Just one experience can change your entire life. In the case of a Highlands Ranch couple, that experience was a trip to Romania.

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A Look Inside A Romanian Orphanage

They led a group of students to visit orphanages there but the children they met would change the course of their lives in a way they never imagined.

"Leaving those children crying, with bottles propped in their mouths. There's nothing I could do, that's really what started it all," said Kelli Nixon.

"They don't have anybody that loves them. There's no greater disability than not having love," said Bill Nixon.

The Nixons set out on a one-time adventure to a country they'd never visited.

"We had 14 students and us and we went for 17 days," said Bill Nixon.

Bill works at Colorado Christian University and helped establish the school's first trip to Romania. He arranged for the group to spend time with abandoned children, many with disabilities, many suffering years of severe neglect.

"I've never seen anything like it," Kelli said.

Kelli is a physical therapist at Children's Hospital.

She's helped countless children overcome obstacles and learn to use their bodies better. But nothing could have prepared her for what she'd see a half a world away.

"I almost just dashed out of there. I had a mixture of heartbreak, nausea," Kelli said.

She saw infants who were unable to walk and crawl, children who were desperate for attention, starving for affection.

"Seeing kids 7, 8, 9, 10, rocking back and forth with a glazed facial expression against a wall, not even acknowledging any movement or toys around them," said Kelli. "You go in and kids are crying out to be loved and you pick up babies and start loving on them."

For the Nixons, the need was overwhelming.

"You pick one up. This one crying over here, you pick him up. Now, your arms are full," Bill said.

And no time was wasted.

"I treat what I find. That's what I've always learned. (If they're) tight, I stretch them. Sit them up. Most of the kids with disabilities are stuck in a crib, all the time on their back or maybe their side," Kelli said.

The Nixons learned that the Romanian caregivers at the orphanages are understaffed and overworked. The children get only the minimum in care and no intimate contact.

"They probably get five to seven interactions a day, feeding and changing, and it's so fast," Kelli said.

The cycle of neglect continues as the children grow, many don't even know how to play.

"There's a 14-year-old boy and we gave him a ball. Didn't know what to do with it. Ball. Throw it on the ground real hard. Try to run and jump in your arms ... 14, as tall as me," she said.

The couple's attachment to the children was quick and permanent and leaving was painful.

"I cried so hard. The deepest sadness I've ever felt," Kelli said.

"It felt like the first time in my life that I ever did anything worth while," Bill said.

Back home in Colorado, there was one thought they couldn't get out of their heads. Unlike the children with disabilities they'd worked with here, those in Romania don't have parents and almost never experience love.

"We're selling everything, we won't come back to anything accept starting fresh , which is great," Kelli said. "If it was this past April (I'd say), 'No, I'll never live in a foreign country and do mission work, volunteer work, that's not me.'"

Must next April Kelli and Bill are hoping to move to Romania. They've tried to talk each other out of it.

"It's not clean. There's no ice. If you want a cold drink it doesn't exist," Bill said.

But they always come back to the same conclusion.

"These little babies still have hope. They don't have to turn out like these other children if they're interacted with, if somebody does love them. And until they can get into a family that loves them, somebody else needs to do it," Kelli said.

Kelly and Bill hope to leave for Romania in April 2004 and will stay as long as there is a need. Unfortunately, aid such as clothing, diapers, and toys sent to these children is often stolen by goverment workers.

So the best way for you to help is through direct financial support of missions like Bill and Kelly's. That way, the kids are assured of the money being spent on them.

To learn more about their trip you can call (720) 887-4673 or through LoveAChild.org

You can contribute money to support the Nixon's living expenses or you can donate items from their needs list.

You can mail support directly to:
Global Hope
PO Box 1052
Broomfield, CO 80038-1052
*Please make tax-deductible checks to Global Hope and write "The Nixon's" in the memo line.