Type of Submission
Podium Presentation
Proposal
At its core, the arts and humanities seek to understand the essence of the only creation to be made in God’s image: humanity. Through the eloquence of words, literary authors and historians document our experiences. Through the immersion of the senses, artists and musicians attempt to crystallize poignancy. This search for significance has always been particularly meaningful to me, but it became divine with the adoption of my two Russian daughters.
Prior to adopting, I was vaguely aware of Russia’s role in the Soviet Union and the Cold War. With the decision to adopt, Russian history and culture became relevant to my life. Suddenly, I longed to know how Russian history was expressed in its culture and what comprised cultural belonging from a Russian perspective. I was determined to have the knowledge that my daughters would leave behind them when they came to the United States. My autodidactic study became the means through which I could more fully appreciate the sovereignty of God in my daughters' lives.
My first sense of Russian kinship was found in a passage of Russian literature. When I picked up an English copy of Anna Karenina that had been left in our Russian host’s home, the description of Anna’s son’s “delicious sleepy warmth and fragrance that is only found in children,” resonated with me very strongly. Only that week, while visiting her in the orphanage, I had discovered the calming scent of Sophie’s hair.
Since our trips to Moscow, I have read historical accounts of the sufferings and experiences of my daughter's predecessors, but the most poignant accounts were recorded by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago. Through my readings, I learned of the tragic beauty of the Russian experience, and that has produced a profound thankfulness in me for the way God has redeemed my daughters’ lives.
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Cultural Belonging and Divine Encounters: An Adoption Story Told through the Arts and Humanities
At its core, the arts and humanities seek to understand the essence of the only creation to be made in God’s image: humanity. Through the eloquence of words, literary authors and historians document our experiences. Through the immersion of the senses, artists and musicians attempt to crystallize poignancy. This search for significance has always been particularly meaningful to me, but it became divine with the adoption of my two Russian daughters.
Prior to adopting, I was vaguely aware of Russia’s role in the Soviet Union and the Cold War. With the decision to adopt, Russian history and culture became relevant to my life. Suddenly, I longed to know how Russian history was expressed in its culture and what comprised cultural belonging from a Russian perspective. I was determined to have the knowledge that my daughters would leave behind them when they came to the United States. My autodidactic study became the means through which I could more fully appreciate the sovereignty of God in my daughters' lives.
My first sense of Russian kinship was found in a passage of Russian literature. When I picked up an English copy of Anna Karenina that had been left in our Russian host’s home, the description of Anna’s son’s “delicious sleepy warmth and fragrance that is only found in children,” resonated with me very strongly. Only that week, while visiting her in the orphanage, I had discovered the calming scent of Sophie’s hair.
Since our trips to Moscow, I have read historical accounts of the sufferings and experiences of my daughter's predecessors, but the most poignant accounts were recorded by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago. Through my readings, I learned of the tragic beauty of the Russian experience, and that has produced a profound thankfulness in me for the way God has redeemed my daughters’ lives.
