Christ's Own Forever!
This past Sunday was an occasion of great joy. Ruslan, Oksana, and Max were baptized! Our bishop, The Rt. Rev. Edward L. Salmon, Jr., was present for his annual visitation and did the honors. I knew that Ruslan and Oksana would be able to answer for themselves, but Max is such a little, ummm, contrarian, that I worried that he would say "No" when asked if he wanted to be baptized. The bishop wasn't worried one bit - he is the original "non-anxious" presence - and when the time came, Max answered, clear as a bell, "Yes!" What a relief.
Were they baptized in Ukraine? We are pretty sure the b-fam's religious background was Russian Orthodox, but have no way of getting dates, certificates or a definite record of any sort. So, to the font they went, and pretty happily so as far as I could tell. Afterwards, we had a great celebration and there was joy all around. One friend, Lydia, remarked that the evangelism of the moment struck her. Amen, sister! May they grow into the likeness of Christ and the fullness of the life that our God has ahead for them.
Given their Orthodox background, I was especially happy they were baptized on May 1. This year, 2005, May 1 is Easter Day in the Orthodox world. A blessed time for a baptism or three.
Here they are with our bishop.
A friend from church (St. Michael & St. George Episcopal in St. Louis, MO -
the Bishop's parish before being called to South Carolina) forwarded the
link to your site. Like you, we have adopted 3 'older' children, although
ours are from Russia and are not biological siblings. Also like you,
Bishop Salmon played a large part in their baptisms, at least of our
daughters who we brought home in June and December of 2002. He and his
daughter, Catherine, are their godparents! Catherine was a Russian major
in college and was a wonderful help to us - both preparing us before we
travelled and helping as a translator when we returned from Russian each
time. We also, by the way, have two bio children, so now have kids ranging
from 25 to 7!
In order to encourage others to consider older child adoption, we have put together a group of volunteers, many from St. Michael's, to support bringing a program called Bridge of Hope to St. Louis. This program matches school aged Russian orphans with summer 'host' families who are open to the concept of adopting but not willing to just commit. St. Michael's has been the host site for all our information meetings and we're now working to involve our youth group in preparing 'welcome backpacks' for each of the kids coming this year to St. Louis.
My congratulations to you on your beautiful family.
Sincerely,
Joan Podleski
St. Louis, MO
Joan Podleski [joan.podleski@wustl.edu]