Kaya's Promise: Laura Dale's Journey of Love, Resilience, and Community Impact
Imagine finding yourself in a situation where love and service become the cornerstones of your existence. Join us as Laura Dale, a dear friend and inspiration, shares her remarkable journey through her many challenges and the inspiration that lead to the creation of Kaya's Promise, an initiative dedicated to supporting families with special needs children. Laura's story is a testament to the transformative power of selflessness and reflects how acts of kindness can lead to personal growth and community change. Her experiences in parenting children with complex medical needs offer invaluable insights into resilience, love, and the strength found in family bonds.
We dive deep into the emotional challenges of raising a child born prematurely with critical health issues, navigating the delicate balance of family dynamics, and maintaining a steadfast belief in miracles. Laura opens up about the profound impact of faith in her life, recounting moments of divine intervention and the strength it gave her family. Her candid reflections on the challenges of adoption and humanitarian efforts invite us to consider how faith-driven decisions can shape our lives, even amidst financial constraints and global unrest. This episode not only sheds light on the deeply personal journey of international adoption but also highlights the ripple effect of community support.
Through the lens of Kaya's Promise, we explore the possibilities that arise from acknowledging one's capabilities and limitations. The story of turning candy sales into a powerful community movement illustrates the boundless potential of small contributions and collective action. Laura's humanitarian efforts in Ukraine further exemplify the impact of acting within one's sphere of influence, showing how personal connections can lead to global change. By the end of the episode, listeners will be inspired to embrace their unique callings and contribute to the greater good, proving that even the smallest acts of kindness can lead to significant transformation.
all right. Well, oh my gosh, I cannot express how glad I am to see your beautiful face, laura dale. I'm really glad to share some time with you because you're one of my truly my favorite human beings on the planet. I can't even talk about you without crying, so don't get me started, but I'm really happy to have you on the podcast and share a little bit about your story.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's the Christmas season that got me thinking about you, but I had shared with you how, three o'clock in the morning, I said I got to talk to Laura and I got to have her on the podcast and share your story, because what you're doing and maybe it's because I've been thinking a lot about service and sacrifice and how we really truly grow into our best selves and, uh, we magnify our own uh ability or our own magnificence when we lose ourselves. It's just like the scriptures say, right, we find ourselves when we lose ourselves in the service of other people and your problems seem a lot smaller when you're busy dealing with helping other people with theirs.
Speaker 2:They do.
Speaker 1:Right, and I know you've been through some stuff, um and so, and, and I just know you're doing a lot of good in the world and your whole world, your whole life, has been about sacrifice, my friend, and you're still one of the most just, the most radiant, beautiful women I've ever known in my entire life. And so I thought, gosh, I need to have you on here and share your story. And, uh, I'm really happy, um, to be able to share some time with you, and I'm excited for those of us, for those of our listeners who are listening in. I met laura. We've known each other now for how many.
Speaker 2:it's been a few decades now well, kaya was born in 99, so hi ian my dog has to say hello to her.
Speaker 1:My son just walked through pressure yeah, so almost a quarter of a century we've been, we've been friends and actually I met Laura through. A beautiful little girl made me cry and her name was Kaya and I don't do know. She was my first pediatric patient. Did you know that I did? Not know that she was my first patient and you know Mary was a wonderful nurse and and, but Kaya was one of my very first patients on pediatrics, scared the dickens out of me.
Speaker 2:Scared the dickens out of a lot of people, a lot of people.
Speaker 1:And I thought, oh my gosh, what did I get into? I don't know if I can handle this little girl. Hiya, oh my gosh, what a beautiful soul. And you know she could never speak. Except I tell you, her eyes told just volumes. And this little girl she could tell when her daddy walked on the pediatric floor down the hallway. I swear she had a built in sensor and light up like a Christmas tree. But so would you mind, laura, just share with us a little bit about your story. I know you've got a phenomenal. Maybe it was because I was thinking about you, because I've been dying to find. You know where you're selling your chocolates so I can help support. You've got a beautiful program called Kaya's Promise and what you're doing to make the world a better place, where you have a circle of influence and is really remarkable. So I don't know, you can skip the part where you were born, but take us.
Speaker 2:So I was a very, very young mom. We had our first kiddo at 19. I was 19. My husband was an old man already, he was 29. But so our son was born to us when I was 19. We had just moved to Idaho, got ourselves established here, and I always wanted to be a mom. Having kids was definitely on the checklist, and so my focus was that raising my family. And then, when I was 21, we had Kaya.
Speaker 2:Now we did not know anything about any issues she might have had. The pregnancy was pretty easy, but apparently I was having complications that were unknown, and so she was born early. She was born eight weeks early at four pounds, and she had a plethora of complications. She had brain damage, like a grade four brain bleed, which left lesions on the brain. So that's permanent damage. It's never going to go away and the doctors probably they might can't help you. They do not know how any of this damage is going to affect a child, no matter what the situation.
Speaker 2:I've done this for a very long time. I tell every new parent. They can't tell you. Every kid is so different. You can have a kiddo with no brainstem that can like, talk and communicate. You can have a kiddo with just a tiny little bit of brain damage is practically vegetable eyes, but like literally they can't. There's there's a lot of guessing.
Speaker 2:So we were given a horrible diagnosis and told that she wouldn't survive. We had to sign liability waivers to bring her home once she was finally healthy enough to leave the hospital, basically absolving them of anything if she were to pass away when she goes home. She was in the hospital for four months and her biggest problem at the end of the day ended up being those stinking lungs of hers, and she suffered from pneumonia repeatedly over the course of her life. Her brain damage kept her from developing in terms of, like you said, she couldn't talk but she could definitely communicate. She laughed, she giggled, um, you knew when she was happy, you knew when she was sad, but she was always happy, right. How many times did you ever see this kid of not happy? I saw her upset a few times, yeah, but it was like rare and she's there like something had to make her mad.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah so she had a very big boisterous personality and she lit up a room when she came into it big energy yeah big energy. This kiddo was just such a big part of who we were as a family I still remember when I met kaya you know she wasn't supposed to live.
Speaker 1:I think she was about two. I think when I met her first she wasn't supposed to live to see two days is what I was told. Yeah and uh, she wasn't supposed to live to see two. And here she was and I know you and I had conversations about I still remember many a night thinking oh, please don't let her die on my shift, and I've had that conversation a few times yeah yeah, I still remember that, uh, like developmentally she was.
Speaker 2:You know, I I never had any dreams to like my husband and I differ in this with. With me I'm always just like whatever they give me I'm happy for, whereas he struggles more with I wish I could have had this, I wish I could have that, have that. But we are two completely different personalities and this is how we differ. And so for her, I was always very happy with who she was and what she gave me and how she could communicate and I never felt like I was missing out because her energy was so big and um and she just gave so much love and so much joy in her life.
