The first time Danielle Muzzey met her daughter, Stella was like a feral cat.
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The nine-year-old Ukrainian did not want to be held or even touched, swiftly removing Muzzey’s and her husband’s hands every time they landed softly on her bruised skin.
Muzzey took a deep breath. Was this what she had come all the way from Florida for? To adopt two institutionalized daughters with Down Syndrome from the other side of the world but be rejected by one who barely tipped the scales past 30 pounds?
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“Then we found the secret: Stella was very sensory-deprived,” Muzzey says. “So if we let her hold onto our hands and rock back and forth, she would do this the entire visit, every visit.”
Two years after her homecoming, Stella is a different girl. If she were a cat, it would no longer be feral; it would be a sleek-coated tabby that loves to be held and played with.
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“I remember saying, ‘I can’t wait for her to make a mess and get into something!’” says Muzzey. “Now, she is so attached to us and has learned to clear off a table and empty a box.” |
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Muzzey and her husband Nick, already parents to five children, became interested in international special needs adoption after following other families’ adoption stories. She stumbled onto Reece’s Rainbow's Facebook page and quickly became addicted.
“All the kiddos melted my heart,” Muzzey explains. She began advocating for several children ― and then she saw Stella. The girl was six years old yet laying in a baby bouncer, and her face was bruised. The mother-heart that had just melted for the abandoned now cracked and then shattered with astounding ferocity.
Muzzey began praying for Stella’s adoptive family to step forward. And they did ― more than one, in fact. Yet each had to back out for various reasons, making Muzzey’s heart race with anxiety. Stella’s stay in her Ukrainian baby house couldn’t last forever, but if she left, it would be to a death-sentence adult institution.
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The Muzzeys couldn’t adopt her, Danielle told herself. They already had five children, most of them grown, and the couple was in their 40s. She was a stay-at-home mom and Nick was an automotive technician, professions not known for rolling in green. Could they start all over with a new child?
It turns out they could ― times two.
The Muzzeys eventually decided to adopt not only Stella but also Masha, a 12-year-old girl who had Down Syndrome, too. “Masha was so full of love and potential despite everything she had been through,” her new mother says. “We knew she deserved a chance and a family.”
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Masha immediately embraced the chance at a new life, declaring upon first her meeting her adoptive parents that she liked sausage, hated fish and wanted to go to school. The Muzzeys would happily comply with all three demands. “Masha was sweet and lovable from the first moment,” Muzzey says.
So after two trips ― both hampered and expedited by Covid restrictions ― the Muzzeys brought Masha and Stella home to Florida in 2020. The couple quickly got to work on their new daughters’ medical care, especially Stella’s. She desperately needed a G-tube for feeding, but the local hospital refused; Covid, they insisted, was too dangerous.
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So for four months, Muzzey inserted a tube down Stella’s throat five times a day to keep her alive. Feral cat, indeed! Even after the G-tube was placed, Stella stumped everyone by staying small.
“We have been to specialists and had tests upon tests with no answers as to why she still has no growth,” Muzzey explains. “So we have accepted that she is a medical mystery at this point.”
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And yet, so many changes, and such deep joy! Despite Stella’s continuing physical challenges ― she cannot yet walk at age 11, among other things ― Muzzey calls her youngest daughter “perfection.”
“No one could ever be sad when Stella is around,” she says. Masha, meanwhile, is a 14-year-old beauty blossoming into young womanhood. She has chores, makes the entire household laugh, assists with dinner and laundry and handily completes 300-piece puzzles on her own. Masha is going places, Muzzey says, and she and Nick can’t wait to see exactly where.
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It might not have happened without Reece’s Rainbow, Muzzey muses. Would she have witnessed Masha’s antics or Stella’s joy in simple things had she not followed other families’ adoption journeys straight to the nonprofit’s website?
Muzzey darts away from the thought, not wanting it to hold or even touch her bruised ― and bursting ― heart.
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“Reece’s Rainbow is the reason I have my girls,” she says. “Such an amazing organization.” |
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Crystal Kupper is a freelance writer specializing in magazines and special projects. Since earning her journalism degree, she has written for clients such as Zondervan, Focus on the Family and the Salvation Army, among many others. |
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REECE'S RAINBOW | www.reecesrainbow.org |
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