West Virginia couple overcome tragedy to give foster children hope

Culloden, West Virginia — It’s generally not socially acceptable to air a person’s dirty laundry. But in the case of foster mother Kari Cox of Culloden, West Virginia, the sheer volume of her daily load of laundry speaks volumes about her capacity for love. 

“She’s like Mother Theresa, almost,” one of her 14 children, most of whom were adopted, told CBS News. 

“My mom does 99.9% of the work, my dad does 0.1,” jokes another.

It’s a gross exaggeration for sure. But even Bill Cox, a special education teacher, admits that without his wife Kari, their children, many with special needs, would fall to pieces. 

Thirteen years ago, Kari and Bill adopted Maribeth from China.

“Very high-functioning autism,” Kari said of Maribeth. “Extremely black and white. The first time she saw me she said, ‘Oh, I didn’t know I was getting a fat mom!’ That was our relationship with each other, and it was actually phenomenal.”

Maribeth was doing great.

“She was valedictorian of her class,” beamed Kari. “She’d won tons of math awards.”

But then, tragedy struck. In 2021, while a senior at Marshal University in Huntington, Virginia, Maribeth was struck and killed by a car. For Kari, the pain of losing a child, especially in that way, convinced her to never adopt again.

“Why put yourself through that anymore?…Honestly, people that don’t have children don’t have to feel this pain,” Kari said.

However, Kari then stumbled on something that transformed her perspective.

“Maribeth changed us,” Kari said of her late daughter. “She changed us.”

When going through her things, Kari found a journal where Maribeth, who had never been effusive with her feelings, wrote this to herself: “God gave you what many may never have — a loving family that will always be here no matter what.”

Since reading that, Kari and Bill have taken in four more children, to give them 14 total.

“Their need was greater than my pain,” Kari said.

That’s the essence of a mother’s instinct, that unwavering selflessness that goes beyond the biological to create something truly divine.

Steve Hartman

Steve Hartman is a CBS News correspondent. He brings viewers moving stories from the unique people he meets in his weekly award-winning feature segment “On the Road.”