Speaker 2:The thing that was such a challenge was these physical symptoms of the disease within her body.
Speaker 2:So she had a left lung that didn't want to perform properly.
Speaker 2:She had a hole in her heart that caused issues with the circulation of the blood and then the oxygenation of the of the blood and she had pneumoniaation of the of the blood and she had pneumonia over and over and over throughout her life.
Speaker 2:Um, one time we were given a list of her discharges, admits and discharges from the palliative care team and I did the math, four and a half years of her life she spent in the hospital, like inpatient in the hospital, and it just solidified, like I'd always said, that her brother grew up in the hospital and it's true, like most of his young years as a kid he was in the hospital with us and he was so good, always in the hospital. So life just revolved around her. And it just happens, because that's what happens when you're a medical family Like you have to revolve every choice you make around that one person. And it isn't fair to the siblings, but they tend to step up and they tend to be all like it's okay. And then, as soon as we're home, as soon as everything's settled, you shower the other ones with as much love as you can, because they're just as important.
Speaker 2:It's just that their needs had to get set aside a little bit yeah and you know, if there's one regret from having a life of being a medical mama, is that that part where the other kids do suffer from it, but they also love their siblings, so they don't. You know, it's just like us. You take on the suffering so you can have the love you know.
Speaker 1:You know and it's interesting because many families and you are you know there's a few families that I served when I was a pediatric nurse. You are the only family that I took care of. That's still together.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:In our life.
Speaker 2:Most of the families are divorced as well that we've met Divorced or drugs. It's very, very difficult, Just trying to cope.
Speaker 1:The coping is very difficult. But what always impressed me about your family? Not just that you stayed together, but your faith is so bright and that, despite everything you've suffered, you have continued to serve and sacrifice and make the world a better place.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I don't know how you could do it without it. I think that's why families fall apart they don't have the faith. I had so many experiences throughout the course of her life where I could see God's hand playing out in the circumstance and I was always reassured. I always knew that she would make it through, until the time when she didn't. And but I think the Lord, just that's how him and I have always. He's always prepared me because he knows I don't like surprises. Surprises are very hard for me, disappointment is very hard for me. So he's always prepared me and let me know, and that's just our relationship. And so for me it's like you just have to nurture that understanding that the suffering isn't a punishment.
Speaker 2:It never was a punishment um, you wouldn't suffer if you didn't care about them. There would be no suffering. So the suffering is a product of the love that you have for the person that you care for, and so, um, you know, in my personal opinion it's worth it. Like you'd take every bit of suffering you've already had, just to have them back one more day you know Well, your little Taya, who wasn't supposed to live to see two.
Speaker 1:She made it. Was she 12 or was she 13?
Speaker 2:Yeah, she passed just before her 13th birthday and what's interesting is she was just a tiny baby and she was having her blessing right, and ian was being a pain and I was out in the hallway with him when jonathan's giving her the blessing and I'm listening to the blessing over the speaker and I was just kind of having a moment yeah and heavenly father just impressed upon me because jonathan in the blessing had said that she would be an influence to her peers around her.
Speaker 2:And I'm like this is a kid who they literally sent home to die. I'm like how in the world will she ever have peers?
Speaker 2:and it was impressed upon my heart that very minute that she would live to be 12 and I I don't know I it stuck with me for all the years that we had her, even the, and the different illnesses she had. I was like there's no way she'll make it through this. And she did. And I remember one illness in particular. It was so bad she had ARDS, which is like really stiff lungs. Um, for those who aren't familiar with that, respiratory distress syndrome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's a complication you can have with covid, which is the reason people die from it. Um, is basically the inflammation is so bad that your lungs are just stiff and hey, honey, yeah, and they and they blow holes in them and and so she had ARDS from a pneumonia. It was a complication and they ended up giving her three chest tubes. She was on an oscillator which, unlike a ventilator which does this with your lungs, an oscillator just barely moves them just to basically circulate the air within the lungs, and that's basically Not a good, a good sign. Yeah, your next step is maybe ECMO, and ECMO didn't exist back then.
Speaker 2:That's how old we are yeah yeah, ecmo was not a thing yet and I just remember pulling the doctor aside and being like, okay, do we need to be having a conversation? And he was like, if we have to do one more chest too, we will be having that talk. And I was like, okay, and the next day I just remember the whole family was like, okay, let's pray, let's fast, let's get together, and so like we're all over the country and so we were all fasting and praying and we had Jonathan and his dad come in and his dad blessed her for complete healing and I'm like you're crazy.
Speaker 2:I think she was seven, six or seven at the time and I mean there's no way this kid's making it out of this. I've never seen her so sick in my life. She was ventilated for so long I think it was three months um, that she had pressure sores on her face from being prone because they had to turn her over because that's the only way they can get the lungs to function. And, um, anyway, we ever the whole family's fasting and praying, and her respiratory therapist, her respiratory doctor, uh, pulmonologist, comes in and meets us up in the morning and he's like I've just been pondering over her case. And he's like I've just been pondering over her case and he's like I want to do this, this thing. And so, basically, he's like I, it can't hurt, you know, but it was all he could come up with to possibly help her and it was basically introducing unassigned, um, white blood cells. So he called them BAMs. Anyway, was that in Sacred Heart? Mm-hmm, yeah. And so he's like I just the only thing I can think of that might possibly help her fight this. And so they gave her a big old dose of these BAMs and I'm telling you, a week later she was like off the oscillator and off, and they were planning on discharging her to come home. Wow, that's the kind of miracle that steals the faith that I have, because it's impossible. She should not have overcome this particular thing.
Speaker 2:And you know, uh, one of the doctors came in. It was dr gray's and he was like I'm telling you right now that this shouldn't have happened. And he goes this was for everybody else, this is not. She didn't need it. He was a good man. Yeah, he was a good man, and he was just like this shouldn't have happened, she shouldn't have made it through this.
Speaker 1:And I was like I agree with you completely but you know, I mean like Heavenly Father wasn't done with her yet well, and I might say, just thinking about what I know about you guys your your family, I think, because I still remember Jonathan lost his job. You guys let go of a lot of things so that you could take care of her.
Speaker 2:We're self-employed this whole time because we can have the freedom to not work if we needed to, because she was sick.
Speaker 1:so much you have to be in the hospital. How many sleepless nights were you up watching, you know?
Speaker 2:a monitor. Pretty much If she was going to pick you. I was living there, I slept in the room, you know. Yeah, we took turns, so the kids were teenagers, and then we kind of had to definitely had to take turns One of us had to be oh yeah, definitely had to take turns.
