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Saturday, November 15, 2008
WE'RE HOME!

Our flight left Guangzhou early in the morning so we were up by 4:00 AM and the kids were not happy about it at all! But we made it to the airport on time and everything went smoothly. We flew from Guangzhou to Tokyo, from Tokyo to Minneapolis, and from Minneapolis to Atlanta, arriving home nearly 24 hours after we started out. Maili did beautifully on the plane; in fact, she slept through most of the 11 hour flight from Tokyo so the rest of us did too. We finally got home around 7:00 or so Friday evening.

We took Maili up to see her room and it was obvious she recognized it from the photo album we had sent her. She broke into a huge grin and started pulling toys out of her toybox and piling them on her bed, telling me in Chinese that she was going to sleep with them. She didn’t, of course, since she slept with us for her first night home. We haven’t gotten a baby monitor yet and we were afraid if she cried out during the night we wouldn’t be able to hear her since her room is upstairs and ours is not. After sleeping for so many hours on the plane she still slept soundly all night and didn’t wake up till nearly 7:00. Unfortunately Jamie and I were still on China time and were unable to sleep past 4:00. Maybe tonight we’ll do better.

Maili had lots of visitors today to welcome her home; first Karen from work stopped by and then Aunt Shari, Uncle Don, and cousins Hayley and Logan came over. Maili met them all at the door with a hug and took everyone to her room to show off her new toys. She played with the kids in her room until it was time to leave and then Aunt Kelli, Fate, and Lacey showed up to meet her. Once again everyone was greeted with hugs and treated to a tour of her room; she is very proud of her new belongings and even managed to do a pretty good job of sharing them with everyone today. She seemed happy to meet everyone and had a great time visiting with them. In fact, the only member of the family she doesn’t seem to like is our pug, Lola. We picked her up from the pet sitter this morning and Maili was immediately terrified of her and spent the rest of the day trying to make sure her feet didn’t touch the floor. She clung to me for dear life any time Lola was in the room, so at least it made for some good bonding time. I’m sure she will grow to love Lola as much as we do in time but for right now she is definitely keeping her distance.

Thanks to everyone for you prayers, support, and guestbook comments throughout our journey. We hope to update the site once a month for awhile so that you can see how Maili is doing. So far since she’s been home she’s been a different child than the one we met in China. She has been very obedient and affectionate, as if she knows she is finally home and we are her forever family. I know that we have some challenges ahead as she makes the adjustment but so far it has been better than we had ever hoped and we are so thankful for that.

“Having someplace to go is Home, having someone to love is Family, and having both is a Blessing”
~author unknown

It's too early in the morning to catch a plane

Waiting at the airport

Meeting Aunt Shari

With cousin Logan

Logan, Maili, and Hayley

Having fun with cousins	Meeting cousin Lacey
Maili, Lacey, and Holt
Talking on Hayley's cell phone	Playing with her new toys

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