Hockey Imagines

Little Russians- Nate Schmidt (Miracle Pt. 2)

Carson is now two years old. She's been an absolute dream. Which isn't exactly what I can say for her two older brothers.

Yes, older. We decided to look into adoption, not wanting to risk losing another child if I became pregnant. Ovi and Kuzy convinced us to adopt from Russia. We also knew we didn't want newborns. In fact, we skipped over baby and toddler age completely.

Nikolai and Mikhail- Nick and Mickey for short- were 6 and a half when we flew to Russia to pick them up and bring them home. They were the eldest children in their foster home and the foster parents had expressed that they couldn't afford to adopt any more. The agency feared that no one would want them because most people look to adopt infants, not school-aged children.

They had been in the foster system for 2 years. Both parents had died in a car crash and there were no family members suitable for child care. So now we're here, with two 7 year-olds that barely speak English, which our Russian friends are helping with, trying to figure out how the hell to get them into a school that can teach them English. Also hating life because we don't know if they don't understand us or if they're just being little shits and not listening because it's funny. I'm going to assume it's both. They were also already playing hockey, which was a relief because getting them into a league was also helping them with their English.

Nate and I have also been trying to learn Russian. It is possibly the hardest language to learn and it's not going very well. Nick and Mickey love to run around without pants on. Whenever I go to say "put your pants on" I end up saying "put your plants on" instead. Then I watch them run to my flower pots and trying to balance them on their heads. It seems they're getting much better, but I'm somehow getting worse.

They're amazing with Carson, however. They love her so much and I can already tell that they're going to want to protect her at all costs.

We're coming up on a road trip. Nate leaves tomorrow morning and the boys aren't taking it well. They keep trying to unpack all of his stuff, taking his clothes and hiding them around our big, new house. They've even started climbing all over him to keep him from leaving, even if it's just to go to the other room to grab something. Carson loves to join in with that as well.

It was going to be a long night, and an even longer week.

-

The next morning, I got up super early and cooked a big breakfast. Chocolate chip pancakes, toast, bacon, sausage and eggs. It was nice and quiet for a while, until the smell woke up the little ones, and the big one too.

"Mommy make pancakes for us?" Mickey exclaimed as he came down the stairs, running to me with a sleepy Nick trailing sluggishly behind. Then followed Nate, a squirmy Carson in his arms. He sets her down, letting her roam around the main floor of our home. He walks behind me, pressing a quick kiss to my temple and inhaling deeply.

"This smells delicious, babe." He reaches for the giant stack of pancakes, but I smack his hand away. He's been trying to cut back on carbs and unnecessary sugars but without me, he fails miserably.

"Pancakes for the kids, protein and other adult stuff for you." I placed a heaping pile of breakfast meats and eggs on his plate, placing a single piece of toast on the side. I hand it to him with a large smirk on my face, competing with his unhappy scowl.

"You're no fun!" He takes the plate, sitting next to the boys at the table. As I walk over with the kids' food, there's a knock on the front door. Nate stands to go open it and as soon as he unlocks the door, Kuzy bursts in, a big smile on his face and his little girl on his hip. He sets her down and she began running around with Carson. Carson was like a baby sister to her.

Kuzy joined us for breakfast, Anastasia had walked in and joined us as well. Nate whined, like the giant child he is, because I allowed Kuzy to eat my amazing pancakes and we all made fun of him for it. Once it was time for them to leave, the boys, and Carson, clung to Nate and Kuzy, who had become like an uncle to them. It hurt when he left but I knew everything would be okay. This wasn't our first rodeo.

However, about 3 days into Nate's absence, while I was telling everyone a bed time story, Nick said something that broke my heart.

"Mommy, is daddy going to miss our game." Nate had missed games before, it wasn't a big deal since they were so young and new to the team. However, this was different. This was their championship game.

"Daddy is going to try his best to be here but if he can't make it, we're going to have to put on our big boy smiles anyway, okay?"

"Why does daddy and uncle Kuzy work so much?" This was a time I wish their English was worse than it was. They had never asked questions like this. They always knew there was a good reason, so it never occurred to me that someday they would want answers.

"Well, daddy loves his job very much. And he loves you very much and if he didn't work, we wouldn't have been able to get you guys here. I know it's hard and you miss him, but I'll tell you a secret."

"What mommy?" They smile up at me, waiting for me to tell them.

"I'll only tell if you promise to go to sleep after I tell you. Even if you're too excited to sleep, promise?"

"Promise." They ran to their separate beds, Carson sitting in my lap because I hadn't brought her to her separate room yet. They pulled the blankets over themselves, showing that they were ready to hear the secret and then go to bed.

"Next time daddy goes away for a while, we're going to visit him!" Everyone erupted with childish cheers and claps. I tucked them in and turned off the lights, putting Carson in her crib, and double checking the locks on the front and back doors downstairs, before going to sleep myself. I pulled on one of Nate's shirts to sleep in and drifted off to sleep.

-

It was here. Game day. The boys were playing spectacularly. They were the stars of the team, which wasn't hard with all of the male-figures in their lives being pros. They were tied 6-6, which was very low scoring considering small children were terrible defense-men and goalies. There was 30 seconds left in the game when Nick scored. As they went into a celebratory huddle, I saw a large man walk onto the ice with a Capitals Hockey shirt on. It was Nate. He walked up behind Nick and Mickey and picked them both up, making them squeal when they realized it was him.

He carried them off the ice, meeting me by the bleachers.

"I thought you weren't going to be home until late!" I said to Nate and he helped the boys with their skates, stuffing them into the hockey bags he took from me, seeing as I was carrying them as well as our sleepy toddler.

"Coach let me take an earlier flight home. I wanted to see my boys kick butt!" He gave them high fives as they stood up.

"How nice of Barry. He really is a big teddy bear. Heart of gold." We all laughed, Carson giggling, as we walked out of the ice rink.

When we got home, we had celebratory hot chocolate and did nothing but watch movies and play children's games all day.

Our little Russians may be a pain in the ass sometimes, but I wouldn't trade them for the world.

My little miracle grew when we adopted them, and so did my heart.