Speaker 1:one of us had to be oh yeah, for sure, yeah, well, I just I can't help but wonder if she wasn't preparing you, absolutely so.
Speaker 2:That's where the kaya's promise comes in is, after all the years that she lived. Like she, this girl lived. She had more friends than I did and everybody knew who she was. Like her funeral, when we had her funeral, was so many people there, and it wasn't for us, it was for them. They were there to grieve her because she was such a light and um.
Speaker 2:Anyway, uh, we knew that things were changing. She ended up on a ventilator the last couple of years of her life and that she was just wearing out. Her body was wearing out, it was tired and we hadn't experienced that before, and so we weren't quite sure what that would look like for her to pass. And so sometime between getting the ventilator and before she passed, we were like, hey, let's do this again. And through our experiences with foster care, our son Nathaniel we adopted him several years before Kaya passed away and he's neurotypical and and, um, you know, married now with a grand, with a baby, and he's a boring kid, totally boring, um. But his caseworker knew about us and one time we were actually on our way to take kaya to the hospital to have her admitted, because we could tell that things were changing and she was getting sick and she was on the ventilator and so we were like still kind of new to dealing with that.
Speaker 2:And so on the drive we get a phone call and it's the state and they were like, hey, we have this kiddo. I know, you know we haven't really talked about it, but he has hydrocephaly, he's premature, he's gonna have, you know, long-term health issues. We're like when can we go see him? Yeah, oh yeah, and we were already in Spokane. We're like we can get Kaya admitted and we can go check him out. And they were like wait, wait, wait, you gotta wait. I had never like. It was like immediately, god was like nope, you need to do this. And, um, it was the it's. We had literally just kind of decided as a couple that we were ready to have another kiddo with health issues because we were good at it at that point. You know you, were good.
Speaker 1:I will say you and Jonathan, both. Um, I tell you you both have more skills than some of the nurses I've worked with.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, I would agree with that too. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, so we um ended up taking uh Aiden into our home. He was in the hospital for three months his first three months and he had hydrocephaly global brain damage um, and the biggest complication he had when we brought him home was that he? Um would stop breathing, and I mean a lot like apnea in children is pretty common when they're early, but his was 150 plus times a month.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, it was such a competition with kaya or something.
Speaker 2:Seriously, yeah, they were. And the respiratory therapist didn't believe me that his apnea monitor needed to get like, changed out, like the, the the data thing was full because there's a light. And I called her like two weeks home and I said hey, the data thing lights on and she's like, oh, it must have not gotten erased or something, and she changes it out and she called me later and apologized.
Speaker 2:wow, she did not believe me that he was having this many apneas. And it was just funny because, um, before we took him home from the picu or from the nicu, the nurses did not want to send him home with us because they're like there's no way this kid is having so many apneas. It needs stimulation to start breathing in the hospital.
Speaker 2:There's no way he needs to be in a hospital and we were just like no, no, no, we have so much experience our daughter's on a ventilator like we've had apneic kids before, like we're comfortable with taking him home. We're very used to alarms and waking up for them and we know all the tricks to make a kid breathe again. We have bamboo bags like we're good. And they didn't, like they still were very, very, very hesitant. And if you know the NICU, if the nurses don't support it, it's not going to happen. Not going to happen.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, so what we did is we pulled the doctor in and had a meeting with them and we told them our family history, we told them about our daughter and we showed pictures and and we just were like we know what we're doing, I promise you this kid's in good hands. And he had us discharged within a few days and the nurses were so mad. So, and I'm like and, by the way, I'm not like I'm humble enough to know if I'm over my head, I'm taking them back in. If I'm concerned, like I'm not gonna be all, like I know what I'm doing. Yeah, yeah, I'd rather be wrong, you know, and waste a few hours of my life than have this kid suffer, right? Yeah, so yeah, so anyway.
Speaker 2:So Aiden joined our family. Um, aya was, uh, she had just turned 12 when he joined us. His birthday's in March. So anyway, seven months later she passed away, and it was like we have a running joke in the family that she passed the baton Because we have a running joke that she passed the baton, because we we have a running joke that she passed the baton when she passed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just remember. So what basically, what happened was, uh, her kidneys had shut down and so, when she got her morning meds, her kidneys couldn't process anything and so, uh, her meds stopped her heart, and so this is nothing that could have been prevented in the hospital, outside of like 24-hour dialysis and, you know, just waiting for her to pass anyway, because kidneys you can't fix them and she's not a transplant patient, right? Um, and it's one of the complications of having a kiddo who's on meds all the time.
Speaker 2:Livers and kidneys don't appreciate it, and so you just buy time, you know. So, anyway, when she passed and we had literally been playing with her like 15, 20 minutes before she passed, she was in her bedroom. She was happy, content, had her beads you know the infamous beads and she'd been throwing them around and making a lot of noise and we just were like it was a good day. It was such a good day, the boys were both home. It happened to be a sunday and we kind of were like started, we decided to like skip church and just stay home and have an easy morning all together, which was unheard of at that time. And uh, like I was in the kitchen making pancakes and I asked john or I don't know what happened. I ended up stopping what I was doing to go get to go check on her for our usual pattern, and I went in there and she was just ghost white, like already gone, and she had the ventilator running. It's not alarming, her oximeter is not alarming. I literally walked in there as like she was gone and we, of course, you know, did what we thought we should do in order to try to help her and all that we. But we knew, we both knew immediately. Like she wasn't there, he was done. Yeah, and I Kaya's promise comes from that moment because I held her in my arms and I promised her that I would use what she taught me and I would use it to help her brother, to help anyone, to educate families.
Speaker 2:Like I don't know what it was I need to do, but I said I promise that. I know that you were here for a reason and it was to teach dad my stuff. And I was just like I promise you that I will. I will use it somehow and that's where the name comes from Kaya's promise and completely unrelated to chocolate altogether, but it's kind of my motivating factor for the things that I do is that promise I made to her that day well, I, I think I remember you and I having a conversation about how little support there there really is for people parents who have a child with such great needs.
Speaker 2:Uh, there's no social worker for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they cannot, they can't make, make that up and uh well it's like, like you said, like so many nurses, nurses are only good, as good as their experience. If they've never worked in this kind of environment, they don't have the knowledge, they don't feel confident in it. You know, that's one of the reasons I love nursing students is because they want to learn. So, like a nursing student straight out of school, they're like my favorite nurses to bring into the house because they want to learn, you know, and she's like pick you level care, you know, in the home, yeah, yeah, in the home exactly. Or you get a nurse who's had a ton of experience, has been around the block a time or five, and so I end up having like really old nurses and really young nurses and nobody in between. That's true, it is true, yeah, so it was, it was, it was hard to get nurses in the home to help.
