Home- Days 1 and 2

I wanted to recap the final leg of our journey and update how things have been going since we got home. Our flight from Amsterdam to Detroit went fairly well with the boys being pretty quiet. Ruslan sat with Chad in the row behind Pasha and I. There was a male flight attendant who was a snob to us (don’t think he was a parent) when the boys pushed the call button. Really, you have a button that lights up within easy reach of a preschooler? As we deplaned Chad and I commented how well things had been going up to that point (first mistake). Since Detroit was our port of entry, we had to go through customs and immigration. We were told by the Embassy to plan for 45 minutes per child to complete the immigration stuff. It really only took about fifteen minutes total. The immigration officials were really nice; they congratulated us and told us how cute the boys were. They also said how nice it was that the boys were able to be adopted together since they are brothers. On the flight to Detroit a woman told me how cute Pasha was. That made me feel good inside. After immigration, we had to go and pick up our baggage. This was when things went awry. We had to wait a few minutes, and the boys began to get hyper from being overtired. It didn’t help that Chad and I were exhausted as well. I am sure that everyone in the area of baggage belt #6 questioned my parenting techniques. The boys had their backpack/leashes on and for the first time we really had to use them. I held onto each boys’ leash as Chad wrangled our luggage. They were chasing each other in circles around me, clotheslining each other and falling all over the place. Chad accidentally clocked Ruslan on the chin with the luggage so we had more tears. We didn’t have a whole lot of time so we placed Ruslan in the stroller and Chad pulled Pasha along by the hand. We found a monitor to figure out what gate our flight to Peoria was at AND….. Peoria 1:38pm flight CANCELLED. WHAT? Then I looked outside and saw the torrential rain and lightning and everything clicked; we were not going to get home today. We headed to the customer service counter for Delta and saw a long line. I called a customer service representative and couldn’t hear a thing. I kept asking her to speak more loudly and wondered if she thought I needed to turn up my hearing aide (I had a hearing test earlier in the year so knew it wasn’t me). I was able to discern that we had automatically been rebooked on another flight in the morning at 8:30 to Minneapolis and then another flight to Peoria. Chad was not thrilled and I felt the need to speak to someone in person. I eyed the long line that hadn’t moved since I began my call several minutes earlier and asked Chad what he wanted to do. He replied, “I want to go home”. He took the boys over to some chairs while I stood in line. As I stood there, I could hear everyone on their cell phones calling family and friends about their cancelled flights. I felt like the floor was moving and even asked a woman standing in front of me if she felt it too. No, it wasn’t vibrating; I guess I had been on an airplane for too long. I waited about 45 minutes before making it to the front of the line. It turned out that we were extremely fortunate as I was assisted by a wonderful man whom had just started working his shift. I told him about our situation and asked if there was anything he could do or if Delta would pay for our hotel stay. He said he was going to see if he could get us on a flight to somewhere close to home since we had been traveling for so long with young children. He complimented me on how brave we were to undertake adoption of two boys so close together in age, and said his daughter’s idea of children was a bevy of cats but he held out hope some day he would be a grandparent. He found two seats on a later flight to Peoria, but wasn’t sure if he could get four seats. He called a supervisor over who punched in some codes into the computer and voila we were booked on the 7:28 flight to Peoria!
Chad and I still didn’t believe we would make it home today. I was receiving phone calls and text messages from our family and friends about the weather back home and how a violent storm was heading through the area. 7:28 came and went. We needed to get rid of the lightning otherwise we wouldn’t be cleared for takeoff.
Finally, a few minutes after 8pm we boarded the flight for home. I fell asleep for the middle portion of the flight. I woke up when we were in the middle of a significant thunderstorm. I had never seen lightning from an airplane and would be happy never to experience it again. Ruslan woke up too and began crying; the lights were out in the plane so it was quite dark with the exception of the bursts of lightning. We thankfully landed a few minutes after 9pm in Peoria. My parents, Samantha, Callie, Jess and Matt, Jaimey and Christian, and Sonia and Aiden were waiting for us with signs. They were also wearing their From Russia with Love t-shirts. I thought the girls would jump into my arms but they were more interested in hugging their brothers. Sonia had brought little gift bags for the boys with snacks and a couple of toys. These were a big hit as the boys immediately sat down and began playing. Pasha and Aiden were pushing their car back and forth between the two of them. It all was a bit surreal as we had been waiting so long for this moment.
