COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Inside the Janus home in Colorado Springs you'll quickly learn music is a big part of their family. Dad, Ryan Janus, is part of the U.S. Air Force Academy Band and encourages his newly adopted 17-year-old son, Jose, to find his own rhythm with instruments and within their family.
It's a blended family of now six children for Ryan and his wife Melanie. The former single mom of three had already given birth to one boy with Down syndrome and the couple knew they wanted to adopt another child with Down syndrome, too.
"It was kind of like well, wouldn't it be nice if we had a basically a permanent playmate," Ryan explained.
Melanie had heard about the non-profit RODS Heroes. Their mission: to help families adopt children with Down syndrome or other unique circumstances.
Melanie had been looking on the RODS Heroes website and saw Jose. Click here to see waiting children.
"Right when I saw his face I knew he was he was the one we needed to go for," she said.
A few days after Melanie submitted the adoption application, she learned Jose had just been matched with another family.
"All I could ask was, 'Does it ever fall through?' And she said, 'Not usually.' And I said, 'Oh, well, please watch and if something does fall through, please call me back. I want him. We want him in our family.'"
Two weeks later, she got a call the adoption fell through.
I said, 'Then get our stuff started,' and we went from there."
In the meantime, the couple learned Spanish, received two large grants toward adoption costs, and created a picture album to send to Jose to help him learn about his new family waiting for him in the United States. Last August they finally met, Jose running into his father's arms.
"(Jose) jumped up, gave me a giant hug, and would not release me for the entire rest of the day," said Ryan. "I could not use the bathroom by myself. That whole day he would not let me out of his sight."
Getting to that point was costly. The couple learned the average international adoption cost is $50,000. RODS Heroes helped pay for much of that. Founder Brady Murray and his wife created the non-profit a few years after their son was born with Down syndrome.
"We started this organization in 2012 when my wife challenged me to do an Ironman Triathlon to help a child that has Down syndrome get a family," Murray said. "I reluctantly accepted that challenge and through a series of miraculous events found myself running that year in the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. My story, our story, was featured on NBC that year and so I had many people reach out that were racers, that were triathletes, saying they want to help, they want to get involved, and that's where the idea started of creating an organization with the name of "Racing for Orphans with Down Syndrome," or in other words, RODS."
At 5 years old, Jose was one of the first children they advocated for in South America. That was in 2013 but a decade went by and Jose still did not have a family to call his own.
"I just could not piece it together and understand why we could not find Jose his family," Murray said. "We had amazing press and media coverage. We had raised an adoption grant that was nearly $20,000."
Part of that money came in more than ten years ago from a 7-year-old girl named Brooklyn McKenzie. She had been selling homemade jam to help save money for a trip for her family to Disneyland, but when she learned about Jose's story she handed over the $562 she raised for the trip to RODS Heroes instead.
"I was like, 'I want to raise money to help him,'" Brooklyn said.
This past March Brooklyn and Jose met for the first time.
"When she met him, they were like besties," said Brooklyn's mom Melanie. "He would just grab onto her, and love on her, and hug her, and give her hand kisses."
To make their connection even sweeter they found out a donor, Big D Construction in Utah, is sending both families on a trip to Disneyland this summer for free, a wish more than a decade in the making.
"Everyone can make a difference, no matter who you are, what you're doing with your life," Brooklyn said.
Click here for more information about the adoption process through RODS Heroes.
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