Finally Home

We are FINALLY HOME!!!!!!!!! It feels so good to say that. It was quite an eventful travel. We were late leaving Moscow which put us an hour late getting into Atlanta. The flight itself was not to bad after dosing the kids with Benadryl they slept almost the whole flight. We had about 8 other adopting families on the plane so that was really nice. The bad news was that none of the families, including us, made our connecting flights because of immigration. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen, I did not know it was possible for people to move that slow. Eric and I were the last family into immigration and we waited for 2 hours! We just barely missed our flight and we were all tired and crabby. The kids were very good during those two hours though, which was really nice. My Dad called and told us that Air Tran had a flight leaving at 9:55 so we could make that. Of course their is always a catch though. In order to get our luggage to St. Louis we either had to wait the next Delta flight (on the 25th) or have them send our bags to the main terminal in Atlanta and we would have to go over there and pick them up and bring them to Air Tran to check them. I was furious. We had our luggage right there with us and their was no reason just because of Delta we could not take the bags with us. All the other families were having problems with Delta too. They should be happy that they are about the only airline left because by the time we left the airport I was not a happy camper. Eric had to make the trec back to the St. Louis airport on Christmas day just to pick up our luggage which was just sitting out for anyone to take. The kids are really adjusting good. They love their new family, especially their new cousins. It will be really nice when they start speaking some English so we can communicate better. I love the holidays but it is alot to just be coming home in the mist of them. I don't know if Olivia is just overwhelmed sometimes but she just goes into shutdown mode if something does not go her way and it does not matter what I do to make things better, it is like she needs to get over it on her own. It makes me so sad to see this because I know if we would have gotten her earlier in her life she would be a really happy little girl. It is amazing just the gender difference in their attitudes. The boys are pretty happy all the time and only have issues if they get in trouble (which on some days is alot) but almost daily Olivia has a shutdown about something. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that all the other families made it home safe.

Tracey & Chuck you can email me at tarltonpitman@gmail.com. I would love to chat with you about your adoption in Vlad.

Las Night In Russia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is our last night in Moscow. Yahoo!!! We had a great day. We just hung out at the hotel until about 1:30 and then we were picked up to go to the American Embassy. For the most part that whole process was uneventful but we did get to meet a lot of other families who had adopted and will actually be on our same flight to Atlanta. We had a big surprise when we got back in the van. Our coordinator in Moscow, Natalia, said we were going on a tour of downtown Moscow and all the historic buildings. It was wonderful. We got to see so many sites and she told us what everything was. You would not believe all the beautiful Christmas lights. With the snow coming down it felt like a fairytale. The kids did wonderful. It was so cute because AJ started fussing in the back and Olga, our tour guide, was talking to him to settle him down and Max said he was upset because he wanted to be in American right now! You just wonder what is going through their little minds. Max was a chatterbox the whole trip and at one point he asked Olga if this is where everyone lived because their were so many people & cars everywhere. She had to explain to him that people live everywhere and their will be people in America too when he gets there. Max only got sick when we were about 10 minutes from the hotel so we call that a success considering the driver was horrible. I mean really HORRIBLE, either your face was on the front windshield or the back of your head was on the back windshield and it was everything Becky could do not to get sick. We met a couple from Boston, Jim and Andira, who just adopted a little girl. They are staying in the same hotel as us but are not leaving until Christmas Day. We had a really nice dinner (OK as nice as dinner can be with children!). We are being picked up tomorrow at about 9:00 to go to the airport. Hopefully all goes well and our flights are on time. We were told at the Embassy that it will take 45 minutes to get through immigration with the kids so please pray it does not take that long so we don’t miss our flight. We can’t wait to be home. Merry Christmas to All! Have a blessed and safe holiday.