Speaker 2:So basically, everything lands on you as the parent you know, tv makes it seem like you can just hire someone to come in and take care of them. Oh, they'll send you someone, but that person is not safe with them, you know, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, take care of them. Oh, they'll send you someone.
Speaker 2:But that person is not safe with them.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, kaya was not an easy patient. No, like she would definitely.
Speaker 2:She was a busy patient yeah, busy, busy and uh, so we've had.
Speaker 2:We say that she passed the time because, um, four days after we put her in the ground, um, her brother had his first seizure and his diagnosis, from then on, on his entire life was seizures after that, day in and day out all the time, and she created a whole nother chapter of education for Jonathan and I because Kaya wasn't a seizure kiddo and so it was crazy and yeah, so it was nuts. I can shorten the story. Let me shorten the story. The short part of the story is that we got bored after a while because Aiden was so easy next to Kaya. Yeah, like seizures, easy TV Anyway. And it was interesting because when your kid passes away, I do have faith, I have absolute faith. I know she's fine, but you still miss them like crazy. It doesn't take away the pain.
Speaker 2:One of the best quotes I heard was at conference while we were in Ukraine six, seven years ago. I think it was George Albert Smith and him saying I hope it's not a sin to miss them so much. And him saying I hope it's not a sin to miss them so much, and that hit my heart to the core, because your faith isn't lacking, you just miss them oh yeah, you know they're fine.
Speaker 2:You know God's got them, it's you just miss them so much. You wish life could be different, you wish the circumstances could be different, you wish you could change everything and you know it. Just yeah, the missing doesn't only just because you have faith.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, and you mourn for all the things that you didn't get to experience with them, and I think that pain is there and that pain is valid, whether, um, they weren't old enough to be born yet and you lose them, or they're little bitty when you lose them or they're you know teenagers, when you lose them, when we lose our kids. It's not supposed to happen that way yeah, literally the pain.
Speaker 2:The pain you feel losing a parent who's older than you, who's had a long life, is completely different than the pain you feel losing a child. There is literally no other, no one else on this planet understands you except for another parent who's lost a child Absolutely. They just don't get it and we don't really want them to no. No, this is definitely something I don't get it um and we don't really want them to no no, this is definitely something I don't wish on anyone.
Speaker 1:no, you don't want to be a part of that club. Uh, for sure, and you know oh, go ahead.
Speaker 2:Oh, I was. I kind of thought that, having what I said to Kaya about using the information she gave me, I initially was like it's got to be about other kiddos, it's got to be about helping aiden, you know, and raising him up. And then I had told jonathan like I'm done, done, I'm emotionally dead. I don't want to do this again. This is hard. We knew aiden would have a short life because of his diagnoses, um, and I'm just like I don't want to do this again. And so we were just like, and we're kind of bored. Life is a little too easy. The kids are grown, you know. Like, what do you do with yourself? But I was also really mad. I was just like I can't believe you're making me do this. Like I can't believe I.
Speaker 2:I felt very strongly about Aiden. I knew he was the right fit for our family, I knew he was supposed to join us, um, but I was mad at God because I was like why do I have to do this more than once? Like, no one should have to do this more than once, like. And I remember having a conversation with him one day and I was taking a walk and you know I was at the gym all the time, a lot thinner, like what, working out all the time, and so I was taking a walk and I was basically saying that I was like I'm just so mad at you for making me do this.
Speaker 2:And he put a vision in my mind and I saw the day that Joseph Smith was getting tarred and feathered and Emma lost the baby to the draft from the door being left open because she was trying to protect her husband and help her husband. And then the next thing I saw was how she lost her baby, but then Heavenly Father blesses them with other babies, right, like he took one one, but he's not replaced but has blessed them further and he's like don't think. The thought and the image and the thing that went through my brain was you're not the only one who's had to do this. Yeah, it's a little humbling. Yeah, I'm like okay, yeah, at least I get to keep my husband yeah, so that's a profound experience.
Speaker 1:You're not the only mother who's lost a child. Yeah, yeah, and I was like, okay, I'll stop complaining about that but you are one of the few mothers who can yeah, I'm gonna say it without crying to have a child with such immense needs and to give them joy. Let them experience joy. I know for a fact Kaya experienced joy.
Speaker 1:I do too, absolutely and her life was hard. A lot of these kinds of kids, these really truly kids with such incredible lack, deformities and, you know, misdevelopment and whatnot. They, because of our own weaknesses and grief, they don't have the opportunities to be in a whole family and to have joy.
Speaker 2:Uh, what's the phrase to?
Speaker 1:fill the measure of their creation as much as they can.
Speaker 2:They don't have a lot of, don't have that opportunity and uh so that's, that's kind of what led us to the next step, which was um. You know, now we've had two kids with disabilities, um, one has passed, why not?
Speaker 2:more I'm yeah, I'm on social media, you know, posting about aiden and how cute he is and all that stuff. And I had a friend, an old friend from jonathan, you know life in california. He grew up with this woman and she had sent me a link to a family to follow because she was watching us talk about her disabled kids. And the link was to a family, the Morse family, m-o-r-s-e, and it was about their son, ryan, and Ryan was a orphan from bulgaria that they adopted. Um, he was eight years old and seven pounds when you say that again eight years old and eight years old and seven pounds.
Speaker 2:He literally was a newborn and he so. She just sent me this link. If he was, like you know, this family's amazing, you should check him out. And of course I'm checking him out and I'm literally seeing this kid, tiny little baby.
Speaker 2:It looks like a monkey, because when you're malnourished, you grow a lot of hair, yeah, and um, just sticks for limbs and yeah, you know misshapen and all that stuff, and but he's just the cutest kid. And of course you're like enamored because he's adorable on top of being tiny. And I'm just, and you know, what came into my mind was I was like, wow, kids like mine get treated like that. And I told my husband I said the thing that's crazy to me is like, okay, we've all seen the Sally Struthers, you know orphan, you know non-nurse kids in Africa, infomercials when you were young, growing up, and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:And that's like the extent of what I knew about foreign anything and how foreign kids were treated. But this is the first time I realized that kids that I value, my children who have brain damage and have, you know, bodies that are misshapen and deformed and doing things they shouldn't be doing and all that stuff. Like it was the first time my eyes were opened to the fact that other countries didn't value that, and I know it seems silly but I was a little yeah, like I was a little busy raising my kids to be focused on anything outside of my little circle, um, and it just broke.
