The Meaning Of Family Is Shared In Grief And Joy
Editor’s note: In April, a Kyrgyzstan couple and three of their eight children died in a house fire in Bellingham. The five surviving children were taken in by their uncle, Alexander Solodyankin, and his wife Yelena in Spokane.
We knew we wanted to take the children into our home right after we heard about the tragedy. We knew in the next five minutes, even our children knew.
Some people asked and are still asking why we took all five children and didn’t separate them among relatives. We say that we thought first about the children, their feelings and their sorrow, and that this is a family.
They are wonderful children with good behavior and we want to continue giving them the best we can.
My husband and I have the best circumstances. We have a house. We both have jobs.
It’s not easy to take five more children.
Sometimes we made two shopping trips for groceries. Before it was one gallon of juice for two days. Now it is two gallons for one day.
But it was easier to make this adjustment because of the material help and the encouragement and the moral support we got from schools, the news media, the service clubs and many individuals.
Judy McFarlane, a school nurse in the same office where I work at Audubon School, asked “Do you have enough room?” She just volunteered to help us find furniture and things.
We needed another refrigerator and table. We had to eat in two shifts.
We had no idea who we had to talk to but Judy knew who to contact.
Service clubs got us a refrigerator, table and chairs and washer and dryer.
We felt warm inside when American people sent letters. We read them with the children. We knew we were not alone in this grief.
God opened our hearts to take these kids as our own, showing them the same love and care. We try not to make a separation between our own children and the others. Now we are just one family.
Our goal is to make a family with a very strong relationship with each other and with God. We ask God to give us more wisdom to do it.
MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion page. To submit a column for consideration, call Rebecca Nappi/459-5496, or Doug Floyd/459-5466.