We Are Home

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days. The last night in Guangzhou was very busy with packing and last minute items (including making a special trip to The White Swan for a "red couch" picture). Then Friday we were traveling for 24+ hours. Today we've been busy dealing with items at home that resulted from hurricane Ike (including lots of grocery shopping to replenish our entirely empty refrigerator -- thank goodness my family already had emptied it out for us). So, this is really the first moment I've had a chance to blog.

The trip home was amazingly smooth. No flight delays and both girls travelled well (Katrina was a perfect little traveler and Grace only had two minor incidents of fussiness and one potty accident, which could have been much worse). Even so, we were so glad to make it home!

The last night in Guangzhou we went to The White Swan to take pictures. In case you don't know, it is a tradition in Chinese adoption to take a picture of your child on the famous "red couch" on the second floor of the White Swan Hotel. We did this with Katrina too. Since we weren't staying at The White Swan, we didn't get to take a group photo (with the other families from our travel group). I didn't want Grace to miss out on this tradition, so we jumped in a cab and had our own little photo session. Here are the results:


After Grace saw the first round of pictures on the couch, she climbed up again and wanted to take more pictures (now that she can see herself in the pictures she loves to take them). You can see from this picture that Grace "owned" that red couch.


Here is a picture of Katrina and Grace at the airport:


Grace was pretty amazed by her new house and her new room. She was very curious, but cautious. She didn't want to leave her new bedroom. She loved all the toys, the bright colors and the soft fabrics. She was very afraid of the dogs. So the dogs are having to live in the laundry room (they are not too happy), until Grace is more comfortable with them. I'm sure she'll warm up to them over time. They are sweet dogs, but they are a little too eager to kiss on Grace for her taste.

We managed to get four hours sleep Friday night (Grace woke us all up), but the girls took a four hour nap (Joe and I had to wake them up). Hopefully they will sleep at least 8 hours tonight and that will go a long way to getting them back on a sleeping schedule more in line with our time zone.

Joe leaves tomorrow for a week of business travel. He is sad to be leaving so soon and we are sad to see him go. I hope Grace can understand that he is not leaving her and that he will be back. She has lost so many people in her short life thus far and I don't want her to be scared that Daddy is not coming back. Pray for us that she will be able to understand and accept very soon that Daddy and Mommy are NEVER going to leave her.