We're Home!

Hi everyone~ We did make it home safely on Saturday night and Jason is thrilled to be back!!! Thanks to Papaw & Nanny for the great ride to & from the airport! Well, the Hall household has been "Hoppin" ever since! There have been many moments of excitement, joy, tears, tantrums...you name it...just like expected, there are many adjustments right now!

Just to give you a quick recap of the events of the past 48 hrs (Warning: not for weak stomachs)~ Vitali had a dirty diaper on the plane that was even on clothes & the buckle seatbelt sign was on and attendants were strickly enforcing at the time, so Jason could not change him for an hour until they landed, which was our first cell phone call from Jason going through customs in the airport to get the new clothes ready to change right away! This is a great intro to the rest of the past 48hrs because it has been just as eventful...Inna has eaten a dog treat thinking it was for her(until we told her) and not to be outdone, Grant decided to follow her and lick a dog treat! The great news is that Vitali has cured our dog of all of his barking, because everytime he does, Vitali chases him! Though, he has learned to pet him now instead of lifting him by his tail. There are many behavior adjustments to be addressed. There are a few times when Inna has not gotten what she wanted that Jason & I looked at each other and said I think we just got cursed out in Russian! These are some of the difficulties, but there have been many joys and visible improvements in both kids already. Vitali is like a totally different child now! He has been talking non-stop (literally) today~ I believe that he has made up for 4 yrs in one day! When he is not talking, he is has been singing while he walks around. He loves to play and seems to be very happy!
Inna absolutely loves the swimming pool and would probably stay in it all day if she could. She has had some great times and some down times (again, expected). Her favorite thing other than swim is to go through her closet and change outfits. I think we have had about 10 outfit changes over the past 48 hrs complete with a new hairdo for each one! We wondered if she would like the dresses since she mostly wore a gym suit in Ukraine, but almost all of her clothing changes have been into dresses. Melissa Taylor, her favorite dress is the one that ya'll handed down to her with the purses on it that has the fun diferent lengths at the bottom. She loves to dance and watch it twirl! Her favorite show so far is Dora!
They both like pretty much any food that is placed before them. We have tried to make sure they get some things that they would eat at home, but they even like the new foods from here too. It is just amazing to watch them eat...they eat and drink so quickly and are usually done before we even get through putting our seasonings or sauces on our plate :) Trish G., they LOVED the pea soup and Pam, we LOVED the lasagna!!!
Grant & Tiff are doing great too! Grant is thrilled with his new brother and sister and seems to be adjusting well with having them here!!! They have both warmed up to Tiff very quickly. In fact, Vitali is loading toys on top of her right now! Vitali has warmed up to neighbors and friends bringing meals rather easily, but Inna has not been willing to meet anyone so far, except for the ones that were at the airport. I am sure that this will just take time and that it is all overwhelming for her right now! Tomorrow, we have an interpreter coming so that we can communicate the things that are needed with them and that they can ask or tell us anything that they may need. The interpreter is a sweet foreign exchange student who is staying with a family in our church and she has been so sweet to offer coming anytime that we need. So far, the communication has gone better than we ever expected. My Russian cheat sheet has been a life-saver and Inna is picking up some English words rather quickly. Please keep the prayers coming...although we are in a big adjustment phase, these are things that we expected from all the adoption educational preparations from our agency, UAB clinic, and others experiences and it really helps to be able to say when something happens, "ok, this is just what we learned would happen from others experiences" instead of being taken by surprise! We really feel your prayers and God's strength every step of the way!

Here is a pic of when we first met up at the airport (More pics later).....