She Still Asks

Mrs. Beaver:

Oksana, age six, adopted from Russia in Novemeber 2010

"You will come back?"

"We will be together again...won't we?"

She still yearns for reassurance. She still worries that her new situation--with parents, in a family--may not last.

Even though Oksana has spent two months in our home being soaked in the love of 13 family members, she still doubts.

Yesterday afternoon as Tessa and I were leaving to visit a coffee shop to do some uninterruped wedding planning, Oksana, who had been sledding, caught me before I could climb into the car. In her broken mixture of Russian and English, she sought a sense of security by asking the same questions yet again.

We do see progress in Oksana trusting our answers to her plaintive requests. When we tell her that we will be coming back, Lord willing, she now contentedly grins rather than bursting into frightened tears. She gives us a tight hug or two and then happily chirps in her little-girl voice, "Ee-soup-ee-do!" Then our precious six-year-old skips off to return to the fun in which she had been engaged.

Oksana's been saying the phrase, "Ee-soup-ee-do!," since we first began to parent her. It doesn't seem to match anything that those of us in the family who speak English recognize. Those who speak Russian don't know the word or phrase either. Despite the puzzle, Oksana's quip is quickly becoming happy family lingo used by all of us to say to one another as we part company, "I want to see you again! You are important to me. I'm eager for us to be together again!"