Alive and well at home!

Yes, we are alive and well at home!  Sorry you all haven't heard from me.  I honestly don't think I've even opened my computer in the past 3 days!  Thanks sooo much for your prayers for our journey home.  It was completely smooth and Anna only cried a couple of times during the 24 hours of travel.  Of course it was exhausting carrying her and helping her walk around the plane to keep her entertained, but she did at least sleep several times during the long 14 hour flight.  We got through customs and immigration in record time and on the last security check the security guards were very impressed with how efficiently all 6 of us got through the check.  They commented that we must have done this before.  YES, we most definitely had.  I should have kept a record of how many security checks we went through on this trip, and how many of our water bottles were confiscated!  The USA is a bit obsessive about the liquid thing!

We we welcomed home by family at the airport and with Welcome Home signs from those who couldn't make it. Anna was a bit overwhelmed by her new family members, but they just had to come and see her as soon as she arrived!

We are settling in well at home.  All the boys (including K.C) have had a rough time adjusting to the jet lag, but all of us girls have done just fine.  Anna really loves our house and her new room.  She loves her dolls and puts them to bed in a little dolly pack and play.  She loves exploring every room and having Esther carry her to see everything.  She's learning how to crawl up and down the stairs, but ever since we brought Chloe (our dog) home on Sunday she hasn't been as adventurous.  She enjoys the dog from far away, but up close is way too scary! Hopefully she will get used to Chloe soon so I don't have to keep her off the ground most of the time.  Chloe has actually been really good around Anna and hasn't tried to jump on her, which is saying a lot if you know our dog!

The kids are back to school, but looking forward to having Thursday and Friday off so they can catch up on missed work.  All their teachers tell us how much they talk about how excited they are about their new sister.  They all enjoyed China but were definitely ready to get home.  

Anna is doing much better with sleeping, even though she still has some night terrors, she goes down for her nap and bedtime willingly.  I've got her sleeping in her own bed for nap time which is nice so that when we transition her out of our bed it will hopefully be easier.  I think having her in our bed at night helped her not to experience jet lag because when she would wake up in the middle of the night she would see us still sleeping and see that it was dark and just snuggle up to us and go back to sleep.  She wakes up in a great mood and gives us the biggest smiles when she sees us in the morning.

She's still pretty attached to me, but is letting K.C. do more and more with her.  He gave her a bath tonight and got her ready for bed, which is how I am having time to write this!  Last night I was the last one to go to bed and it was only 9 O'clock! I think by tomorrow most of us will be functioning more normally.  It's been nice having frozen meals so that I don't have to think about dinner thanks to my sister Carla and Social Suppers.  It looks like we have several more people who want to bring us dinner which is soooo appreciated! Thanks everyone!

It's definitely not easy being new parents again, starting with a two year old, and dealing with jet lag, but knowing we have so many people praying for us and supporting us has helped tremendously.  We couldn't do this without you and the Lord by our side.

I'll end with a funny video of Anna with a new electronic toy.  It just cracked us up!