Rachel's Story, Part I
As I cleaned out school papers, one of Rachel's essays surfaced. She agreed to let me share it with you, as long as I cleaned up her spelling and grammar. Here's Rachel's story:
ELA [English Language Arts]
Rachel Stahlke
September 29, 2009
Compare and ContrastHave you ever had something so big happen to you that it felt like a dream? On August 3, 2005, I experienced that exact thing. It felt as though I was asleep and dreaming. I was in the small country of Ukraine stuck in an orphanage, with no way out of it, when a man and a woman came and changed my life completely. Their names were Mary and Jonathan Stahlke, and they made my dream a reality. The next thing I knew, I was in the U.S.A. in a new home, a new habitat, new everything. I was so happy to be here with not one complaint when I saw my new house in the huge city of Chicago. O my goodness! I was now called Rachel Stahlke; I love that name. Keep reading and hear the whole story from the beginning.
To be continued . . .
English for 4-1/2 Years
Paul beat me at Scrabble today!
Peeling an Onion, Part VIIa
Russia or Ukraine? We struggled with that choice for a long time. As I mentioned in my blog on September 14, practical considerations created a wash between the two options due to two important factors--cost (Russia) and stress (Ukraine).
Our decision-making now took on a more emotional and less rational bent. In December 2003, Jonathan and I were traveling by train from Chicago to Texas. With a lengthy layover in St. Louis, we disembarked and explored an outdoor Christmas market near downtown. A young woman in one of the booths smiled warmly at us as we walked by, and we couldn't help stopping to examine her wares. Her goods looked Slavic, and when we asked her where she was from, she told us--Ukraine!
to be continued
Plumbing Issues
The toilet in our half-bath upstairs is leaking, so we've turned it off until after Christmas when we have time to arrange a repair. That means that all eight of us in the family are using the full bath downstairs for everything. The water pressure in the sink spigot has diminished to a trickle, which tells me the net trap needs to be cleaned.
Kola, of course, doesn't know anything about plumbing. He asked me,
"Mom, the water is running out. Can you get some more?"
Winter in Chicago
I grew up in Houston, Texas, where extreme weather hits in the summer. Galveston and Surfside, my favorite beaches on the Gulf of Mexico, can cool you off, but only because the water is wet. Even so, warm bath-temperature water always feels marvelous to me. Jonathan and I were married on August 18, and the temps were below 100 only because a hurricane was approaching.
Chicago, on the other hand, sports its most difficult weather in the winter months. Last Tuesday, I listened to Adam play in a band concert. He's becoming quite a good clarinetist, and the concert was very enjoyable. Afterward I offered to treat Adam to a congratulatory treat. We braved 5-degree temps and below-zero wind chill to get to the snack place. What did he choose? Baskin-Robbins! I skipped the ice cream and ordered hot chocolate!
More New Experiences
Even though this is Kola's second Christmas in the United States, we didn't cover everything last year. About a week ago, he REALLY enjoyed meeting Santa:
(Please excuse the incorrect orientation of the photo. I just spent 20 minutes trying to fix it, and I'm out of time.)
Priorities
Wed., Dec. 16, 12:00 noonConcordia's deadline for Jonathan to submit his students' semester grades
Wed., Dec. 16, 1:30 pmAnnual Christmas program at our local grade school
Wed., Dec. 16, 1:15 pmTime that Jonathan turned in the last of his grades to Concordia
Piesniche
One of my first words in Ukrainian was 'piesniche' (
later). It's a handy word for children.
David and Kola are my charges in the morning, since Jonathan drives the older kids to school near Concordia where he works. David has the gift of gab, and before school I'm constantly working with him to hold his questions until we're on the road. It's been a long-term project, but he's getting better. Sometimes now, he'll even complete my sentence:
"ASK ME THAT . . . IN THE CAR!"
PS: December
For a more detailed account of December than my blog on December 2, see the front page article in:
http://www.trinitylutheranvp.com/docs/Dec09Triangles.pdf
Going Public
One thing I really like about blogging is its public nature. Not the fact that anyone can read it, but rather that I must refrain from telling the really sad or disturbing things. Instead, my daily blogging time at the computer is usually about the positive or funny side of parenting, which is good for me.
I did learn another thing today about the public nature of blogging. After discussing our clogged sewer line yesterday, I was greeted today on the blogger.com home page with ads from four plumbing companies!
More Lemonade
backed-up laundry for eight people
eight dirty sleeping bags
217 quarters
six 50-lb loads
four hours without folding
repair completed on clogged sewer line
hallelujah
Ups and Downs
Last week was very tough.In addition to the regular December routine, our main sewer line backed up, our car radio was stolen, and mice proliferated in the house. Then two children came home on Wednesday with detention slips. All pretty depressing.
But I know from experience that one's mood doesn't stay low forever. The last few days have been much, much better. Lemons CAN turn to lemonade.
While thieves took the face plate of our car stereo, they must have been interrupted, because the body of the stereo showed signs of prying but was left in our car. Without the face plate, however, there was no way to remove the CD left in the player, which was one disc from an 18-CD book checked out from our local library.
Today our car mechanic was able to extract the CD, although with some difficulty. When I picked up the car, Pete gave me the key and told me there wouldn't be a charge. I knew he had spent a fair amount of time at the job, which included removing the stereo from our dashboard, so I told him we should pay him for his time. He smiled, said no, and told me, "You've reached your payment limit for the year."
It's not the first time that Pete has helped us out. You can read about the "tire" story starting in paragraph five of the following story:
http://www.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=74&IssueID=11
With friends like this, how can one stay depressed?
In a Child's Eyes
Last night, Chicago experienced its first snowfall of the season. Jonathan and I struggled to get the kids to school on time, despite supervising shoveling, clearing snow off of cars, and just dealing with a Monday morning.
The children's eyes shone with anticipation for their playtime in the new snow. I was reminded to quit worrying about the work in our world and instead see its wonder.
Modern St. Nicholas
Like many other residents of Chicago, we are struggling with eradicating mice in our house. So when Jonathan and I realized that St. Nicholas would be filling our shoes last night, we reminded him that candy and fruit on the floor are not the best idea right now.
Early this morning, I found nine shoes in the back of our van. As I moved them just inside our front door, I noticed that St. Nicholas had protected the food from the mice but forgot that tropical fruits like bananas don't fare well in Chicago's freezing climate.
Christmas in December
A portion of the Gradual for the season of Advent:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation.
Never Again
When Jonathan and I lived in Germany, we sometimes ate in the student dining hall at the University of Halle. One of their dishes looked like a frosted cake, but I discovered instead that it was a small head of cauliflower smothered in cheese sauce. Not exactly the dessert I was expecting, but interesting nonetheless.
Years later, when it came time in Kyiv to cook for our newly-acquired children, I thought of this German dish and figured it was Eastern-European enough to pass muster. Was I ever wrong! Five years later, the kids still talk about that cauliflower. None of them ate it, and we ended up going into town and buying hot dogs from a street vendor.
A few days ago, I cooked another dish that will probably be remembered and not repeated. We were out of vegetables--nothing canned, fresh, or frozen except for a bag of onions. So I fried fifteen small onions and put them into rice soup. It tasted pretty good, but there were a few problems.
None of the children could do chores after supper because everyone's eyes were stinging so badly from the scent of onion in the air. And all of us smelled like onions for two days. One of the older boys told me that he wouldn't mind eating them in the summer, but not during the school year when he had to be around other people! I'm sure he meant girls.
December
"Merry Christmas!" and "Bah humbug!"