Speaker 2:It literally broke my heart, like my heart shattered all over again when I realized how undervalued these kids were. And so we started following this organization that, um, the Morse family was part of, which was Reese's Rainbow, and how they support families that are trying to adopt kids that are disabled, orphaned in other countries and kids that are living in orphanages simply for the fact that they have a disability, and the disability could literally be like a cleft lip, you know.
Speaker 1:But they're broken, so why not put them away? So we don't have to see them and our hearts don't have to break yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so Aiden, here he was what six at the time I don't remember what year it was, it was 2017, I think when we were introduced to Reese's Rainbow and after a few weeks of just kind of following people's stories and like really looking into it, I just was like my heart was broken for it and I was convicted and it's like no, the Lord's like, you have to do something. You can help them, you can help these families, and one of the big things in the adoption community is helping other families raise money to pay for the fees involved in doing an adoption. I was like well, dude, I can do that. I got plenty of free time. Aiden's easy Right, like compared to Kaya's physical needs, aiden was easy. Seizure kids don't like a lot of stimuli, so they're pretty chill. Seizure kids don't like a lot of stimuli, so they're pretty chill. Yeah, um, anyway. And so I was like you know, this is something I could do with my time, this is something I could like I can stand, I love to cook, we know. Yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1:So I was like always bragging about what you're making it yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm immediately like, oh, I could be one of those, those warriors for these families. Adopting kids is not on my thought process at all. Like I'm like I've got Aiden. I've never in a million years like travel is not something we did. We always said we're just going to support the families and pitch in, Support these other people totally. So I'm a few weeks into this idea of how can I come up with helping these families. I'm like donating money to people that I see I've followed some families.
Speaker 2:And then after a couple weeks I see a video of clarence on youtube that was shared on reese's rainbow and he looks just like nathaniel yeah, he did look a little like he was the cutest little thing and he, like we, knew nathaniel as a 13 year old boy, like years before we adopted him and I was like this kid looks, this kid could be his brother.
Speaker 2:He's so cute dark hair, gorgeous long eyelashes, yeah, yeah, and I'm like he's definitely got like hydrous, like microcephaly or something like that. I'm looking at him and I'm diagnosing this kid just from a video which just tells you how long I've been doing this, and you know he's got his thumbs tucked like this. I was like, ok, so he's got brain damage in there, and you know it was funny and he was so tiny, like we were looking at the crib and estimating how small he was and I was like that's the kid, that's the kid I'm gonna help find a home. That's him, he's my, he's my goal. And I mean it was like coming up with ways I can help this kid find a family. And in a few weeks the Lord was like no, he's yours.
Speaker 2:And I'm like I cannot do this. I, how the heck am I so? But we don't make any money. We are so poor like we literally live below the poverty line so our kids can keep medical insurance like this is not something that's feasible. International adoption is expensive. It's $25,000 now. That number makes me laugh. My heavenly father was like no, like, and so I prayed. I really legitimately, like, prayed. I prayed hard and I was like I don't, I don't know how I could ever possibly do this and um, my very straightforward answer was if not you, then who? And I was like, okay.
Speaker 1:And he doesn't qualify whoever he calls.
Speaker 2:And this is me. So that story I told you about taking a walk and having an I hate you moment I can't believe you're making me do this was only weeks before this happened. So I tell people I was like you can be at do. This was only weeks before this happened. Oh, so I tell people I was like you can be at your lowest point and he'll still use you.
Speaker 2:He just needs someone who says yes, yeah he doesn't need you to be qualified in any way other than your willingness. He'll turn you into the person he needs you to be. Yeah, he'll change you. The experience will change you and it'll change you forever. Yeah, and so, um, I took it to jonathan. He prayed about it. He's like okay, here we go. You know, give me up, cowboy. Um, he was faster, he was more willing than me, but he always likes an adventure, so a few trips after that wow, no.
Speaker 2:So what's interesting is I still was like, I just like was still kind of doubting, right, and we we've always lived in like a situation with his family where we share housing and so anytime we had foster kids or any kind of situation where the family life would change, we've always talked to them and made sure that they were on board and supportive, because I didn't want to disrupt their entire existence, you know, just because we have plans, right. And so we went over to talk to his mom and dad and tell them the story of all the law. I did not say anything other than we really feel like we're supposed to pursue this and I don't even know how we're supposed to do it. I don't know what we're supposed to do, I just know that the Lord's kind of it's, I think we're supposed to. And dad looked right at me and said if not you, then who? He literally said the thing that God had given me for my answer and I was like okay, that's a witness, wow no, yeah, there was
Speaker 2:no denying it. After that, there was no turning back. My entire focus changed like it was like game on. There was no stopping me for the next 18 months because it was confirmed 100. I knew and you're still doing the work I'm trying.
Speaker 2:So shortly after we picked elias, we also came across aria's profile and jonathan fell in love with her right away. It took me six weeks to pray about it. I have to do this again, come on. Well, and I'm like I'm not stupid. I know what it takes to take care of these kids and I knew that burden was on me because I'm the homemaker, right like at that point, these 100 providing for us always has been I'm taking care of the kids. Like I knew that burden was on me and it scared me to death, but eventually I did get confirmation that he was right and we were supposed to bring her home and I was like, okay, then you're gonna have to help me figure it out.
Speaker 2:But you know what the? I was reading a scripture about consecrating your life and I'm like you know this is you consecrating your life to the Lord. He doesn't need your money, he doesn't need, you know, your possessions. He doesn't need you to be 100% attendance at church. He doesn't. He needs you to step up when he asks you to do it.
Speaker 2:And because getting these kids home and the kind of kids that they are like we haven't even been to church in five years because when you have medical kiddos it's not an option sometimes, it just depends on your kid. Every situation is different and, um, I love church. We took her all the time. We also shortened her life because of it, because of exposure to bugs and pneumonias and all this stuff. And you know, when we got elias and his seizures were just as bad as aiden's seizures but worse. Like this kiddo couldn't even like handle, like he'd been in an orphanage crib his whole life for five years and they can't handle any kind of stimulation. Aiden at least enjoyed being snuggled and get affection and attention because he'd had that since he was a baby. But you bring home a kid from an orphanage, it's a completely different story. So again, I get to learn more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they don't get touched, they don't get the stimuli.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it doesn't bring them comfort to give it to them and that's what a lot of people don't understand, like you only can give them as much as their will they're able to tolerate, and then you have to stop and you can give them love and affection based on their ability to receive it and at you know. Basically it's like consent 24 7, like aria especially. That's one of her biggest issues is touch is very difficult for her, affection is very difficult for her being around people, stimulating newness, because she's blind as well as having been in a crib for 10 years. You know like so it's just different. So we signed up to do this again and my heavenly father, literally I could. I could talk for five hours on my experience of getting the kids from the orphanage and bringing them home.
