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.