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 Ukraine.

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 Bonnie 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. Devastatingly, 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 deductible status, so these contributions are deductible³. 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 Expecting Evangeline.

God Bless,
Kirk and Bonnie

1. Evangeline is Greek for “Angel” [↩]
2. Yes, I am intentionally 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 [↩]

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 [↩]

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.

Ella’s 350 ml expander has 484 ml of saline since last Saturday.  That means she has over 17 ounces or nearly 1.1 lbs in her head which is over 5% of her body weight.

Ella’s in great spirits.  We’ve been talking about saying “bye bye” to her bubble which seems to please her.  Of course, it’s hard to explain that a second bubble will be coming, as well as two to three more surgeries.  The surgeon tells us that he’ll decide tomorrow during surgery if the front expander can be put in or not.  If it’s not put in, it may be as long as October until the front implant is put in to her forehead area.  We also found out in June that Ella will need corrective surgery as her eyes are crossing.

We came over late this afternoon and checked into the Ronald McDonald House.  I was able to get a quick bite to eat as Bonnie and Ella had McDonald’s on the way over and I had a late lunch after working until about 2 PM before coming home to eat.  Ella wasn’t really hungry, but had to eat a bit with daddy anyway.

She had a grand time getting a new bear and toy (a race car that SHE picked out), finding a really LARGE bear, and an even bigger dog, exploring the play room, playing video games, and bathing in the oversized tub.  She watched some Veggietales, read  a book with Mom and Dad and went down surprisingly easy.

Of course, she very well could be upstairs crying for Mom as I’m downstairs finding the wireless connection here.  Amazing how you can be tethered by wireless. But nothing seems to be holding Ella down right now.

Ella’s surgery is scheduled for 7:30 AM CST.  We are planning on heading over the Children’s Memorial from the Ronald McDonald House around 6:15 AM.  As Ella JUST went down and is not to have food after midnight or water after 4 AM, it might be a hard morning if the surgery is delayed.  That was a hard thing for her before the last surgery, which wasn’t until almost noon, as she was showing us every food sign she could think of and we were ignoring them.

That’s about all.  We put pictures up from today at ellagoodwin.com and will try to keep everyone updated here.

Thank you for all your continued prayers and God Bless!

Yesterday was a long day.

We left the sunny shores of Saint Joseph, MI around 7 AM EDT (6 AM CDT) and headed to the windy city of Chicago.

At first, Ella was excited about going for a ride in the car, mainly because of the DVD player in front of her car seat where VeggieTales plays.

However, as soon as we reached the doctor’s office around 8:30 CDT, she wasn’t as thrilled. We were able to calm her with by reading to her while waiting. She’s very into making sure at least either her dolly or bear is included (preferably both) in the reading.

The nurses and resident ran Ella through the pre-op workup (although she was much more interested in playing). They were nice enough to do most of the workup in the waiting room as we were the only ones there and Ella remembers the back rooms in less than favorable light.

We then headed over to the hospital around 10:00 CDT to check in for her emergency surgery to remove the expander that was behind the failed sutures and some of the nevus in the area of the failed sutures. Bonnie slept little to none the night prior but made it through the day without nodding (except for prayer) once. Ella recognized the pre-op area and began crying.

Her room had a bed and a TV which helped a bit, and we were able to calm her down with distraction and book reading.

However, the real thing that helped distract and calm Ella was her dolly. She played with Dolly for some time. She liked to pretend that she was “Mommy Ella” was taking care of Dolly’s dirty diaper. She was very interested in acting like Dolly needed help, not Ella. I’m sure it’s a transference of the needs of Ella to Dolly but it was very fun to watch her as she was very cute around, and protective of, Dolly.

After cleaning Dolly’s diaper, Ella read to Dolly, insisting that Daddy had to hold Dolly up so Ella could read the book to Dolly.

She also played with some of the toys at the pre-op area, which was nice that they provided.

However, after a while she grew tired and we turned to old reliable. She zoned to VeggieTales until time to give her the “calming” medicine. That did calm her down a bit, but not enough to put her asleep before the nurses took her away. At about noon CDT Ella left in tears after kissing mom and dad, and I believe Ella was crying as well.

After about ninety minutes, the doctor found us in the waiting room and informed Bonnie and I that the surgery went well. She successfully removed the expander and the area of the nevus where the failed sutures were, as well as suturing up the hole in temple that started the infection and this whole mess. She also took samples of the fluid in the infection and we should learn if anything “odd” is in there by Monday.

We were able to see her around 2:00 PM CDT and love on her. She surprisingly took juice fairly quickly and we were able to get her into better spirits fairly quickly. The resident attempted to redress her bandages, and after he left, I redid it with the help of a nurse.

However Ella wasn’t smiling again until she was blowing all of the nurses kisses goodbye. She was very pleased when we finally got her, Dolly and Bear into the car and we were on the road around 4:30 PM CDT.

