Generally speaking, it is not socially acceptable to reveal someone’s personal problems. However, the enormous amount of laundry Kari Cox, a foster mother from Culloden, West Virginia, does every day says a lot about her ability to love.
“She’s like Mother Theresa, almost,” one of her 14 children—the majority of whom were adopted—told.
Another joke goes, “My mom does 99.9% of the work, my dad does 0.1.”
It’s definitely a grotesque exaggeration. However, special education teacher Bill Cox acknowledges that his children, many of whom have special needs, would be in ruins if he didn’t have his wife Kari.
Maribeth was adopted from China thirteen years ago by Kari and Bill.
The prognosis for Maribeth was good.
“She was the valedictorian of her class,” Kari gushed into her ear. “She’d won tons of math awards.”
But then, a terrible event occurred. Maribeth was a senior undergraduate student at Marshal University in Huntington, Virginia, when she was struck and murdered by an automobile in the year 2021.
Kari’s decision to never adopt again was influenced by the anguish she felt after the loss of a child, particularly in such a manner.
“Why put yourself through that anymore?…Honestly, people that don’t have children don’t have to feel this pain,” Kari stated.
However, Kari eventually came upon something that caused her perspective to shift in a significant way.
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“Maribeth changed us,” Kari remarked of her late daughter. “Maribeth did that.” “She changed us.”
Kari discovered a notebook in which Maribeth, who had never been very expressive about her emotions, had written the following to herself: “God gave you what many may never have — a loving family that will always be here no matter what.” Kari discovered this journal while she was looking through her home.
After reading that, Kari and Bill have taken in four more children, bringing their total number of adopted children to fourteen.
Kari stated, “Their need was greater than my pain,” and she was right.
A mother’s instinct is that steadfast selflessness that goes beyond the biological to create something truly heavenly. This is the essence of what it means to be a mother.