We loaded up the car and headed to Chad’s sister’s home to pick up his jeep and the dogs. Sam rode home as my copilot and kept me entertained so that I would stay awake for the hour long drive home. Callie and the boys fell asleep half way home. It is a tight fit for all three carseats in my car. We are going to have to figure something out for times when we all have to go somewhere. Once we got home the girls showed the boys their room and everyone commenced playing while Chad and I brought in the luggage. I convinced everyone it was late and we all needed to get to bed. The boys laid in bed for a while talking but were asleep by midnight. Chad was asleep before that and I followed shortly after the boys. I woke a couple of times in the middle of the night as the time change made my body feel I shouldn’t be sleeping even though I was exhausted. Everyone was awake by 6:30 so I got up and made pancakes. The boys weren’t thrilled with them, I am sure the syrup was too sweet for their palates. I had dishes cleared and the three little ones bathed and dressed by 8am. It was a good practice for next week when we have to be places to be early in the morning.
The day went by fairly uneventful with the boys pushing their toy cars around all day. We had lunch and then headed to their visit with the pediatrician at 1pm. He checked them out and said he would defer to our specialist’s recommendations from our appointment next week. He struggled to read the immunization records which had been written out in Russian with the translator making little notes by the dates of immunization. The boys responded to the pediatrician really well; I think they had regular check-ups in the orphanage so it was not an unusual thing for them. It took about an hour and a half at the pediatrician since he did a thorough review of all their body systems. He mentioned Ruslan had tight heel cords which was to be expected and that although it seemed his legs were mostly affected his entire right side does have some weakness. He thought that Ruslan would really respond well to physical therapy so after we see Dr. Ladage next week we will get that started. The boys begin speech therapy at my university clinic next week too. It was funny that the nurse asked me not to bring all four kids in together for shots because she didn’t think she could handle that many at once! I don’t blame her it was a bit chaotic.
Pasha got a prescription for his eczema and I am sure more meds for Ruslan will follow in the next few weeks. After our appointment we dropped off the prescription at Walgreens and headed to my parents to get a snack for the kids. My dad was out mowing on his John Deere tractor and offered to give the kids a ride in the wagon. Callie and Pasha gladly hopped in but Ruslan wasn’t sure and wanted to watch. After a couple of laps around the yard Dad stopped and asked Ruslan if he would want to sit on his lap and drive. Ruslan happily jumped up on Dad’s lap and drove a couple more laps. I took some pictures with my phone and couldn’t help but think how my Grandpa used to do the same thing with Jaimey and I. I imagine he was smiling in heaven. After we got home we headed to the park across the street to play with Dakota and Gail Strope. Christian came over as she was at her babysitter’s across the street. The boys worked hard at figuring out the playground equipment. Ruslan had to work extra hard to climb up the structure with the foot pegs but he did it. Everyone clapped and cheered for him.
Last night Jess stopped by during dinner and then stayed a while to play with the kids. Bath and bedtime went pretty smoothly. I have been putting the boys to sleep at 8, Callie at 8:30-9 and Sam after that. I wanted Callie and Sam to continue to get some alone time with me as I used to cuddle and talk with them during the half hour before bed before we left for Russia. Sam was still awake when I went to bed. Chad was snoring when I crawled into bed about 9:15 and I fell asleep by 9:30 without meaning to as I was trying to watch some TV. Oh, well! I woke up at 11pm when Chad jumped out of bed. Then I realized that the boys were screaming. I went into the bedroom to see what was going on as Chad was coming out. Apparently one of them had experienced a nightmare and thought he saw another crocodile outside the window. A few minutes later the screaming erupted again so I headed in and spoke to them in Russian for a bit which calmed them down again. Fortunately they slept through the rest of night.
So, all things considered I think we are adjusting well. I don’t know how I am going to do all of the parenting and work (I pretty much am cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry from the minute I wake up until the minute I fall into a pile in bed). I guess it will get easier as I get more practice at it; I am trying to stay organized and stay on top of the dishes and such. The girls are helping and the boys are pitching in too. This weekend we have Chad’s mom’s birthday party tomorrow and a cookout at the lake with my parents on Memorial day. Somewhere in there I have to work on grading finals. Chad is not sure if the boys will be able to handle the party at his parents because they have three dogs and Chad and Amanda will probably have their puppy there too. We hate to have to put all of the dogs in the house but it would just be too traumatizing to the boys and hurt everyone else’s ears with their screaming if the dogs were outside with us. We will see how it goes! I hope everyone enjoys their Memorial Day weekend!