HOME!!! What a great place to be!

Despite my clear lack of sleep since leaving Moscow, I am so happy to be home. We finally got home at about 3 am this morning. We were greeted at the airport by Dean, Jake and Speed Schlattmann as well as by my sister Kate and her two kids, Logan and Piper. Although Sy was not all that friendly, he was also not unfriendly. By the time it was over, he literally had everyone eating out of his hands. He had a bag of goldfish and was kindly giving everyone a few. Jake was trying so hard and was clearly frustrated that this new little brother was not just jumping with joy to see him and play with him. It is going to be a bit of an adjustment for both of them for two very different reasons. Just a quick recap...I left you with heading to the US Embassy...that went well once we figured out which line to be in. We were told to bypass all the people and go to the front of the line...I found this difficult, some of these people have been waiting for hours and this just is one more thing to add to their frustration. There are a lot of people trying to get to the US it seems. This was the US Embassy so I assume that is what this group of Russians were attempting to do, was get a chance to come to the US. Apparently Russian citizens are required to travel with a visa in nearly every country they wish to enter. Not an easy task. ....Sy was granted his Visa, as were six or seven other little children who had been adopted the past week in various regions. Two sets of twins girls, two more little boys and two other girls. You can imagine it was a bit chaotic at best at times. The plane rides went really well, Sy was a trooper for the most part. He had a melt down ( and so did I) at the NY airport and went kicking and screaming like a wet noodle from Gate 1 to Gate 1000 (exaggeration, more like gate 24). We cleared customs and passport control and immigration fairly quickly. Immigaration gave him the "official" stamp on his passport that made him a US citizen! YIPPEE!!!! A stop at WalMart on the way home and then we all slept (even Dean said he did and he was driving!). Sy did not sleep once we got here and is not sleeping as I type. We are on a very different schedule and hopefully we can transition in the week to come. Today we will begin the scary transition and continuation of more firsts...our dogs, cats, horses, cows, tractor, more cousins, you name it, it will likely be his first for it. I will keep you posted probably a little less frequently but we will see. I have so enjoyed having this to tell his story.