Hello From Moscow

Well we are finally in Moscow. We don’t know what we would have done without Irina and her husbands help. They helped us get the luggage and the kids into the airport and get our tickets. We made it onto the plane and the kids did great for the takeoff and landing. The inbetween is another story. Of course none of them wanted to sleep (God forbid you miss anything). All was good until Eric was trying to get AJ to sleep and the man in sitting in front of me decided he was going to help. He would not leave the kids alone the rest of the trip and it really made me angry. He would just come over and pick AJ up and carry him around the plane. When the food came he actually came back to feed him!!! I could only hold my tongue for so long before she had to tell him to stop and that she would take care of her children. We got our luggage without a problem and the lady with CHI met us and helped us get to the van. It was only 4:30 in Moscow but it was past 10:00 PM in Vlad. The kids were beyond tired and we had about an hour drive into downtown Moscow to get to our hotel (Holiday Inn Moscow Lesnaya). Of course Max got carsick on the way (we are getting to be pros at this). By the time we got to the hotel all three kids were asleep. The lady from CHI came up to the room to do paperwork on all three kids to turn into the Embassy on Monday. It was the easiest night to get all three kids to sleep!!! While I was filling out the paperwork all three of them crawled into bed with their clothes still on and were asleep within 15 minutes. Monday was a free day for us so we decided to take our chances and go to the Kremlin and Red Square. It is about a 30 minute walk from the hotel which we knew would not be possible with the kids so we took the Metro (underground system) and it was wall to wall people. I thought Eric got detailed instructions on what to do but soon found out she was wrong when they got to the Metro station and Eric has no clue where to go or what to do (Eric said he just couldn’t understand the girl at the hotel desk). We found several people who were kind enough to help us find our way (thank God for maps!). I gave the card reader to Irina for another family to use if they need it otherwise I would have posted some of our pictures from today. We were quite the crew. Their was no mistaking that we were American. I had Olivia in the backpack carrier and Eric carried AJ and held Max’s hand. We made it to Red Square and it is just beautiful and quite large. The St. Basil Cathedral (the thing you see in all the pictures of Russia)is even more beautiful in person. We took the small tour of the inside and the murals are just awesome. It is amazing to think off all the history in that one area. It is a shame it was so cold out and we couldn’t spend to long there with the kids. They had a beautiful shopping center right there too with some very, very pricey shops and a big skating rink outside in the square. On the way back we met a really nice old man that helped us find our way back (sort of). It was funny because the only English he could say was “I love breakfast”. He had us stop one stop short of what we should have stopped so we had to walk the rest of the way to the hotel ( A VERY, VERY LONG WALK). This probably wouldn’t have been that bad except that of course AJ had to pee (what’s new!). Their was really no place to go until we got to the Marriot. Thank Goodness they were nice enough to let us come in and use the restroom. I think they saw the pain on AJ’s face. Eric is quite the saint because AJ screamed and kicked the whole way and we walked for blocks and Eric did not even flinch. When Eric took AJ into the bathroom he had to get his coat, gloves, jeans, long underwear, and pullup off (which he had already loaded full of pee, Eric said his pull up hit the ground with a thud!) before he could even put him on the potty. We are not sure where he drank so much but he could have filled a small pond! Eric wanted to go to McDonald’s but by the time we got back to the hotel, myself and the kids were cold and tired so Eric ventured out on his own to forage for food. Eric ended up having to walk all the way back to where we got off the Metro (we were only 5 minutes from McDonalds when we got off). The kids are very picky on what they will eat now and split the first cheeseburger fine but when I tried to give them each a part of the next cheeseburger they turned their noses up (like this was the first I was giving it to them!). McDonald’s has never tasted so good to Eric and I, even though it was cold. Tomorrow we will be going to the American Embassy at 1:30 to get the kids paperwork done at that should be it for us in Moscow. It is a really neat city and we are glad we had the opportunity to see the beautiful and historic places here. Just two more days and we are home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last Night In Vlad

Well, this is our last night in Vlad. Horray!!! Eric and I are just sitting here discussing all the different events in our journey towards these children. It has been quite the journey! The peaks and valleys of waiting are so worth it as we count down the days to leave Russia and start our new life in America with our three beautiful children. We have been so blessed to have met so many wonderful families and have made lasting friendships throughout this process. God really does have a way of bringing people together. We would like to thank everyone who has been there to support us, to help us through all this and those who emailed us during our looooong stay in Russia. We could not have done this without our parents and our sisters and their families. We also would like to thank the Fritsches. They have been such wonderful friends and such a great asset when we had questions. We hope that we can do that for another family someday. We are so blessed to have these three children in our lives now. They are bringing so much joy and laughter even though we have the trying times inbetween. We will keep everyone posted on what is happening. Thanks again for everything.

Introducing the Newest Pitmans!