Speaker 2:But we started Kai's Promise when we decided to do the adoption, and that was because we were looking for ways to raise funds to pay for an adoption that we could not afford. Our annual income that year was $35,000. Could not afford. Our annual income that year was $35,000. And we walked into Elias's initial like we're going to adopt Elias at $25,000. So where the heck do you get that from?
Speaker 2:And we don't have credit cards, we don't own our home. We share a home with my in-laws, so we have no lines of credit. We have no retirement because Jonathan's been self-employed for all these years. Like you know, when you stack it all up on paper for all these years, like you know, when you stack it all up on paper, it don't look very good. Um, and then we decided to add aria, which we thought would only make it like 35 000 long story short. We worked our butts off for 18 months while we processed the paperwork, while we did all the appointments and you know, we had to do paperwork multiple times and all sorts of stuff happened. Lots of things got in the way, but nothing stopped us from proceeding. It was all just like hiccups. Every single hiccup had a reason and ultimately it was because Elias actually didn't qualify to get adopted Until right before we traveled.
Speaker 1:Wow and.
Speaker 2:I did not know that at the time. It wasn't until we officially processed our paperwork into Ukraine that we found out that he couldn't be adopted. Wow yeah, he had to turn five. Thankfully, his birthday is in August. Wow yeah, he had to turn five. Thankfully, his birthday is in August.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, you know he's got the wheel he's going to drive. Well, I remember, um, you know, gosh, they were so thin and emaciated and watching them fill out and uh, and have you know, uh, more comforting. Um, they were well taken care of, they grew and they, they changed.
Speaker 2:You definitely made their lives better, yeah yeah, it's hard, like as a parent, um, especially so. Aria was 10 when we adopted her, elias was five. You have these hopes, like I had kids that were born in america. I had kids that got american health care. You know, um had a family from at least the time they were young, right? Um, it didn't prepare me for what you get when you bring a kid home from an orphanage.
Speaker 2:That damage that's done to them before you bring them home is always there. It never goes away. It's like emotional trauma physical trauma also is very much the same way. It's always lurking in the back and that's what will shorten the lives of my kids, because the damage was done years ago. So we were able to eventually complete our adoption.
Speaker 2:Our dream of a $35,000 adoption ended up being $62,000, with an annual income of $35,000. But every bill was paid of 35. But every bill was paid. Every single thing got taken care of, every single roadblock was removed. It happened and we did it completely debt-free, because heavenly father made sure we were willing to work and he was there to pick up what we couldn't do. And it's always been my opinion that you work, you pray like it depends on him and you work like it depends on you, and that has always served me well. And so I'm like okay, holy father, I'm giving you every single thing I got. I need you to fill in the blanks, and then the blanks would be filled.
Speaker 2:We had people I'd never met call me and say I feel like I need to tithe to your family, and they gave us their tithe. You know, we met so many people of so many different faiths that said your family's on my heart and my mind. I think you're the family we need to help right now. You know, I had people of my own faith call me and it's always the ones who have nothing, which is like the most heart, like wrenching part of it is. They're always the ones that have nothing, though was the most willing to help and serve.
Speaker 2:You know, and I think through the experience of, you know, members of my faith, lds, we're not used to this adoption culture. We're not used to rallying around orphanages and supporting families with finances. That's not part of our culture, and I was introduced to a world where, like you know, you may not be able to bring in five kids into your home, but how many kids can you help get a home? You know, like that idea, like, um, when I have people come talk to me now, like now, I've learned so much about fundraising and and how to market yourself and and what you need to do in order to raise money and all that the first thing I tell people is, like that money doesn't exist unless you built it, unless you did something to create it right. So like, if you raise $500, it's $500. That didn't happen before, so don't feel bad about the quantity, whatever that number is Like.
Speaker 2:If you feel like, oh, I can only raise $100. Well, that $100 did not exist before you stepped up to say yes, so sell your bake sale, make your 50 bucks, you know, help a family. You know, like you don't have to do the whole job. If you, if you're one person out of a hundred people that helps them raise a hundred dollars, how many kids can you get home? You know, and you can support a family who is willing and can and has the emotional fortitude, has the, the household that can handle it, has, you know, the relationship, because that's a big part of adoption is the marriage. Like, you might have one spouse who's very willing to act and another spouse who's like I can't do this, and that's completely valid. And you know there's no judgment on any family that chooses not to do an adoption or foster or anything like that because the marriage can't handle it. You're only doing a child a favor by not correct. Yeah, but you can support another family who is able to do it.
Speaker 1:100 percent Maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe things change, maybe changes happen and maybe later you can, but definitely don't push it, you know. So that is one thing that I learned from this process is that whatever little bit you can do for a family, if you rally behind that family, you will watch miracles happen. You will see them happen. Yeah, the most amazing things will will come into play, and I've had people step up to adopt because they watched our process, and we've had people help other families because they watched our process, and now we have people who are like starting nonprofits because they've watched what our family's been doing.
Speaker 2:And I did everything from my home. I didn't have a job, we didn't use income from employment for any of it. Everything was just like okay, this weekend we're going to do this and I'm going to sell necklaces online and ship them. The post service, postal office, got a lot of business out of me and we kind of created our own community of people, and so that's where Kaya's Promise has. What Kaya's Promise has turned into. It's turned into the opportunity to help other people, and so my goal for Kaya's Promise, which we created a candy company because it was one of our most successful fundraisers, but it's also a community of people that we can ask to step up if something's happening.
Speaker 2:So, yes, I sell candy. I work really hard. I put in the hours. I give a good product. You know, people love getting it. They look forward to it, love getting it, they look forward to it. But just the fact that I've created this little business which isn't really a business because I don't make any money on it, but because of that I have the opportunity to be like hey, I just found out about a need, who can help me with that need? And I have people step up every single time and help us do it. And I have people step up every single time and help us do it. It's been. That's the part that's faith building is knowing that I have a community that I can say, that they trust me to know that if I tell them there's a need, it's legitimate. It's not I'm just trying to rake in a bunch of cash. You know like I'm literally take whatever you send me. I'm getting sent right back out the door. Um, and that brings me. I'm.
Speaker 2:I'm proud of that yeah that people know that I have integrity and that I'm, I'm, yeah, that I'm not taking advantage, that this is truly a passion project.
Speaker 1:It's where my heart is, oh, yeah, so there you go I think you know what I love about. I love so many things about your story and as I've watched your family over the years, and, um, you know it's interesting because, when you stop and think about it, whether you know, your passion is in, uh, humanitarian efforts or your career, or raising your kids or or whatever your, whatever your calling is, we all have a different calling but, um, you know, none of us really does anything of truly any import and impact all by ourselves. You just can't. When you think about, you know just even people in history who have made lives better for multitudes of people, they had a team.
