Friday, March 6, 2009

Addison’s first time at home was fairly uneventful - she was asleep. Her first view of her surroundings was at 4am Thursday morning. She seems to be adjusting pretty well, and probably a little better than Mom and Dad are to the new time. Once we all get the time figured out everything will be that much better.

Our travel home went smooth and Addison took everything in stride, but Wednesday ended up being a long day. We started out at 6:00 am local China time to catch the plane to Shanghai, had a layover in Shanghai until 4:30 pm, and arrived in Chicago at 3:30 pm local time. In essence, after putting in the time according to the clock as far as Wednesday was concerned, we arrived in Chicago precisely 1-hour before we left. It was supposed to be a 13 hour flight, but with a pretty good tail wind, 130 some knots, we were early into Chicago. Pretty good as far as air travel is concerned, but our flight to Sioux Falls wasn’t scheduled to leave until 8:05 pm. However, after two delays, we left Chicago at approximately 10:00 pm, putting us in Sioux Falls at 11:30 Wednesday night (1:30 pm on Thursday afternoon in China). We had been in an airport or on a plane for approximately 31 ½ hours. With a 1 ½ hour ride home from Sioux Falls, Wednesday turned out to be the longest but most special day of our lives. We actually consider ourselves lucky to have had it last as long as it did! It’s something that we’ll never be able to experience with Addison again, and as the saying goes: enjoy every minute while you can, cause times sure does fly. Addison will be going to school before we know it, and when she graduates and goes off to college we’ll be saying to ourselves, where did that time go? It will seem like yesterday that we were in China bringing her home!

For now, it was just yesterday when that was the case – and we truly enjoyed every minute of those 33 hours that it took to actually get home from China.

Even though Addison was asleep, she was greeted to a warm welcome into her new home, walking into our kitchen/dining room area that had been decorated with balloons, flowers, and even a cake by her Fultz cousins, Nathan and Elizabeth.

Addison has checked out her play area in the basement, and thinks it’s wonderful. She has been shown her bedroom, but for now is sleeping in our room next to Jen in her crib. It will be awhile until we’ll attempt moving her slowly into her own room.

Jen attempted to make Addison’s favorite food, congee, and it must have been pretty good – she ate two full bowls in one sitting. Addison isn’t so sure though about her playmates, Henry and Cooper. Cooper is older, so he just went to his dog bed not paying much attention to our new addition. Henry, however, has taken an interest in his new playmate, looking at her with his big puppy dog eyes trying to sniff her and befriend her right away since Cooper had about his same interest in him when he first arrived. Henry just wants to play, and since Cooper isn’t willing, he thinks that maybe Addison will want to. It may take some time, but we’re sure that they will become pretty close.

This will be our last post for some time as we try to get adjusted to life at home. Letting Addison explore her new world and get accustomed to life in Minnesota.

Jen and I would like to thank all of those that followed our Journey to Addison. Thank you for your continued prayers and support, we couldn’t have done this without all of you.

Jason, Jen, and Addison.