Long-lasting legacy: Mia's Fund delivers hope and assistance to adoption seekers - Daily Tribune News

By MARIE NESMITH

In the days immediately following his daughter’s death, Mark Jordan was enveloped by grief, only to receive a lifeline from his “dear” one’s handwriting. Her whimsical drawing of a sun and attempt at spelling her name were discovered in a birthday card to her good friend, Lily.

When Jordan saw she transposed the letters of her name — “IAM” instead of Mia — he was reminded of the Bible verse John 8:12, where Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

“That verse perfectly stated the place I was in my own faith walk,” said Jordan, a former resident of Cartersville. “I felt darkness in my world, but I knew that Jesus was the light of life. I prayed constantly that I could experience the Lord’s light in my own personal darkness.

“The 23rd Psalm reflects about walking through the valley of the shadow of death. I was. My entire family was. So I looked for the light, knowing there cannot be a shadow without it. Looking for the light helped keep me focused on Mia’s life as opposed to her death, and the responsibility I had for proclaiming God’s hope in the midst of my grief.”

Mia’s drawing and name mishap are taking on new meaning as time passes. Today, which marks the one-year-anniversary of her death, Mia’s artwork is helping other orphaned children receive hope for a forever family and a new life. To carry on their adopted daughter’s legacy, the Jordans — Mark and Tiffany and their 18-year-old son, Ethan — are helping LIVE2540 promote Mia’s Fund.

Launched Aug. 4, the nonprofit’s program is providing financial assistance to those seeking adoption internationally. To support Mia’s Fund, LIVE2540 is accepting donations and selling T-shirts and stickers online and at its downtown Cartersville store.

In a touching gesture, LIVE2540’s founder and CEO, Daryl Roberts, agreed to incorporate Mia’s artwork into the overall design of the featured items. The sticker showcases her yellow sun and handwritten purple IAM, and the blue T-shirts incorporate both as well. The items came to life with the creative team at Lara J Designs, which included Ethan.

“From the stickers to the T-shirts, my heart swells with pride knowing the artwork came first from Mia’s hand, and further developed by Ethan’s,” Jordan said, adding his son is employed part time at Lara J Designs in Cartersville. “It also means more to me than I can express that the LIVE2540 team allowed us to have such creative input for this ministry.”

Along with embracing the opportunity to wear the Mia’s Fund T-shirts, Jordan noted his daughter’s artwork is a vital component of his everyday life.

“I have one of the stickers on my office door and a scanned copy of that birthday card hanging above the light switch in my office,” he said. “I also have the same design tattooed on my left shoulder so it is always with me.

“Now, whenever I don one of the Mia’s Fund shirts, which I do a couple times a week, I do so with great fatherly pride that both of my children had a fundamental role in it. As I see so many people in our church and community wearing them, it also assures Tiffany and me that our pledge to keep Mia’s legacy alive is being lived out daily.”

With a heart for adoption, the Jordans embarked on the journey to further expand their family following miscarriages and infertility struggles. Through Lifeline’s China Program, the couple agreed to care for a special needs child. 

“I think the best way to describe our story with Mia in our lives is a love story,” Jordan said, adding Mia means “dear” one in Italian. “Prior to her adoption, she never knew the love of family. She received minimal nurturing in China, but she did not know parental love.

“On Mia’s Gotcha Day, her caregivers from the orphanage placed her first in Tiffany’s arms and called her, ‘mama.’ Mia looked so confused and unsure. I then took her and they called me, ‘bàba,’ meaning, daddy. We were family by God’s grace, but we did not know each other and certainly had no idea what was to come.”

In August 2015, the Jordans were introduced to Mia, a scared 3-year-old who was living with hydrocephalus at a Chinese orphanage.

“She was severely delayed developmentally, due in part to her medical needs and being in an orphanage,” he said. “She was extremely timid and frightened, though she had a magic little sparkle about her.

“She had an appetite that was unbelievable, but she became fretful when it was time to sleep. She did not walk and was noncommunicative, even in Mandarin.” 

Mia’s adoption was finalized in China Aug. 25, 2015, and she became an American citizen when she arrived in the states Sept. 4, 2015. Throughout the process, any change in Mia’s surroundings “became problematic” for her, Jordan shared.