Introducing the new additions to the Pitman Family! Max is the oldest at 5, Olivia is 3 and AJ is 2. Yes we know they are beautiful children!!! Since the first day as a family we have really made some progress. Things started out a little rocky as all families say they do but we are starting to settle into a routine and the kids are learning their boundaries (even though this is hard on everyone!). Eric spent today running with Irina to do the birth certificate and passport stuff. It is hard on Becky when he is gone all day but there is a lot of support from other families right now at the Vlad Inn. We will have all their doctor visits tomorrow so hopefully all will go well even though they all have colds. We have 5 more days in Vlad then off to Moscow. We just dream of sleeping in our own beds!

Family Life

We are sitting up here in the White Rabbit with about 11 other kids. The sun is shining and it looks to be a great day. We have gotten the morning routine accomplished (out of bed, peesit, brush their teeth, wash their face, each breakfast, then bathroom again). We then headed up to the White Rabbit for some visiting and playing. We are really settling into a routine with them. We had to lay the law down last night though. In the evening when we go to the White Rabbit they get so crazy it is hard to bring them back down to calmness. All of them were in testing mode and aggravating each other. We tried to get our oldest to sit still and he just had a hard time with that. So sheriff Andy Taylor (Eric) had to come and enforce the law. He was put in jail like Otis, which he did not appreciate so he had to stay in jail a little longer than planned. He was so good by himself but when we added the other two they are all fighting for attention. We know you all know what we are talking about and are just laughing at us now. The volume level at family functions is going way up because these three are not quiet at all! They are all too eager to join in the fun. They seem to really accept us but there is always testing. We are so proud of our oldest, he is really learning his English words. He can count to 10 and knows several colors. He knows his nose, eyes, mouth and chin and socks and shoes.

