Monday, January 22

We made it home!! It is so wonderful to finally be back. The trip went pretty well, actually. Alex stayed occupied mostly by eating, sleeping, and when he got tired of us we had really great people around us that talked to him and entertained him for a few hours also! The flight to New York was 10 hours, and then we caught a 3 hours flight to Atlanta. Alex slept that whole flight to Atlanta. We did have one hurried moment as our flight to New York was over an hour late, and we had to go through immigration and customs and then catch our other flight. The immigration people let us go to the front of the line since we were American citizens and got us through really fast. Then we ran the rest of the way to the plane, and made it!! We got in at about 10:00 pm to Atlanta.
Yesterday Alex spent the morning investigating the house and taking a long bath. He loves taking baths. In the afternoon Kim's family came over and brought home our dog, Maggie, and some toys. Alex really wore himself out, and fell asleep a few minutes after they left. His meeting with Maggie was okay. He had said he liked dogs, but I'm sure he wasn't expecting such a big one. He was a little scared of her, which made her wary of him, but we have just been slowly letting them get used to being around each other. They already are much better today.
Today we introduced him to Walmart. I'm not sure what he thought about it, he just stayed in the buggy and helped us put everything in it. We rode around in the car running errands, and he likes car rides. His english is coming along much quicker just in the last few days. I think he is realizing he is the only one speaking Russian now. We are having fun with him, but he goes nonstop all day. We are really thankful that he sleeps so well at night- and for so long. It gives us a chance to unpack and think for a minute. Welcome to our new life!
Chris is off from work this week which is great. We really haven't had much time just the 3 of us, since even last week in Ukraine we always had our translator with us. We are looking forward to continuing to bond as a family.
I will try to continue updating this blog with pictures of Alex, etc...
Thanks again for everyone's support and prayers. We are looking forward to everyone getting to meet Alex!!