“Our relationship with trust began to galvanize a month after we brought Mia home,” he said, adding they were unaware in the beginning she was likely to experience epileptic seizures. “Mia had her first major seizure and required hospitalization. It was then we worked toward an epilepsy diagnosis. To that point — and ultimately throughout her life — hydrocephalus was not an issue. Mia had two brain surgeries while in China to place a shunt that kept her hydrocephalus in check.

“Hydrocephalus, simply put, is extra fluid on the brain. The spacing between the parts in Mia’s brain were estimated by her neurosurgeon to be about three times larger than normal. The shunt helped drain the excess fluid off of her brain and out of her body via her digestive track.”

As Jordan noted, his daughter’s first seizure — one month after her arrival in Cartersville — was a difficult experience for all involved.

“Mia seemed to have some recollection of being in [the] hospital in China, which left her terrified,” he said. “Whereas previously she could be timid when afraid, she acted out very wildly and violently in the hospital. Like a cornered animal, she was poised to attack preemptively, I supposed in hopes of preventing an attack.

“It was frightening for all of us. During that three-day hospitalization, though, her medical team began to find ways to treat her and support us. When we finally went home, Mia seemed to have a breakthrough of trust.”

Walking through her house, she was relieved to see her bed, toys and snacks were intact, remaining in the spots she left them. 

“The awareness, and development, of love in her life changed her entirely,” Jordan, 45, said. “She learned to love her mommy, brother and me all uniquely and individually. We had a relationship. We weren’t just caregivers, we were family.

“The importance of country of origin and ethnic features faded as we did life together. There were times when it was so hard, but we look back and see the blessing of love we got to share and carry with us still today.”

After she was diagnosed with epilepsy July 4, 2016, Mia’s doctors determined she was autistic six months later.

Even though she had taken her first step prior to the adoption, Mia started walking completely on her own with her parents’ encouragement at 3. She expressed her thoughts to others, but up until her death she communicated by forming sentences constructed with a few words, grunts and hand gestures. 

“Watching Mia blossom and grow in many ways was the payoff for the struggles she faced with her health,” Jordan said. “As I alluded to earlier, Mia’s medical issues helped us reach milestones and achieve breakthroughs. Unsolicited hugs and snuggles were scarce the first year, but became daily treats.

“She fought sleep for the longest time, but grew to look forward to her lullabies, which she often accompanied us in singing. Even some of the milestones that came late in life for her – like walking and toilet training – became major times of celebration. We learned not to take some of those things for granted and cherish every little one.”

Along with loving her family, Jordan said Mia adored her pets, church and going to school at Cartersville Primary School.

“As Mia learned love and trust, she was able to show affection for things other than just the people in her lives,” he said. “She loved our pets. She loved her clothes. She loved her school.

“She made friends, especially Lily from her church. She loved to sing and dance. She loved to take selfies with Snapchat features with her mommy. She loved to grab our 1-pound dumbbells and exercise with me.”

Echoing her husband’s comments, Mrs. Jordan also considers watching Mia “bloom through her milestones” to be “one of the greatest joys” of her life. Looking back, she remembers her daughter’s humor and passion for entertaining others.

“We were unsure how much Mia would be able to communicate or express affection with her autism diagnosis,” she said. “It honestly did not hold her back. Yes, she would have fits of anger and frustration, but I know it came from a place of wanting to connect with us. 

“I think one of Mia’s greatest personality traits was her sense of humor. She could do funny things just by accident, but she also knew how to put on a show. She would make funny faces and use funny voices to let us know she was trying to make us laugh, and laugh we did. Some of my favorite family times were in the evenings listening to music, and watching her sing and dance.”

On Aug. 16, 2019 at the age of 7, Mia’s life was cut short as she died in her sleep from a catastrophic epileptic event. After discovering she was unresponsive in the morning, Jordan performed CPR on his daughter until first responders arrived. In their home and at the hospital, he shared medical professionals tried to revive Mia for nearly an hour.

“We look back on pictures from the last eight or so months of her life, and we could see in her eyes that she felt badly,” Jordan said. “People would often see the toll it took on us, hear about the mounting medical bills and unrelenting schedule of doctor’s visits and therapy appointments and ask us if we knew then what we knew now, would we have done it.

“I get the intent of the question. We wanted to grow our family and help an at-risk child, and in so doing, we invited quite a bit of suffering and strife into our home and hearts. It might be difficult from the outside looking in to ascertain if it was worth it. The answer was then, and always will be, yes. And an enthusiastic ‘yes’ at that.”

