Ina Hoxha

Ina Hoxha knows what it is like to be alone.She has not seen her parents or sixteen-year-old brother in nearly four years.Few people can imagine the life Ina has lived.She grew up in communist Albania where the government electronically monitored every word spoken by its citizens-- even in their own homes. At sixteen she learned first-hand the horrors of the war in Kosovo.Deeply convicted to help those most affected by the war, Ina persuaded her parents to let her serve as a consular nurse with the Red Cross.She served in that capacity for almost eight months.During that time Ina learned, among other things, what it is like to have a child die in her arms.After returning home and extremely troubled by all she had experienced, Ina published her daily journal.With an Open Soul became a runaway bestseller in her homeland of Albania.Sales for the book totaled well in excess of $50,000. (Compare that amount with her parents' combined annual income of $360.) Not wanting to realize any personal financial gain from her journal, Ina took all the proceeds, combined them with her family's savings, and built a hospital and an orphanage for children of the war.Still reeling from these experiences, Ina came to the U.S. as a high school exchange student.After graduating from Morristown West, Ina made her way to Carson-Newman College where she is majoring in nursing.Her goal is to become a pediatrician treating hurting children anywhere in the world she is needed.Ina is now twenty.She is taking nineteen credit hours this semester.She volunteers ten hours a week as a Bonner Scholar.She works up to an additional twenty hours per week in a paid position on campus to support herself and pay for college.Ina is learning to live with the pain of her past.She is even learning to embrace her life story.As a new Christian who is excited about her faith, Ina now realizes she is in fact not alone on her journey.God is walking this road with her.

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