She coughed up a little of her apple juice on the way home in Chicago, but it was stop and go traffic and that probably didn’t help. She didn’t have any additional issue and fell asleep even before we got on the Skyway from Chicago to Indiana.

We got home around 7 PM EDT and Ella was very happy to be home, eat some pizza we ordered and finally calmed down enough to go to bed around 9:30 PM.

She woke up this morning around 7 AM in pretty good spirits. It’s noonish now and I just put Ella down after a nice long walk outdoors where, after exchanging waves and blown kisses to our neighbor, one of Michigan’s newest Federal judges, she fell asleep in my arms and is now down taking a nap, giving me a spare moment to finish this post. She was pretty active this morning and she and I played a lot.

There are some new picture of her up at Ellagoodwin.com and one of us will try to give a more detailed update for what’s happened since later, either today or tomorrow.

Thanks for all of your continued prayers.

Unfortunately the battle with Ella’s front sutures is lost. The sutures have failed and her expander is exposed.

We are going to head into Chicago in the morning and Ella is scheduled for surgery sometime around 11:30 AM. There’s a chance we can head home tomorrow as well, otherwise we’ll be heading back on Saturday.

The current plan is to continue the expansion in the rear expander and then see if it’s possible to insert a new front expander in July when the rear expander is removed.

Amazingly, she’s in very good spirits. The doctor compared what Ella was likely feeling after the rupture to what it feels like after a zit pops. Despite the area looking really, REALLY gross (and I’m not kidding, it’s GROSS), Ella is still as cute as ever!

We, more now than ever, can really use your prayers. We’ll keep everyone updated. God Bless.

Ella is doing much better today! In fact I’ve been having trouble getting pictures as she’s moving around much more - makes everything come out blurry!

She was still a little puffy when she first got up, but she could actually open both eyes! And she’s looking better and better as the day goes on - yeah!

We’ve determined (we think) that she got a mild infection from the hole that was created on the side of her head from her glasses rubbing the tube that runs between her port and the actual expander. Something that could have been avoided if the tube had been placed elsewhere, but at least the infection is manageable and better than a problem that would require extra surgery!

Thank you to everyone for the love and prayers that you sent our way - it helped us to get through it all!

Hopefully Ella will now continue to mend!

So, day three is not much better. Ella’s eyes are still swollen, but mainly the right one.¹ They do get better over the day and become less swollen. Ella is on all sorts of fun medicine which she absolutely hates to take.² It’s amazing how high she can get her feet up to “block” the medicine input!

We have pictures of the saga up at Ellagoodwin.com. We’ve subdivided the album by day to make is easier to see the new ones.³

Mom and dad are taking this worse than little Ella, as she’s still showing her happy face with frequency. So keep those prayers coming!

1. If you remember that on Day One Ella’s LEFT eye was swollen, the on Day Two, BOTH eyes were swollen, and now on Day Three the RIGHT eyes is the swollen one. [↩]
2. Antibiotic, Motrin, and Benadryl. [↩]
3. Hopefully Day Three will be the LAST DAY! [↩]

This morning we found that Ella’s right eye must have felt left out and joined the fun as both eyes are completely swollen shut. Amazingly, she still has good spirits. After a bit of time, and some Motrin, they’ve opened up a bit and she’s up and playing. Hopefully this is a sign that this is an infection or an allergic reaction (all the leaves and flowers are really “popping” here and I’m certainly feeling my allergies kick in), both which can be helped with medicine and isn’t a sign of a failure of the expander.

We’re going to get in touch with the doctor and see if Benadryl may be appropriate to reduct the swelling. Keep those prayers coming.

Our little Ella woke up this morning looking like she’s went a round or three in the ring. Her eye was pretty much swollen shut. She didn’t have a fever and her eyes weren’t bloodshot. We left message with the plastic surgeon but it was before 7 AM in Chicago. We went and visited her local pediatrician. He didn’t see signs of an infection or anything seriously wrong.

After getting back home I was finally able to get in touch with Dr. Bauer’s office, Ella’s plastic surgeon. I’m told that it is not unusual for swelling to occur however it needs to be monitored to make sure there’s not an infection or a rupture of the expander or tubes. We’ve also seen that Ella has been teething hard on a lower left molar and has her hand in her mouth a lot and her fingers very close, if not in, her left eye. So, in an abundance of caution Ella will be starting a regiment of antibiotics and Motrin/Tylenol to help keep her risk of infection and swelling down respectively. We are also suppose to help keep her head elevated to help reduce the swelling.

Ella’s swelling has gone down. She’s a tough girl after all. While it looks like Ella has taken a punch to the eye, it sure feels like I’ve taken several to my gut, if not my heart. We certainly could use your continued prayers that she’s able to continue be her healthy and happy self.