Day One as a Family

For all of our family and friends that want or need a good laugh. We wish (and we’re sure you do too) you all could have been flies on our shoulders today. It was quite the experience. We are going to tell you. The day began with us being so excited about seeing the two new additions to our family. We got up around 6:30, got dressed and headed down to eat breakfast. It was great timing because our new friends and Heather and Justin Overstreet were heading down to eat breakfast too so they joined us. We all ate a great breakfast and we both got picked up to go around 9:00 and headed our separate ways. Now the fun begins. We gave our oldest son some Dramamine for the hour and a half trip to the baby home. We had to pick up Irina at her home though which was about 20 minutes out of our way. Irina now has joined us and we are on our way. About half way there our son gets sick suddenly. We guess we did not give him the medicine soon enough. Eric is scrambling in the back to get a bag and throws it to Becky who is sitting next tohim but she is not quick enough and he ends up throwing up on his brand new coat! She does at least catch the next three hurls! Alec the driver pulled over so Irina could take his coat and clean it off outside. She kept saying “No worries, it happens all the time, he be OK, lay him down in seat!” Yeah right, no worries for her! Alec and Irina get back in the car and we are off again. We finally get to the baby home without anymore excitement and we are taken back to change the kids clothes. It was awesome because we got to go back to their room and take pictures and video. Our daughter came running to Eric and jumped in his arms! Our oldest son was really excited to see them both but their was so much going on in the room we don’t think the two little ones knew what was up except they were going with their new parents. All our youngest son kept saying was Mama & Papa. It was so great to hear. We took the kids to Tatiana’s office to sign some papers and then Becky had to take our oldest to see the doctor because he had a bad cough. While Becky was in with the doctor Eric was alone with the little ones. Our youngest kept saying “peesit, peesit”, which is potty. Eric hustled down the steps with both of them and of course the door was locked and Eric couldn’t get in. He was frantically waiting for the person in the bathroom to get done so he could get him in there. The door opened and Eric burst in. He had to yank our sons sweatpants and long underwear off, unsnap his shirt and pull down his pullup while telling our daughter to stay right there “we will be right out” (she doesn’t know English though!) At that point Becky comes down with our oldest because he has to go potty and is doing the potty dance. The door was locked and our daughter comes running out of the office next to the bathroom so Becky figures Eric is in the bathroom. She finally knocks and tells him to open up because our oldest had to go, not knowing that Eric has our youngest son standing on the toilet, his hands on the back of the toilet bowl, Eric holding our youngest sons stuff so pee doesn’t go everywhere and you know the youngest can’t stop midstream so our oldest has to wait! Eric finally unlocks the door, hands the youngest out and takes our oldest (thank God he can go on his own) but he could hardly get his pants down quick enough! Eric came out sweating as though he had run a ten mile marathon. He thought that would be the last time he sweated for the day but he was sooooo wrong! We finally all pile in the van and head back to the Vlad Inn. Thank goodness the two little ones don’t get carsick. Eric rode with the two little ones in the very back so that our oldest could lay down on the middle seat next to Becky. Our daughter was quiet as a mouse on the ride home, our youngest was excited and looking all over the place until he fell asleep and our oldest could not keep his eyes off both of them. We thought all was going well until we got into the room…..here we go!!! Our youngest says he has to peesit again so Eric does the same thing all over again! Here he is standing on the toilet, hands on the back and Eric holding his stuff. He is having some difficulty this time, maybe some stage fright (new place you know!). In walks our oldest son to put his fire out saying peesit. At that point, Eric takes our youngest, puts him on the counter in the bathroom with his pants down and everything hanging out. Our oldest is peeing at this point, not paying attention and hitting everything but the toilet! Eric is sweating again, hoping at this point that our youngest doesn’t let loose with our toothbrush and other toiletries right there. Everything turned out OK but the floor was a little wet (welcome to having boys!). We quickly learned that our sweet angel girl had the devil in her! Becky took the little ones down to get some water in the pitcher, they were both bouncing off the walls and our little girl was punching everything that moved or didn’t move. There is a blow up penguin and reindeer in the front lobby and she was treating them like punching bags! All the other families were looking at her like “glad that isn’t my child”! We quickly walked back to the room and she was running around like a screaming banshee. We were looking at each other like what did we get into and what happened to the sweet little girl we met a couple of months ago. Becky finally took her by herself out to the front lobby again. Heather and Justin were sitting out there and it was like Jeckyll and Hyde. She was as sweet as could be and wanted to crawl on Becky’s lap and cuddle! As soon as we got back to the room though the banshee was unleashed again and got the whole gang all going. We had three wild animals on the loose. Heather came down to visit, she knocked but we couldn’t hear over all the screaming so she quietly went back to the lobby. We think our oldest is rethinking the whole wanting to be with his brother and sister thing. He is very protective of his little brother which is so sweet. Someone has to protect him from his sister! We finally rounded the troops up and went back out to the lobby. They all enjoyed being around the other kids and played very well with all of them. Eric was on potty duty the whole time because every 10 minutes our youngest was saying peesit but would never go. It was very sweet, while we were sitting out their they all piled on Becky’s lap and drank their water and had a good time playing with each other and their toys. We were getting concerned about it but when Becky took them back to their room and put him on the toilet (this is the best part, Eric bought a seat to fit on top of our toilet but it was to big so we had to put it on backwards and the kids have to sit backwards facing the back of the toilet to go potty) he went just fine. Maybe this is how they did it at the baby home. Whatever works but he has to potty a lot and if one is not going the other one is. Becky decides to put them all in the bath because our oldest wants to take a bath. At first the little ones did not want to get in but once they saw our oldest In there they were good to go. All was well until the splashing and standing up and diving in started. Becky finally had to pull the plug and take them out. By the time Eric came back to the room Becky was sweating her butt off (who needs a treadmill!) and the kids were running around naked! It was like a party at the mini playboy mansion! We finally got their jammies on, their medicine given and some pictures taken. When it was time to go to bed they all calmed down very well. Eric got in bed with the girl, Becky got in bed with our oldest and we put our youngest on the crib mattress in the middle of the beds. When we turned off the lights our youngest was still talking to his bear. We think since he had to put himself to sleep everynight he just talked until he finally fell asleep. Becky finally took him into the other room and held him until he fell asleep (this was for him and for her). It is nice to have a little one. It took about 20 minutes and everyone was asleep so we took the computer, opened a bottle of wine and started writing this message so everyone could have a good laugh and hear how the first day went. We know you all thought we were crazy for adopting three children at once and we can’t say that didn’t cross our minds sometime this evening but when we see all three of them sleeping we know we did the right thing. It had been a GREAT day and tomorrow is another day as a family.

How things are going!

