How Great is Our God!! Home with our Son.

We arrived home about 3:30AM Sunday. It was a great reunion with the entire family - our oldest son had driven home from college. We were up until about 4:30 or 5 hugging on one another and catching up on the past week's experiences. To be in church with all of our family home was such a huge blessing! Alexander blended right in like he had been with us forever- God is awesome! He wasn't afraid or overwhelmed by six brothers and sisters loving on him, he just giggled and smiled. I was afraid of a little jealousy developing with Nastya and Dima but that really only popped up briefly yesterday afternoon.

As I stated on our last post, the trip from Atlanta to Frankfurt was horrible. I have never flown and had such a large plane tossed around for sooo long. Dawn got sick and it took a few days for her to get over it. We picked up Alexander on Wednesday and as soon as he came up the stairs and saw us, he came running. We dressed him in his new clothes and he kept point to them and nodding with a big smile. I have some pictures, but I can't seem to get them off my iPod. As soon as I get them off, I'll post them.

After picking up Alexander we went to the passport office to pick up his passport. I was not surprised to learn that there was "a problem". There was an error on the passport but the office agreed to print a new one on the spot. With no stop for lunch (it was 1:30PM) we drove back to Moscow (3 hour trip). As soon as we got to the motel, we went next door to McDonald's. We got him a hamburger and he ate some of our fries. he did not finish off the hamburger until later that night. He was happy and content and only got upset for about 10-15 minutes at bedtime. He realized I guess that he was not going back to the detsky dom. We felt sorry for him, but due to the communication issue, we did not know what to do other that hold him and love on him. He was fine Thursday and did not cry one bit.

Thursday night I had the opportunity to read his entire file. It was very sad to read, but had all of it not happened, we would not have the opportunity to have him in our family. He is such a happy little boy and will put a smile on your face no matter how bad your day is.

The trip home was very hard. A 13 hour - yes 13 hour flight from Moscow to Dulles. The little man fell asleep the last 30 minutes of the flight. This was followed by a five hour lay over before we could fly to Atlanta and drive home. He fell asleep again just before boarding the Atlanta flight and slept until we arrived there.

He has taught us a few signs and we have been trying to introduce some new signs to him. We do believe he can hear a little bit - particularly high pitched sounds. He has perked up and dogs whining and some other noises. Soon we will schedule a doctor's appt to determine what is going on with his ears. By the way, the doctor in Russia that examined him for his visa told us that although he was four, he was the size of a small 3 year old. We knew he was small. Dr. Boris said he knew he would gain weight once we got him home. He also has a mild case of rickets that he said he would grow out of.

As soon as I get pictures off that iPod, I will post them. I just bought the thing a few days before we left. If you have any tips, I will gladly try them!

God Bless -

Tony & Dawn