Story Line B

Luda was able to have heart to heart talks with Nadia and Ruslan before we left so we got to know more of their story and more about them, too. It was hard to leave them behind. The first night he was with us, Andrew told our translator that he had a dream that Ruslan came to him and asked us to come back for him and bring him home, too. OK, Ok, we’re getting the message, but we needed to come home to America and be sure it was a wise decision and not just an emotional one. We talked about it a lot in the last few days and were leaning towards the idea of adopting them. We have been impressed by Andrew’s smooth transition into his life here in our family and think the other two will also fit right in. We saw them in enough contexts to know that they are responsible, intelligent and well behaved.

We thought it was a good sign that Nadia’s name is Russian for Hope, but we knew what to do when we discovered what Ruslan’s name means. Ruslan means “the lion” and is the Russian version of the Turkish name Aslan.

Those of you who have followed our journey on caringbridge know that we read the Chronicles of Narnia to Mary Evelyn in the last year of her life and that in the last weeks; we compared the way she was going to heaven with the children going to Narnia, except heaven is real and much better. That was a great comfort to her and she said, in her sweet innocence, that she wanted to meet Aslan. Her oncologist desrcibed the way the neuroblastoma would suddenly overtake her as "falling off a cliff" just on the day we read about a girl in Narnia who fell off a cliff, but was blown gently to safety by Aslan( as Mary Evelyn is in the painting). Narnia helped us all conceive of death as a continuation of life in a different, better yet unseen world, which is what it is. Later, at her visitation in the funeral home, Mark and I were surprised by the gift of a stuffed lion from a total stranger who didn’t that Narnia meant anything to us. It was like a sign that Mary Evelyn indeed had gone to “Narnia”. Now, we have been given the opportunity to adopt two more sweet children: Hope and Aslan.

We have contacted our adoption facilitators and started the process. Luda called Nadia to relay a message from us. After reading our letter to her, she told Nadia that if she changes her mind about being adopted, let her know. Nadia said, “You can ask me as many times as you want, but I will never change my mind. I want to go with them.”

Sometime in the next few months, we’ll be a big family with 5 kids: Thomas who is 27, Nadia is almost 16, Ruslan is 12, Andrew is 9 and sweet Mary Evelyn, who has moved beyond age, is with us in spirit and forever in our hearts.









PS I would've udpated sooner, but Andrew came downstairs for breakfast limping due to his bike accident and I spent all day taking him to the doctor, getting x-rays, etc just to find out he's fine. It was hard to bring him to ME's pediatrician, but the doctor is from Belarus and speaks Russian so I had to go there for Andrew's sake. We also went to Mary Evelyn's dentist, where I cried from overwrought emotions, but they were all kind and it was Ok.