A Military Wife's Biography - Renee Garcia

We are continuing the series of biographies on the ladies in leadership of The Lantern. If you missed last week's post, be sure to go check out Mya's biography here. We hope you are enjoying these weekly features!

Renee Garcia

My name is Renee Garcia, I am 31 and have been married to my husband Frank for 11 years. We have 5 beautiful children: Kassidy, Kameron, Kennedy, Keeghan and Kellsey.

I grew up in Southern California with my mom, dad and a little brother. I went to Christian schools my whole life, 1 for elementary, 1 for middle and high school, and 1 for college. I think this was a very good thing for me. I grew up with a strong foundation in the Lord, knowing that He was there, no matter what. Even though there were times as a kid that I thought I didn't need Him, that knowledge would get me through some very dark days ahead.

In college I met my husband Frank. We dated for a year and then got married the December of my Sophomore year. About 2 months later, we found out that our daughter Kassidy was on her way! Thus began family life! In 2001 our second child was born, a son, Kameron. After a couple years of job hopping, Frank began looking into joining the military. He talked to an Army recruiter and after much prayer, he signed up in February 2003 and left for boot camp.

That same year we became pregnant with our 3rd child, Kennedy. The kids and I stayed in California with my mom while Frank deployed for the first time with his new unit here at Fort Campbell. My pregnancy went great! I was excited for Frank to get home so we could all move to Tennessee, get settled and meet our new daughter!

May 16, 2004... We had lived in Tennessee for a few months. We were getting settled, making friends, still church hunting, but overall very happy with where we were. And I went into labor. I've always heard people say that there is a moment in time that you can break your life into two: before and after. I have two. This was the first. We arrived at the hospital ready to have a baby! Excited to do this for the 3rd time! We got through the labor and delivery, got through the first few hours, and then a doctor came into our room and said the words we will never forget: "Mr. and Mrs. Garcia, we have reason to believe your daughter has Down syndrome." And our world crumbled.

We went through so many emotions after that... fear, sorrow, anger... anger at ourselves (did we do something wrong?) and at God. How could He let this happen to our beautiful daughter? Slowly though, we emerged. Armed with information about our new baby girl and our Lord guiding the way, we entered into the world of Early Intervention and the different therapies she needed to thrive. In time God clearly showed us His plan for Kennedy's life and our lives as we faced different issues with her. Because of Kennedy we grew closer as a family and closer in our walk with God. We learned we had to lean on HIM for all things.

Frank deployed for the second time to Iraq in 2005/2006. My mom moved here during that time to be near us. In 2007 I had the second defining moment in my life... Kennedy was diagnosed with Leukemia. Cancer is this scary thing that you always hear about happening to other people. It is something that you are notified about on church prayer chains, or something that you see people raising money for or doing a walk for, but it's not something that happens to your child... especially your beautiful 2 year old daughter who's been through so much already. But there we were... sitting on the oncology wing of Vanderbilt Children's Hospital talking about chemotherapy; and a few weeks later we were getting her long blonde hair cut because it was falling out so fast it was getting in her food... Our daughter had cancer.

And God was there. Every step of the way. He was there in the nurses' smiles... and He was there in the thousands and thousands of cards that we received... and in the prayers that went up on Kennedy's behalf... and He was there when I prayed... but most importantly He was there late at night when I was laying in her hospital room, alone with my thoughts, scared out of my mind that I was going to lose this beautiful girl He had given me WAY too soon, fully realizing that she's not mine to begin with, and begging Him to let me keep her just a little longer. He was there. And He heard my cry.

During Kennedy's chemo, our 4th child, a son, Keeghan was born. We thought this completed our family. Kennedy went into remission, finished her chemo, and we moved on with life... never forgetting the many lessons we learned as part of the "cancer world". A month later, Frank deployed for the 3rd time, this time to Afghanistan. During this deployment we found out that Kennedy needed spine fusion surgery. With the help of his unit, great doctors and some fine tuned planning, we were able to do it during his R&R, which they extended so he could be home until she was stable. He went back to Afghanistan, leaving Kennedy in a halo for several weeks afterwards. And then, not long after, God called us to adopt. Seriously.

We were made aware of children with Down syndrome in other countries who are put into orphanages at birth. Then, at age 4 or 5 they are transferred to institutions, left tied to cribs with little food, no interaction, no medical care... until they eventually die. It broke our hearts. We started out promoting an organization who was helping families here in the U.S. adopt kids there. We wanted to raise awareness, we wanted people to understand what was happening. We wanted to help. Then we found her... this amazing little girl. And God tugged at our hearts. So we committed to be her prayer warriors. And oh how we prayed. We prayed that she would find her "forever family"... that someone would bring her home! We printed a picture of her and taped it to our refrigerator. We helped raise money for her account. And God tugged at our hearts. And finally, Frank, who was still in Afghanistan, said, "I think we should adopt her!" And I said, "You're crazy!" And he asked, "Why?" And I said, "Because we have 4 children... we already have 1 with Down syndrome..." and in my heart, the fear side of me was thinking, "and what if she gets leukemia?!" And he said, "So what's one more? We know Down syndrome..." and reading my thoughts he added, "and we know leukemia." And God tugged at my heart.

Then one day I saw her picture on another blog... THEY were thinking about maybe possibly adopting her. And my heart dropped. And I shouted, "NO! She's MY daughter!" That's when it hit me, "OH! She's my daughter!" So, God won. And on Thanksgiving night, 2008 we committed to adopt Kellsey from Ukraine. After a long, long, long process and one crazy trip overseas, she came home to us on December 5, 2009. She is fitting in beautifully and God is showing me, once again that just maybe He knows best!

So here we sit... still at Fort Campbell 6 years later, blessed beyond belief with our 5 amazing children... gearing up for deployment number four really soon, but SO thankful... for my life here, my family, my church and my Lord... for I know not what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future.