Speaker 1:Christ himself had 12 on his team, and so I mean, that's how we make magic happen. And you know, we all our hearts are called in different directions. And when you think about if each of us just took our little sphere of influence, I think all of us think our impact is is very small. Yeah, yeah, we all have a little bitty impact together. It's much more than that and just like the story of the starfish right, you can't make that big of a difference. You know that story the old guy.
Speaker 2:That is an adoption community, like theme song. You can't say we've learned that. So kai has promised existed, for it's existed. This is our eighth christmas that we've um been doing candy. And when the war broke out in ukraine, you know, ukraine now, of course, has a special place in our hearts because our kids are from there. And when the war broke out, you know covid had just happened, nobody's got any money, like, and now we have practically world war three going on. Yeah, and I remember so a friend of mine that I met in the process of adoption, her name's casey. She had posted about.
Speaker 2:You know, we've had medical kids, right, well, we're also like, we prepare, like really they go out. So we've always made sure that we've been prepared for the inevitable right. And so we store medical supplies. We're always like, well, if someone ever needs it, we have it, blah, blah, blah. And when covid hit, that happened for us like people were like, I need this medication, I can't get it. Guess who happened to have it? My kid needs, um, uh, specialty gauze and coverings for wound care, right, you know, that's like a zone intricate thing and we happen to have a stockpile of it from a mom who gave us some stuff when her child had passed, so I shipped it off to them. You know, we had parents who like can't get ventilator tubing, they don't have it here anymore, and so we had a stockpile so we were able to send that. Like though I, if I feel impressed, I've always done it I was impressed to save these things and then I had them when we needed them. When covid hit because people may not know this, but in the medical community things got really scarce, yeah, and so you were washing ventilator tubes Like that's unheard of because the risk of infection is pretty high, but that's what they were doing because they couldn't get them Anyway. So that happened during COVID.
Speaker 2:So when the war broke out, we had a friend who was like, I just reached out to my daughter's biological parents, blah, blah, blah. They need this, this, this, this and this. They're in a war zone. Can anyone help me? I'm going to ship it over there. And I looked at her list and I just kind of chuckled and I sent her a private message and I said hey, casey, I literally have everything on your list in my garage. How can I ship it? How do you want it? What's the easiest for you, I'll pay for it, I'll get it over there, and so that started everything for that, and so kai's promise turned into humanitarian aid effort for the next eight months, and we took five trips to ukraine, to poland, a few trips into ukraine.
Speaker 2:Jonathan, I sent my husband to a war zone and we just did a shout out and that's what Kaia's Promise has become. It's not just orphans, it's not just foster kids, it's not just community needs, it's needs anywhere, and if I feel impressed, I will act on it. And I felt impressed that time and this is what I found, and just like what you were just saying, if you just work in your sphere of influence, right. So we go to Poland. We have suitcases full of medical supplies, we have ventilators that we didn't own before this trip. You know, we put a shout out and people sent us supplies. They literally delivered things at my door. They sent me money to purchase the things we couldn't get. We had doctors send us prescription medications that are not something you can normally do, because it's humanitarian aid. I had boxes and boxes of prescription meds.
Speaker 2:I send my husband to Ukraine or to Poland and he meets all these people from America that we've never met and they're all of our faith. Wow, and they're in. He meets them through the course of just like reaching out to this one contact that we were given. Okay, this person is going to help you cross the border. Okay, this person is going to help you get the supplies into the war zone. Okay, this person is going to help you get your doctor's prescriptions that you need, because poland is very, very strict on that. Um, this person is going to help you get your doctor's prescriptions that you need, because poland is very, very strict on that. Um, this person's going to help you do this.
Speaker 2:So we have our not members. They're people we've met through the adoption and then, once we meet them, they branch out to this other area, and now we meet like four members areas of the country that all felt called to be there. They had no connection to Ukraine, they had no connection to Poland, they only knew they were supposed to be there to do the work. And these people had deep pockets and they helped us get things to different locations. They started their own caravan of getting supplies in, because what people don't know is that our church was only working on the Polish side of the border. They were not working on the Ukrainian side of the border when they saw us there for the purpose of getting things over, and we knew of people, we knew of orphanages that needed help, we knew of branches of the church that needed help we knew of that needed help. They were like we want to do that and so then theirs became ours and then it goes from one person to three, to, you know, to seven to twenty. But it's insane and the crazy part is is if it wasn't for the adoption, none of it would have started right.
Speaker 2:Well, when we left there, we did over $250,000 in humanitarian aid, bringing medical supplies in. We started up 18 new ambulance services. Some of these members of the church started caravans. They bought cars in Poland and they started caravanning supplies in. We opened up areas that they'd never heard of context, they didn't have, and then they started helping them to branch out to the places that needed. They started rescuing people from areas that couldn't get out, because in a war zone nothing's free, and so that became their mission.
Speaker 2:So, like just, we watched these amazing things happen and we ended up buying a home that was fully funded by um. People that follow us and the family that initially started the whole thing by asking for help now house refugees in this home that only cost us seven thousand dollars and it's 20 acres and it's like five outbuildings and in America you'd be like wow, but yeah, it'd be a million dollars, but for $7,000,. We're able to house multiple families and sustain them while they're still in turmoil there in a very safe area. And now three new orphanages are getting constant help. That didn't exist before, and so I don't believe in any coincidences anymore at all.
Speaker 1:I've well, the good we can do when we're just obedient yeah, and like why are we going to ukraine?
Speaker 2:I don't know, there's no reason to do this, like we could just stay home and send money, but it needed to happen the way it happened wow that's such an inspirational story I can hear, is that Jonathan?
Speaker 2:yeah, and the. The final story I should probably end with is that because my husband was over there, physically over there, to start the work of doing the humanitarian aid, we were able to put in some legwork for helping to find. So we had a friend whose son she went and adopted two kids while she was there. Three kids, sorry. I keep forgetting that a teenager doesn't like to be seen on camera. Three kids, sorry. I keep forgetting.
Speaker 2:There's a teenager who doesn't like to be seen on camera, so when she was there, she did an adoption for three children. The war broke out right after she left. The thing that happened, though, is that there was a snafu with the visa situation for one of the children, so Ukraine would not let them go, and so she's fully adopted. She is his legal mother, but she has to basically sign a P of A with the orphanage that has custody of him, because she can't leave with him. Yet they have to fix this snafu paperwork, and so she left him there, and the war broke out a week later, and when the war broke out, they moved, or the orphanages, they packed them up, and they anybody that was close to the war zone was evacuated and moved into poland. Well, they had no contact information. The adoption agency that we work, or, you know, the the people- that help you with your paperwork there.
