John Medlen and his wife Martha had no plans of adopting an orphan from Eastern Europe.

Now, it’s a journey they couldn’t imagine never taking.

Diana, who joined the Medlen family in Janurary of 2014, is now 16 years old and getting set to graduate from Brownsburg (Ind.) High School.

“We didn’t intend to adopt a child, but my wife had a dream and she was standing in front of God and my wife said he looked her right in the eye and said 'what have you done for me?,'” John said. “She said ‘What do you mean?’ He said 'what have done for my widows and orphans and people who don’t have what you have?'”

John said his wife woke up instantly and that morning she told him they needed to do something for someone they didn’t even know.

“She started looking around and found that in Eastern Europe children in orphanages there who have don’t have any family, twice a year are put out in the street basically,” John said. “My wife found a little girl and she called the adoption agency to see what we could do.”

According to John, the life Diana lived in Eastern Europe was unimaginable.

“She didn’t have any family and the police took her away from her mother when she was 6-years-old and at that age she was caring for her 2-month-old brother because her mother was an alcoholic. The police took her to one orphanage and took her brother to a different orphanage and she never saw her brother again. In 9 and half years in the orphanage she never had one visitor. She also never had a flushing toilet or a glass of milk until she got to the United States.”

Adopting Diana out of the Ukraine was a long and emotional process for the Medlens.

“My wife made four trips over there by herself and that is the most grueling trip, it's like you are in medieval times,” John said. “We wanted to give her a better life in the United States where she has better choices, but God knew more about us than we knew. He provided a joy through that little girl in our household that we have not seen since Eric passed away. She is everything that you would dream that a child would be.”

Eric Medlen, John’s son and a former John Force Racing driver, died on March 23, 2007 following an on-track crash at Gainesville, Fla., March 19.

“Diana wants to earn a living and she wants to earn her own way through college,” John said.

Enter the Midwest Technical Institute and the mikeroweWORKS Foundation.

These two entities have once again partnered to offer the 2014-2015 mrWF/MTI Scholarship. Established in 2013, the scholarship provides seven students at each of MTI’s campuses a 100 percent tuition free scholarship for one of MTI’s workforce courses or programs. To be eligible, applicants had to submit a 250 word essay and five minute video explaining the reasons they deserve to win a scholarship. Finalists will have their video entries posted to Facebook for public voting through May 4.

The following link is where people can go vote for Diana Medlen.

http://offerpop.com/FacebookContestEntry.psp?c=661282&u=1235502&a=486254294756872&p=491216310972831&rest=0&id=v50908&rest2.
To view this year’s finalists, select ‘View Entries.’ Winners will be announced on or about May 6.

“That scholarship would pay for Diana to go to beautician school,” John said. 
 
 
 
 

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