The Pitman's Journey To Russia

Our journey to adopt three beautiful children from Vladivostok, Russia

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

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.

11 comments:

Meghan, Bill and Nick said...

Wow, what a day you've had. I was in stiches reading about the antics and can't wait to hear more.

Congratulations on your first day as a family. We're very excited for all of you!

Amy said...

Congrats on your first day as a family! How great for you to all be together again! Very excited for you!!

Carey and Norman said...

I have laughed so hard reading this post. Thanks for sharing and keeping it real. Ha. I loved the part about the potty and the bath. Just imagining 3 children running around your room naked made me smile. Now, can you imagine Irina or Lana coming to the door while this is going on....Ha :o) I am so glad you were able to reunite 3 children!! I think it is awesome. I would have loved to adopt more than one, but we also didn't want to put our son as the odd man out. I think the adoption of siblings is amazing!! What a perfect blessing from God so close to Christmas. I'm looking forward to the next post.

P.S.....Just wait until the plane. Talk about spending alot of time in the bathroom and sweating. I did and I only had one child ;o)

AdoptaMama said...

Finally...a family! Congratulations.

Sounds like a crazy day, the first of more to come, but what a great day.

We adopted two at once (sisters, 2.5 & 4.5 years old) but they were very mellow girls. Thank goodness for us. ;) There were a few times when one had to peesit while the other was. Monkey see, monkey do! At the time they were so little that I could put them back-to-back on the toilet and we got done twice as fast. :) Can't do that anymore -- they're 6 & 8 now.

Best of luck to you! I look forward to following the rest of your journey.

Troy and Rachel said...

Oh my goodness!!! You all must be exhausted!! Thanks for sharing that story and the toilet thing is cracking me up, having them sit backwards, but you know what? Whatever works and parents can be creative!! Sounds like a wonderful day and night! Congratulations!

Barb said...

Thanks for sharing the story. It doesn't always go how we think, but in the end it's all worth it.
Barb

Sarah said...

Congratulations. We adopted two at once (3yr old boy and his 1 yr old sister). It was hard, but the 'sometimes challenging' behaviours we had to deal with didn't continue at all once the kids were settled at home. We've been home for nearly 10 months and both kids are a lot more mellow than I thought they ever would be when they were destroying our hotel room in Vladivostk!
The plane ride home is best forgotten but the feeling when you finally reach home and your children are tucked up in their beds is awesome.
Sarah (NZ)

Cindy said...

OH, yeah. I know all about the Jekyl and Hyde thing. I had a post on my blog when I first got Vika with me about what a sweet, obedient child she was.... Yeah. That lasted about ONE day. She's still a sweetie, but bouncing off the walls for the last two months. I am so lucky she's such a well-adjusted, normal kid, though. I know exactly what you mean about looking at their sleeping angel faces and knowing in your heart it's God's perfect plan for you. It makes all the craziness that goes on during the day worth it. It's always a combo deal of challenges and joys and I don't think I'd have it any other way! I'm so happy for you all. I can't wait to see pics. I bet I've seen your two youngest kids from when I got Vika at the same baby home. Sleep well!

Cindy

Tony and Dawn said...

Sounds familiar! Let me guess, your in the last room down the hall on the left? That was our room and I think everyone down the hall knew when we were inside - boy were we loud! I promise you will see amazing changes in the next six weeks! The folks at the Vlad I think are very used to the all the kids because they never seemed upset with us. I did feel bad though when one of our three apparently tried to use a whole roll of toilet paper after using the potty. I went and got help but insisted on doing the plunging myself. Have fun and enjoy yourselves!

Heather said...

I am sitting on the floor of the Seoul airport laughing at this entry. We will never forget the look on Eric's face when peesit was said yet again! Enjoy the remaining days at the Vlad Inn. We will be thinking of you often!
Justin and Heather

Anonymous said...

So Funny! Congratulations & Good Luck on the Trip home!