Speaker 2:Um, they're all scattered. They're all in their homes or have left the country. Some of them are actually fighting. Everybody is obviously very busy with dealing with a war, and she's got this child who's now MIA, and so my husband was able to go there and, through that spiderweb network, eventually we found someone who knew where that orphanage had gone.
Speaker 2:And he was able to physically go there and get an address, put eyes on him, see that he was healthy and he could help them proceed with processing the paperwork. On the polish side and get paperwork and because of the work that we did in ukraine for the humanitarian aid work, the five trips that we did, we had a network of people that could move paperwork for this family so that she could finish the process and bring her son home.
Speaker 2:And I was like again, there's no such thing as coincidences. So it's all related to adoption, it's all related to creating families. There's nothing. I don't believe that's not true, not so.
Speaker 1:Here's a question for you. I know you were once told that you should not have any more children. That is true, and here you are with children from around the globe making lives better. Don't let anybody tell you no. Well, Laura, how can people learn more about Kaya's Promise? How can they help support your mission?
Speaker 2:And, most importantly, where can they get support your mission? And, most importantly, chocolate, uh, okay, so, yeah, so I did make a little, a little sample box for you to see. This is not as the sampler, it's just a sample. What I have made right now, um, everything is in its current stages of production, so I'll be dipping tons of chocolate tomorrow. So they are very professional. I am a professional pastry chef, by the way.
Speaker 1:I've seen your work, I've tasted your work at your table.
Speaker 2:Yes, I can tell you, I decided that a couple of years ago, I decided to pursue another dream on top of being a mom, and that was to pursue a job in pastry. Um, I've always loved food, like you know, and you just closed that down for the winter.
Speaker 1:Is that right, you're?
Speaker 2:on. Yeah, so I work at a really um exclusive resort where a lot of yep people that you would definitely recognize come and live. Yes, yes, uh, yeah, uh.
Speaker 2:It's kind of funny because I gotcha, yeah, I I chuckle at some of the names that come across. And then, anyway, we make the pastries for the entire club. So we serve as two restaurant, three restaurants, technically, um, all the golf course, uh, amenities and things like. And then we also do catered events, special events, in-home stuff, and then these giant like big thousand people events. So basically we're a party planner, are?
Speaker 1:you still, well, are you still putting on a full spread for Jonathan? That's all I, that's all we need to know During the season.
Speaker 2:No, the poor man's definitely learned to cook for himself, so, so, so you know, this is the part where it's like we're really a partnership, because everything that I did for all the years I was a stay-at-home mom he's been doing, and he's been doing this to allow me to pursue this, because my kids need their parents, they need the medical attention they can't be left alone. We don't have aides that come in and do anything, um, but he's been willing to be like okay, I'm getting older, I'll stay home, you make some money, um, and so he's letting me pursue this crazy path right now and I don't know where it's going to take us, but it's.
Speaker 2:It's definitely brought me some. It's been good for my mental stuff, because a lot of the thing is that you need a break from the day in and day out, 24, seven care. And with the kids I've always been like, okay, I'm going to go to the store by myself, get away from them for a few hours, like sometimes I take myself to a movie. I've always like tried to give myself time away from the kids to like just let down, right, yeah, um. But I found it was getting more and more difficult. I I needed more time, and so I took a weekend job a couple years ago, um, just for two days, three days. And then this year I was given the opportunity to work full-time, and so we talked about it and he agreed and so I took a full-time position and then next year I might potentially be coming on this.
Speaker 2:This is Jeff, so oh so just because you're a stay-at-home mom does not mean you can't learn skills. That's what I can tell you now.
Speaker 1:That's true, that's absolutely true. Well, and you know your family, what you've done, and you know I know you and Jonathan have a thriving and wonderful relationship, because you're a queen.
Speaker 2:Thank you, you're going to have to put links up because I don't have them handy for you. But I have a Facebook page that I've nicknamed KP Confections because I wanted it to like be specific to food and candy. So it's kind of promised at KP Confections, specific to food and candy. So it's kaya's promise but kp confections, and so, um, kimberly can put up the links for that on the podcast stuff and then we do christmas presents through your is that the site I went?
Speaker 2:to anyway, yeah so kaya's promisecom is like our little square website, it's nothing fancy, it's just for selling the candy.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it's for donation collection if we have a need that has come out, that sort of thing. So if you follow us on Facebook and we like, hey, there's a family who needs help with X, y, z or whatever, or we're supporting this particular cause right now and you want to help out, just follow us on Facebook, you can tag along. I am not a person who is judgmental. I don't care if you give me any money at all. If you just follow and share and then people know about it and they feel impressed and they help, great. If this is not your opportunity to help, that's fine. Just being part of that community is helpful. So don't ever feel like I would be someone who would expect you to give every time I ask, because I don't give every time someone asks. You know, sometimes bills got to be paid.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, I just go with my heart and where my heart's at, and so, anyway, uh, so kaispromisecom is our website for selling of the candy. We are only going to be doing Christmas this year and so it's just a seasonal website, but I keep the name, and so KYASpromisedcom will get you to our candy sales. All of the profits are donated. I don't keep anything other than a few dollars to fill up my gas tank and pay for some groceries while we're in the middle of doing candy, um, and so if you're local to us, if you are following along, um that you're local cause, I'll share this on my page.
Speaker 2:We will have candy set up in Rathdrum, at the Umpqua Bank, through, uh, christmas Eve. They asked us to come back and set up a table. Uh, we did it last year, and that money supports a charity that they're supporting called Warm Hearts, which is for it helps people that are struggling to just take care of their basic needs during the winter months especially, and it's they say that most of the clientele they deal with are former foster kiddos and the mentally and physically disabled, and so that's why I was like, absolutely, I got to do it.
Speaker 2:And so anything you raise from the bank goes to that particular organization, but anything raised from the website will go towards some kiddos waiting to be adopted, and so we're going to donate to their grants and help them have a little extra money for their families to use to get the adoption finished.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, what a beautiful story for Christmas time. It really warms my heart and I just can't thank you enough for sharing some time to share your story, your family's journey, and just thank you for what you're doing to make the world a better place. You know I love you girl.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me. Let me cry all over you.
Speaker 1:Well, it's all, it's all good, they're good, they're good, they're good. Tears from the heart. So yeah, they're well-earned.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:All right honey.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having us, thanks for visiting, and it was wonderful to see you, even if you're not a redhead, that's right, I've been blonde now for quite a while. It's still weird for me.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Now, my normal color is more of a.
Speaker 1:I want that short, spiky redhead back. Yeah, you said I was Ronald McDonald. Oh, we've got to stop recording.