Home Sweet Home

Some of you have let me know that you were anxiously awaiting an update---sorry it took so long; I don't get much computer time these days :). Well, I'll start from where I left off. We left the hotel in Guangzhou around 5:45 am to go to the airport. Our first plane left at 8:00 am for Beijing (3 hour flight). Grace has never been restrained before so the seatbelt was a huge issue and she threw a couple of fits, but we made it through. We then had a 5 1/2 hour layover until we got on the plane from Beijing to Chicago (12 hour flight). That's a tough flight whether you have a 4 yr. old or not, but it went pretty well, considering. Grace slept a total of 8 of the 12 hours. We then had a 4 1/2 hour layover in Chicago before boarding the plane for St. Louis!! We arrived at 9:45 pm CST---28 hours after we left the hotel in Guangzhou. Mom, Dad, our kids, and my friend, Amy and family greeted us at the airport with balloons and signs--it was soooooooo incredible to see them!!! We got home close at 11pm and, of course, no one was ready to go to bed--especially Grace. I think she slept about 3 1/2 hours that night--as did we--we were exhausted!!! Jet lag is a killer! The kids and Grace meshed together miraculously--it was perfectly clear that Grace had been their sister all along. She also fell in love with Mia and Pops right away as they did with her. Grace took to her new home as if she had lived here forever--she is the most adaptable child. We've been home now 6 days--it hasn't all been perfect, of course. There have been and will continue to be challenges. I liken this experience to bringing home a newborn and all the challenges and changes that go with that. I'm up at night again; the former baby (Hayden) is a little jealous of the new baby; and life as we knew it before is VERY different. It's all very much like it was each time I gave birth to a new baby--except this baby is much bigger and can throw BIGGER fits! From what I hear from my "adoptee buddies", everything we are going through is perfectly normal, and soon we will find our normal routine and we will wonder how we ever lived life without Grace! I'll post some new pics soon!