Introducing Evangeline Sergeyevna Marchenko

Evangeline’s Adoption Montage here

Check it out!

We’re in Evie’s country!

Just wanted you to know that we made it to Evangeline’s country yesterday!  All is well and we have court tomorrow.

For more details and pictures you can check out Evie’s adoption blog.  But you’ll need an invite so either leave me a message or email me at gilllian@rcn.com.  I need your email address to invite you!

I can’t believe we’re here!  WOHOO!!

Thankful

Polly had her end of the year preschool assembly yesterday morning.  The youngest in the class, seemingly the most delayed, having only been a part of the group for less than two months, I was sure we were in for an interesting morning.

The announcement sent home the week before asked parents to come to the preschool award ceremony and to help say goodbye to the kids who are graduating to kindergarten.  Polly is in a blended pre-k, meaning that some students in her class have special needs and some don’t.  The other pre-k class in the school is geared only to kids with special needs. 

Polly sat with me but we sat up front, close to the class and close to her teacher, whom Polly loves, Mrs. B.  The classrooms of preschool students faced their families and sang ‘the wheels on the bus’ the ‘abc song’ and many many many more songs. 

There were two little girls in the front row with Down syndrome.  They looked to be maybe two years older than Polly.  Perhaps they were graduating?

Anyway, I was quite taken with these two girls.  I laughed at their giggles and smiled oozy smiles all over them throughout the assembly.  I tried to share the love, to notice what the other kids were doing too, but I only, really, had eyes for them.

That was Tuesday morning. the morning there was a chance that Evangeline’s country was going to vote on whether or not to halt international adoptions which could have quite possibly stopped our adoption.

As I sat there, hugging Polly, completely smitten by other children near me, most differently-abled but oh, so abled, I found myself pleading with God to bring Evie home. 

At that moment my love for her was fierce and my desire to parent her was undeniable.

I’ve come a long way in three years.  I grieved Polly’s Down syndrome deeply.  It took me a while to allow myself to fall in love with her.  I was scared of how she would function.  I thought of words like limitations and disability and delays.

At Polly’s school I was reminded once again how blessed I am to be Polly’s mom and how Down syndrome is not a scary thing to me at all anymore.  My heart thumped loudly in my chest as two dozen preschoolers sang ‘where is thumpkin?’ and I thought about how neat it will be to meet Evangeline and to help her along in this world.

Later that day we recieved an email saying that the vote never even made the docket that day in Evangeline’s country.  What a blessing!

I am saving up oozy smiles to meet her next week.

Our adoption blog is going private

Our adoption blog  is going private Monday and will stay private until we get back from Eastern Europe with Evangeline.

This blog will be updated a few times throughout the trip with general information.

So, if you’d like to follow our experience more closely, leave me a comment with your email address or email me at gillian@rcn.com and I’ll send you an invite.

We have about fifty people to invite now and I think, can invite 100 total, so sign up if you want.

Thanks!

I am the proud (?) owner of a silver Dodge Caravan

With our adoption near completion (we have a travel date!) it was time to address our car issues.

For over eight years we have been able to exist with children without a minivan.  But adding #4 to our family hasn’t left us many other options.

So yesterday, Sergei, Polly and I high-tailed it over to Car Max to trade in our Ford Escape for a new exciting minivan! (and yes, the excitement here is manufactured by an exclamation point).

While there we found a cute little Suzuki cross-over, a seven seater.  And alas!  It was the same price as the caravan we had picked out.  We test drove the cross-over and loved it.  It was hip.  It was red.  It wasn’t a van.

And then the salesman suggested we try Polly’s car seat in the cute cross-over to see how it worked.

Well, it didn’t.  We finagled, we pushed, we stuffed.  There was no way we could fit two car seats in one row and absolutely no way to easily get back to the third row seat if one toddler at there.

So with our shoulders down near our waists, we followed the salesman to his little cubicle to figure out the financing for the silver van.

Sergei is picking it up this afternoon.

But it’s big enough, has power doors which will help a lot with two little ones, and hey, it’s a car that meets the needs of the family.

I bet after I drive it with all the kids, I’ll love it.

Polly’s big girl bed

This was almost too easy!  Of course, she doesn’t realize she can get out all by herself.

She doesn’t know it yet, but Polly is doing well making room for her new sister!  She’s out of the high chair and has taken a giant step toward being out of the crib.

Sweet sleep…

A conversation with Polly at lunch

Me:  Hey, Polly, how was school?

Polly:  Good.

Me:  Did you go outside?

Polly:  No

Me:  Did you have music?

Polly:  No

Me:  Did you have gym? (I ask these questions every day)

Polly:  No!! (now she is yelling no)

Me:  Do you want to sing a song?

Polly:  yesh (that’s how she says yes).

Me:  Itsy Bitsy Spider?

Polly:  No

Me:  ABCs?

Polly:  No

Me:  Pink?  (So What!)

Polly:  YES!

“Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, I’m gonna start a fight”, I sing.

And Polly joins in on the word  ‘fight.’

What can I say?  Polly likes to live on the edge.  She’s an edgy chic!

Where did we go wrong?

Ha!

The windows are open…

I sit here tonight in my silent living room, the girls’ movement quieted upstairs, lights off, rest time.   Sergei out jogging, listening to a sermon, I’m sure.

The windows are open.  The glorious sunshine of the day set and forgotten; having done it’s duty honorably and with it’s push downward up springs a pleasant, breezy evening.  My street is alive with chatter as people happily pass the house walking home from work, while others make their way to meet friends for a drink.

I feel settled, coming into our third summer at this large gray house here in Chicago.

And although another cosmic shift in our minute lives is about to take place with the addition of  Marchenko #6, tonight I relish the feeling of peace.  I love the first nights of summer when we can keep the windows open.

This is the time of year for new beginnings, the leaves burst forth on trees and perennials spring up and we give an amicable nod to the last footprints of winter as we watch it walk out the door.  I love this time of year.  Before it’s too hot to just sit and enjoy the sounds outside.  Before the windows are slammed down and the air condition is cranked up.

The first nights of true summer…

Good adoption news!

Our dossier was submitted today in Evangeline’s country.  God willing, we’ll have a travel date early next week.

YIPPEE!!

A thought

I am the laziest person I know.

Granted, I am with myself the most and know myself quite well.

But still…