The Goodwins

You may notice the new “logo” in the top right corner of our blog.  It will be there for a while, but hopefully not TOO long. Let me tell you about it.

One of the first couples we met when moving to Saint Joseph, MI we met while we were in Iowa and they were in the Ukranie.

Four days before Ella was born, Sergei & Gillian Marchenko delivered their youngest daughter Polly in a hospital in the Ukraine.  We both learned at their births that our daughters have Down syndrome.  We “met” online through the Michiana Down Syndrome Support group.  Having another family who had a new daughter with Down syndrome was such a great blessing to Kirk and I when we moved, and we are so thankful for their support and friendship, and we discovered after moving that we were attending the same church!

Well, our amazing friends, who are now in Chicago where Sergi pastors a church in the Wrigleyville area, are adopting another little girl with Down syndrome from Eastern Europe.  Their newest little angel will be named, upon adoption, Evangeline¹. 

Evangeline turned two in October.  She is living in an orphanage and we hear she has grown to be a healthy, sweet, social little girl. Her adoptive paternal grandmother recently visited little Evangeline and I hear is enamored with her.

Children with DS in her country typically transition from the orphanage to an institution when they are four years old.  Devistatingly, a staggering number of children who are institutionalized in her country do not make it to adulthood².

Sergei and Gillian share that as soon as they saw Evangeline’s sweet face they knew she was meant to be their daughter. Their older daughters Elaina and Zoya are very excited about having another sister to love - even volunteering to do without Christmas presents to help bring Evangeline home to them!

International adoption is a huge financial obligation and the Marchenko’s have recently started a “fund raiser” asking those who can to donate $10 (or more) to Evangeline for Christmas.

I know money is tight and you all don’t know Sergei and Gillian personally, but this small gift will be the world to our friends, their family and little Evangeline.   If you would like to help bring Evangeline home to her new family you can donate online here through Reece’s Rainbow. Reece’s Rainbow has received their 501(3)c tax deductable status, so these contributions are deductable³.  See their website for more information. Alternatively, you can send a check⁴ to them at:

The Marchenko Family
c/o Reece’s Rainbow
PO Box 2055
Dacula, GA 30019

Whether you can or not donate, please keep this family and future newest member in your prayers!  Follow their adoption process at Expective Evangeline.

Gob Bless,
Kirk and Bonnie

1. Evangeline is Greek for “Angel” [↩]
2. Yes, I am intentionalmly being vague on the country to avoid potentially upsetting the country who’s controlling this adoption process [↩]
3. They qualify as a public charity under IRS code 170(b)(a)(A)(vi) [↩]
4. and save the Paypal fees [↩]

Ella got a nice present today from her Nana.  A new dolly that can take a bath with her.  She played and held the dolly, fed her the dolly’s bottle and then went and bathed with her.

We needed to change Ella’s bandages which was coupled with a lot of crying and screaming.  So much so that we had to put the arm restraints and “lock her in” behind the tray on her chair.

Of course this didn’t make her happy but it did allow us to get the bandages and headware on Ella.  After we were done I put a similar hat on her dolly which seemed to make her very happy.  I also topped the hat with one of the plastic tubes we use with Ella which seemed to make her extra happy.

The really good news is that Ella’s tube only has pretty clear “drips” in it which means hopefully our friend from our church can come over and help take the drainage tube out this weekend  After that we won’t have to put on anymore headware or bandages!

Bonnie says Ella had a very good day otherwise!

We’ll keep you updated!

Our little angel is in bed sleeping.¹
She was definitely happy to be home.  She’s still not completely happy, but her loving personality still comes through more and more.

She had a nice nap and was in good spirits when I got home from work around 6:00.  Bonnie was able to get to her Bible Study in time and Ella and I had a chance to play and play and play.

She played the piano, and didn’t let her dolly leave her side, or her dad.  She colored and drew, even though she was very, very tired.

There are a few more pictures up at ellagoodwin.com.   Bonnie is home now and we need to give Ella some more medicine so I’ll end this here.  God Bless and thanks for your continued prayers.

1. Hopefully she’ll stay down [↩]

Yes, we’re home.