Not a whole lot to report right now. Everything with our oldest son is going great. He is really trying very hard to learn English. So far things are going very well. At times he will pick up the flash cards on his own and start to say the word in Russian and then in English. We walked to the market yesterday but it was so bitterly cold (-3 degrees F) that we could hardly stand it. With the 8 inches of snow the streets around the hotel are very icy and slick. Our son loved it though because he slid all the way to the market and back. Sorry to backtrack but during court he sat out with Irina, our coordinator. Irina asked him to give her a Christmas list to give to Santa and she would write it down. He asked for apple juice, chocolate, chocolate with a toy, crab legs and a computer. Irina ask why so much food not any toys. He replied, there is a new boy that was put in their group and he is an older bigger boy and he picks on everyone in his group. He told Irina that by eating good healthy food he could grow up and be very very strong so he could stop that boy from picking on his friends (Just a cute story). We are going to have to get a trampoline this spring for the kids. All he does is jump around. One of his favorite things to do is to jump from bed to bed in the room. He is definitely ready for his brother and sister to come so he has kids to play with. We have made several new friends ourselves here. There is a couple, Carl and Carol from Louisianna. They are adopting a 4 year old boy and will hopefully get him on Monday or Tuesday. We also finally got to meet the Heather and Justin Overstreet. They are also with CHI and are on their first trip to meet their son. Today we plan on trying to venture outside again depending on how cold it gets. Irina said that this is nothing compared to the temp in January and February. Even with all the ice and snow though the women still wear high heels! They say they can actually walk better on the ice in them. Not sure how they figure that!

We are official!

We are officially parents now!!! Court went well but we are so glad that it is finally over. We were in there for about an hour. The judge made Becky get up first and really grilled her about everything from their medicals to our life and how it will change. She also asked why we were adopting and why we chose Russia. The only question Eric really got asked was about Religion. The judge does not understand how religion works in the US and was a little concerned when Eric said he would encourage the children to accept the Lutheran religion. Things with the oldest boy are going really well. He repeats English words back to us really good but has yet to really say anything on his own yet. The communication is probably the most difficult part of this. He did say that he was very happy with us and did not want to go back to the orphanage. He slept great last night and really follows directions well. We are very excited because we will get to pick up the little ones on Tuesday. Hopefully they will keep each other busy. I think he is getting bored with us sometimes. He loves the leapfrog and the computer. He is not really interested in the TV or watching any of the movies we brought (this is good and bad). We were kind of hoping he would watch the movies and pick up some English. You won’t believe it but the one thing we did not check before we left was if our camera card fit into the new computer. Guess what….it doesn’t! So we will try to do some videos once we get the other two kids and send that. Love you and miss you all,
Becky, Eric & Max

Glad To Be Back In Vlad!!!!

After starting out at 7:30 AM Dec. 1 and flying 21 hours and total trip time of 40 hours we finally made it back to Vlad!!! The trip was very, very long but it will be so worth it. We each stretched out in a row on the way to Moscow so that was nice but we did not have individual movie screens on the seats in front of us so that made the trip longer. The worst part of the whole trip was the 7 hour layover in Moscow. You can only check in 2 hours before your flight so you have to wait in this big waiting area until then. It was miserable. The flight to Vlad was about the same as the flight to Moscow but we did not have room to stretch out. Irina and Lana both met us in Vlad with some very, very good news. We are going to see all the kids tomorrow and will get to pick up our oldest son and take him with us!!!! They said we will go next week and talk to Tatiana, who is the director of the baby home, and ask if we can have the little ones. We are so excited about all of this. The weather is a lot like home and will hopefully stay like that so at least we can get out a little bit and play. After we unpacked everything (we are in a huge suite with three beds, a crib, and a full kitchen) we both took showers (much, much needed) and we are going to walk over to the market to get some water and other goodies. We are then going to the restaurant here at the Vlad Inn to get something to eat and stop by the white rabbit to say HI to anyone that might be there. Tomorrow, Dec. 4th, Irina and Lana said it will be a very, very busy day. We were told we need to be up early and be ready to go. They have a BIG day planned with us because we will be going to many many places. Thank you so much to everyone who has sent emails and added wonderful comments to our blog. We keep reading everything over and over. It is so hard not to just pick up the phone and call people to share the good news but as you all know all we have is email.