The story behind one life at a time.
Knowing Hope did not begin with a plan. It began with a baby in an orphanage, a mother who could not look away, and a name that became a promise. This is the fuller story of how we got here – and why we keep going.
CHAPTER ONE
China found Cindy first
In 2002, Cindy Morrison, a pediatric occupational therapist from Massachusetts with experience working with children with developmental delays, life-threatening illness, and trauma, adopted her first daughter from Guangxi, China. She did not know then that this would be the beginning of a decades-long relationship with a country, its children, and its most vulnerable families.
Three years later, in 2005, she returned. Not just to adopt, though she would adopt again, but to serve. She began making regular volunteer trips to orphanages in Guangxi, teaching workers and foster mothers how to care for children with special needs. Not only their physical needs, but their emotional ones. She had seen, in her own clinical work, how much the emotional dimension of care mattered. She brought that conviction to China.
Over the following years, she returned again and again. She watched children thrive when given access to care. She watched others go without it. She kept showing up.
CHAPTER TWO
Five daughters. A family built across the world.
Between 2002 and 2014, Cindy adopted five daughters from Guangxi, China. Several came with significant medical diagnoses. Navigating their care – the hospitals, the specialists, the advocacy, the uncertainty gave Cindy a visceral understanding of what access to medical care actually means for a child’s life.
Katelyn
Adopted in 2002. The first connection to Guangxi and to the children waiting there.
Lianna
Met in 2005 on the first volunteer trip back to China. She was waiting for heart surgery and adopted 2006.
Mia and Hannah
Adopted in 2011 and 2013 with transfusion dependent thalassemia, deepening the understanding of health inequity.
Hope
Adopted 2014 with biliary atresia/end stage liver failure, transplanted at Boston Children’s Hospital, and namesake of everything that followed.
Each adoption deepened the connection to China and to the reality faced by children who age out of the orphanage or do not find a family. Cindy knew what her daughters’ lives might have looked like without access to care. She could not un-know it.
CHAPTER THree
A dying baby. A name. A miracle.
During a volunteer trip to China in 2014, Cindy met a seven-month-old baby in an orphanage. She had been diagnosed with biliary atresia, a life-threatening liver condition. As an orphan, she was ineligible for a transplant. She had, by most accounts, only a few months to live.
Then, against every expectation, a path opened. Cindy adopted her. She brought her to Boston Children’s Hospital. Hope received a lifesaving liver transplant in November 2015. She survived. She thrived. And the name that had felt like a prayer became the name of an organization.
Hope is not just Cindy’s daughter. She is the living proof that what Knowing Hope does matters: that a child who was given up for lost can, with the right care and the right people fighting for her, have a full and beautiful life.
CHAPTER Four
From one miracle to 200+ lives.
Knowing Hope Inc. was established as a registered 501(c)(3) in 2015, the same year Hope received her transplant. What began as one family’s response to one child’s need has grown into an organization that has served more than 200 children across Asia.
2002 First adoption: Cindy’s connection to Guangxi, China begins with her eldest daughter.
2005 First volunteer trips: Teaching orphanage workers and foster mothers across Guangxi how to care for children with special needs.
2011–13 Two daughters with thalassemia: Cindy’s understanding of health inequity deepens. She sees firsthand what children go without.
2014 Hope: A dying baby in a Guangxi orphanage earns her name. Cindy adopts her and brings her to Boston Children’s Hospital.
2015 Knowing Hope Inc. established: 501(c)(3) registration. Hope receives her liver transplant. The organization that bears her name begins its work.
Today 200+ children served: Blood transfusions, medications, surgeries, medical equipment, caregiver training, and family preservation support across Asia. One life at a time
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE MISSION
We are small. We are committed.
Cindy Morrison, MS OTR/L
Founder & Director
Pediatric occupational therapist with 31 years of clinical experience. Single mother of five daughters adopted from China. The driving force behind every child Knowing Hope has served.
Ellen & Nate Lowe
Co-founders
Alongside Cindy from the beginning, Ellen and Nate have been essential partners in building Knowing Hope into the organization it is today. Ellen, a pediatric nurse practitioner, continues to serve on the board of directors.
Every child deserves a chance.
Knowing Hope is a registered 501(c)(3). Your donation helps to provide medical care, supplies, and support for the children we serve in Asia.