Had an OK night last night.  A lot of fussing and crying from Ella before she finally went down, but slept soundly after finally going down.  In fact she was actually happy to go down when we put her down for the last time.

She woke up around 6 AM reasonably happy, but turned angry fairly quickly.  We gave her medicine, drink and food and she calmed down. We then got all the sheets, towels, etc washed so we could check out per the Ronald McDonald House requirements, got our car out of the hospital’s parking ramp, loaded up, checked out and finally got on the road around 9:30 CDT and headed for St. Joe.

We stopped at a McDonald’s drive through on the way and Ella gobbled down six chicken nuggets while on the road.  This is a great sign as she has never eaten more than four before.

We got home around 12:45 EDT, changed out Ella’s bandages,¹ gave her a present for being such a big girl,² replaced the tube connected to her drainage tube, and got her and her mommy off to a nap.

I got showered³ and made it into work around 2:00.

I think we’re over the hump.  Her drainage tube might be able to come out as early as Friday, but at least by Monday so we won’t need to due the daily head bandage changes after that!

We’ll see Dr. Bauer at least once more in Chicago to remove her sutures and possible go in before that⁴ to let him check her out.

I’ve got to cut this short now, but I’ll try to get a more detailed update⁵ up later tonight.

God Bless

1. She hates when we mess with her head bandages and expressed that emotion like a consummate professional today [↩]
2. A Little People farm set [↩]
3. I’m sure my colleagues will thank me for that as I was a bit ripe [↩]
4. Probably next week [↩]
5. And maybe pictures too? [↩]

Ella is awake and not crying!  Mom is back and feeling a bit more rested.

Ella is drinking her juice and eating her Cheerios.

Bonnie and I will likely order pizza.  Too bad Chicago isn’t known for its pizza….

We will be staying in Chicago tonight.  Just need to decide if it’s with Ella in the hospital or if we’ll take her back to the Ronald McDonald House as we can’t check out after 8 PM.

But it looks like we’ll be back in St. Joseph tomorrow.  Hopefully with a happy girl!

Our Little Ella woke up screaming.  It seemed like she had a nightmare.  We snuggled for 30 mins or so and she’s now fast asleep.

She’s now back fast asleep.  Hopefully it will last a while.  Of course I just had to take a picture or two of her.

I made the executive decision that a nightmare wake up didn’t count as actually waking up so I didn’t call Bonnie.  So please keep me in your prayer when she finds out.

We still are waiting to decide if we are leaving or not tonight, but leaning toward staying in Chicago.

Well, Ella is finally asleep.  She’s actually down in the bed without one of us hold her.  This give Bonnie a chance to head back to the Ronald McDonald House for a well deserved nap.  I’m sitting next to our sleeping beauty, who still is making those “after crying” sobs.  Hopefully she’ll stay down and Bonnie can get some sleep as the only way I could get her to leave is to promise to call her as soon as Ella wakes up.

Ella still hasn’t calmed down much.  She got about an hour or two of sleep between I and Bonnie holding her.  She woke up in a tizzy and cried on and off for pretty much two hours.  The nurse brought over some Codine, and unfortunately only had enough for Ella, so Bonnie and I will have to muddle through. Ella started to calm down a bit but still breaks out in tears periodically.

It looks like Ella’s next expansion round won’t start until next year, probably Feb. or March, but we’ll know more in a couple of weeks when Ella’ sutures will be removed.

Looks like there’s a good chance we’re staying here over night, but we probably won’t know that for sure for a couple more hours

We are with Ella in the post op area.  She’s extremely ticked off right now.  It’s hard, as she’s hardly ever mad.  But she’s definately mad now.

We will see how she does through the afternoon to see if we will take her home today or stay overnight in the hospital and head home tomorrow.

However, right now we are taking turns holding her.  As I type she’s finally starting to fall asleep in Bonnie’s arms.

Thanks again for your continued prayers.  We’ll keep you updated.

We also have pictures up of her after Post Op at ellagoodwin.com.

The surgeon tells us she did very well.  He was able to get a good chunk of the nevus, but is assuming that the next round of expansion will require two expanders due to the orientation of her mole (it’s right up against her ear) and the desire to keep the hair orientation as normal as possible.

We are heading to see her now.