Now the lead pastor of Hope Church in Dallas, Jordan adopted Mia and learned about LIVE2540 when he was serving in Bartow. He was appointed as the lead pastor of Cartersville’s Church at the Well in 2016 and later became the teaching pastor when the church merged with Trinity United Methodist.

“We are thoroughly humbled that LIVE2540 is honoring Mia in this way,” Jordan said. “Shortly after her death, Tiffany and I dedicated our lives to making sure Mia was not forgotten. We were naturally devastated, and reflected about how we had our pets with us longer than our daughter. We saw the power of transforming love in Mia’s life, not to mention our own.

“We prayed that we would be able to find a way to not only memorialize Mia, but provide hope and help for children like her. As soon as Daryl shared his vision and Mia’s Fund came to be, we were thrilled that there was a way not only to share her story and keep her memory alive, but to pave a way for other children to know the love of family.”

Spearheaded by Roberts, LIVE2540 — formerly known as Orphan Aid, Liberia — was established in 2008 through the Cartersville-based nonprofit Medical Missions Unlimited Inc.

He was inspired to improve the lives of orphaned children after initially meeting the youngsters on a 10-day mission trip to the village of Balama. Many of the 19-month- to 19-year-olds were still struggling to regain a sense of normalcy after witnessing the death of their parents during the country's civil wars that ended in 2003.

“The work with those few children would grow into millions of meals for so many children,” said Jacob Burson, LIVE2540’s growth director. “Education, mass deworming and medicine distribution, construction of our school, dorms and chicken houses, vision clinics, solar audio Bibles, over 40 staff, beautiful friendships, many missionary partnerships and so much more in Liberia. The support and missional work of LIVE2540 has expanded to the Philippines, Ecuador, Burkina Faso and here locally in Bartow County.”

As Burson noted, the organization’s name change reflects its growth over the years, now supporting outreach projects in different countries and back home in Bartow. LIVE2540 refers to Matthew 25:40: “The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'”

“As LIVE2540 expanded our missional programs and capabilities, we considered areas of work where we knew there was opportunity to have impact,” Burson said. “Through our work in Liberia, we have developed relationships with numerous missionaries who are doing amazing work in country. Many of them have become good friends and partners in mission. Some of these friends were pursuing adoption, which has great financial cost.

“Those costs are high for anyone and especially for folks serving in the dirt in hard places on really tight budgets. Through these relationships and hearing their stories, we have felt led to provide funding assistance for their adoptions. As an organization, we have always had a heart for adoption and as we have been assisting other families felt it was time to formalize and commit to the creation of an adoption assistance fund.”

While Mia’s Fund initially will support international adoptions in Liberia, Burson said the future plan is to broaden its scope.

“Due to the nature of our work, we are in country regularly, have Liberians on the LIVE2540 team and have built relationships with other mission workers in Liberia who are pursuing adoption,” he said. “Due to our direct connection to their stories and their needs, together we find the most effective ways to support them financially with their adoption process.

“We have many Liberian relationships that can help with the process and this is one reason why we are currently assisting with those adoptions. We certainly are not closed off to expanding the program and it’s definitely part of the future plan of Mia’s Fund.”

Pleased with the response so far, Burson encourages the public to support Mia’s Fund by purchasing stickers and T-shirts online at thebestshirtonearth.com and at LIVE2540’s LOVE store, 24 E. Church St., under the Church Street bridge. The shop is known for its LOVE. T-shirts, which have funded more than 3 million meals around the globe.

“The sale of each LOVE. tee provides 36 meals for our kiddos,” Burson said. “Millions of meals have been provided and distributed because of the LOVE. tees. It’s our dream that the Mia’s Fund LOVE. tee is a catalyst to help many families become forever homes for many children who have been orphaned.

“We are very grateful for the experience and willingness of the Jordan family to continue to fight for the orphans. They have been through so much and for them to keep up that fight and to watch her story continue has been a true blessing to witness.”

With Mia’s Fund, Jordan noted LIVE2540 has provided the community a “dynamic way” to support the “familyless.”

“From purchasing a sticker, buying a shirt or some other item from the LOVE store, to other donations and manners of support, people in our community and throughout creation have a unique ability to take up the cause of orphans,” he said. “Something that might seem relatively simple can have a dramatic impact to change a child’s world and give that child’s life an opportunity to change the world.”

Further details about Mia’s Fund can be found at https://ift.tt/3gWbJfj.

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