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.