Three days ago we finally arrived back in Wichita with Sasha. The trip home was long and didn’t go as planned but we made it home and all three of us survived. Things got off to a rough start after we boarded the plane in Moscow. We sat on the plane in Moscow for two hours while they fixed a mechanical problem. That turned our 10 hour flight into a 12 hour one. Overall Sasha was quite the trooper and did well. Mama and papa did well, too. We were very anxious about the flight considering how exhausted we were the week prior after a “short” two hour flight. Sasha slept for about five hours on the plane and we managed to keep her somewhat entertained the other seven. Arriving on U.S. soil was a great feeling and I think one of the best moments for us was going through customs. The young lady who processed our papers was very nice and very excited for little Sasha. She made a big deal about putting the stamp on Sasha’s passport making her a U.S. citizen. Unfortunately we were so tired that we didn’t get any pictures of her first steps on U.S. soil as a U.S. citizen.

Due to the delay in Moscow we missed our connecting flights so Sasha spent her first night as a citizen in Virginia. We knew when we finally left Moscow that we would not make our connections. By the time we landed the airline had all our connections rebooked, hotel arrangements and meal vouchers prepared. Even though we desparately wanted to be home, this delay was definitely for the best. As we flew across the world, our prayer was that God would work out the details and trusted that His plan was best. We did not want to be put in a position to make any decisions since we were so tired and had so many different emotions going through our heads. After the 12 hour flight I don’t think there’s any way the three of us could have handled our orginal flight schedule. We made it to the hotel by 8:00 pm EST and Sasha fell asleep playing on the bed by 9:00 EST. She slept all night so we all got some good rest.

Saturday started out okay but went down hill once we got to Chicago. The airline made a big mistake in our rebooking because Sasha was on a separate one way ticket and not on our round trip ticket. Matt and I had boarding passes for the noon flight to Wichita but to our surprise when we got to the termnal Sasha was shown as flying stand by. Because the flight was overbooked there was no way Sasha was getting on the flight. Long story short we ended up flying into Oklahoma City and driving the rest of the way home. Not the best circumstances but once again Sasha did well.

Thankfully, Sasha has not had any problems adjusting to the time change. She’s slept through the night every night since we left Russia. While Matt struggled a couple nights with jet lag overall we’ve gotten good rest which has helped the transition on our part. It’s amazing to see Sasha in her new home and she‘s doing remarkably well considering what she‘s been through. She’s quite the chatterbox and her English is shocking us all. I think she pronounces as many English words as she does Russian words. The question everyone’s been wondering is how she’s doing with the dogs. I’m happy to say that she LOVES her puppies. It took about half of the day on Monday to get them acquainted and the big turning point was when she got to play fetch with them. She loved that and realized that they listen and she can communicate with them, too. It’s hilarious to listen to her when one of them has done something she doesn’t approve of. She gets down right in their faces, points at them and begins scolding them in Russian babble. Dudley is never more than a step away from her and follows her everywhere. He also loves Sasha’s toys. Sally isn’t quite so sure about everything and keeps her distance a little more but still puts up with Sasha bothering her very well.

We have lots of pictures and lots of fun details/stories to share. Unfortunately it’s taken me three days to get this entry complete so they may be slow in coming. We are starting to feel caught up so hopefully I’ll have a chance to add some additional updates later in the week before Matt goes back to work on Tuesday. To help Sasha adjust and in an effort to keep her stress at a minimum we continue to limit visitors to immediate family. I know many are eager to meet her but right now our priority is helping her become comfortable with her home and learning who family are. Thank you for understanding and for your patience as we work through a very stressful tme in Sasha’s life.