Area couple receives early Christmas present
The Colemans’ living room is cozy. Toys are scattered on the floor. Folded blankets are in a basket behind the chair. Stockings are hung; the tree is lighted. A gray cat is curled up on the back of the couch, and the TV is turned on low.
Sitting in a baby seat, Ellarie Susan Coleman chews on a plastic teething ring. The 1-year-old watches her father, Alan, who is sitting on the couch nearby, and gurgles contently. She learned to say “Dada” a couple weeks ago, he says.
Christmas, according to the new father, came early this year. His wife, Jamie Coleman, agrees. Their present, she says, arrived from Russia about a month ago, special delivery.
Jamie is quiet for a few moments, thoughtful. But the serenity is interrupted when their special present, who was smiling moments earlier, drops her teething ring and begins to cry.
“Mama sees you,” Jamie says, reaching for Ellarie, who stops crying as soon as she is picked up. Jamie holds her daughter and fixes the bow in her hair. “A few nights ago Alan and I went in her room and watched her sleep, and I couldn’t believe that she was here with us, that we’re parents. I think about it every day.”
The Colemans adopted Ellarie from Russia through International Family Services, an adoption agency located in Irwin. They decided to adopt a child, Jamie said, after battling fertility problems for years.
“We couldn’t have a baby. Nothing worked,” she said. “We gave up, so we started to look into domestic adoption, but the waiting list was too long.”
“We went to one agency in Greensburg, and there were people on the waiting list from six years ago,” Alan said, adding that many birth mothers in the United States want to have an open adoption.
“International adoption is quicker and more final. It’s a done deal. Her birth mother gave up her rights. She’s ours now, and no one can take her from us.”
The Colemans, who have been married for eight years, traveled to Russia twice before bringing their daughter home with them Nov. 21.
“The first trip was just to go meet her and do all the paperwork. We went to court and everything like that. It was very hard to leave her,” Jamie said.
It may have been their first trip, but it wasn’t the first time the Colemans had seen their daughter.
The adoption agency sent them a videotape of Ellarie before their first visit to Russia. In the video, Jamie said, Ellarie, who was then called Karena, was in a huge crib with many other babies. She was 6 months old and had on a shirt, a diaper and socks.
“I bawled when I saw it,” Jamie said, once again fixing the bow that often slides out of her daughter’s thick, dark hair.
“She had hair like this in the first video. My sister and mother always say I’m nuts with these ribbons.”
Ellarie, wearing a dress, tights and Mary Janes, starts to squirm in her mother’s arms, so Jamie puts her on the floor and sits down next to her. The baby, who turned 1 on Thursday, reaches for a toy radio that lights up and plays music.
Jamie asks her husband to put a music channel on as she helps Ellarie push buttons on the toy radio. “She loves music,” Jamie says. “She tries to sing along in church. And she loves music videos, especially the Shania Twain video with Billy Currington. She’ll dance to it.”
The TV station changes and music starts to play. Ellarie pays attention to it immediately. Alan watches as Jamie helps Ellarie balance as she stands up.
She doesn’t need much help, but her mother holds on to her as she sways back and forth to the beat of the music. “Dancing may be in her blood,” he says, smiling.
The Colemans said they don’t know much about Ellarie’s blood parents.
“We know their ages and that they were petite,” Jamie said, noting that Ellarie’s biological father was darker complexioned and was from a country south of Russia, while her birth mother was Russian and had blue eyes and blond hair. “They weren’t married. This was her second child, and she couldn’t afford to keep her. She had a college education.”
It was snowing in Russia when the couple went overseas for the second time. Alan said he heard the country experienced its biggest snowstorm in 70 years just days after they left.
“I’m glad we didn’t get stuck over there. They had about 8 inches of snow on the ground when we flew out of there. The runways were icy and our plane was fishtailing. It was about 20 degrees over there: a weird, bitter cold,” he said.
In addition to the bad weather, Alan said, the language barrier was scary at times. “It was a big thing having to go over there twice to get her,” he said. “I’ve only been to Canada before, never overseas. It’s scary sometimes when nobody talks your language.”
Jamie said the adoption agency sent someone to pick them up from the airport after the 11-hour flight and escort them to the orphanage.
Children usually are not allowed to leave the country until they are 12 months old; however, Jamie said, the orphanage allowed Ellarie to leave early so that she could receive medical care in the United States.
Ellarie had an infection in her right hip that damaged the surrounding bone. The couple said they don’t know how she got the infection, but she is being treated and the prognosis is good. “Since she’s so young and growing, the bone should grow back,” Alan said.
“The doctors said her right leg might be a little shorter than her left, but it’s not so far. She doesn’t favor it or anything.”
As the evening wears on, Ellarie and her parents play in the living room. Ellarie is fascinated by the Christmas tree, and they all look at it together as a family.
Two special ornaments hanging on the boughs proclaim that this is the toddler’s first real Christmas.
“For Christmas, we bought her one of those old-fashioned things that kids push. It has a handle that she can hold on to when she walks. The balls pop around inside. Everyone has one when they’re little,” Jamie said, adding that Ellarie will probably receive more toys than she needs from family and friends.
“When we brought her home, there were about 20 people – grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins – waiting,” she said, adding that she and her husband have no plans to adopt another baby. “She has seven cousins that she’ll be able to play with when she gets older.”
Alan said he and his wife are still working on getting Ellarie, who will have dual citizenship, a Social Security card. She has a birth certificate and a Russian passport.
“You should have seen the folder from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow that we had to hand over to the immigration department when we landed in New York,” he said.
For the Colemans, the road to parenthood has been bumpy, and they admit it has taken some getting used to.
“Life has changed. It’s not just about Alan and me anymore,” Jamie said.
Her husband nods in agreement. “It’s a big adjustment,” he said, picking up Ellarie, who was playing with the laces on his shoes, and holding her close.
Pointing at her Christmas tree decorated in angels, Jamie said, “It has been a big adjustment, but it’s a good adjustment, a real good adjustment. What can I say? I collect angels.”