Home - I'm Lovin' It

"Home! And this is my room - and you are all here! And I'm not going to leave here ever again, because I love you all! And --- Oh, Auntie Em ----- there's no place like home!" Yes, there's no place like home. No offense to anyone from other countries but God Bless the United States of America! After 18 hours of fly time and around 10 hours of layovers we are glad to be home. Us and our luggage had been searched numerous times which I am truly grateful for. Keep up the good work airlines! From China to Columbia, SC they did not allow any liquids to be brought on the plane. Although we did see someone get on the place in China with a water bottle and a juice box. LAX was crazy. All in all it was not bad though. It could have been much worse. We thought we were going to be in for a long stay in the immigration lines at LAX but luckily some friends were watching out for us and got us bumped up to a special line for adopting parents.

Once AL's passport was stamped by the Immigration officer it was official. Please congratulate AL on being a citizen of the United States of America. She has no clue what that means though but she will know later. AL was very good on the trip home. She hardly fussed even though she had a hard time sleeping on the trans-Pacific flight from China. As we all did... We were waiting for her to say "no more planes!" but she kept gettin' on them. When we arrive Saturday morning at 10:30 AM in a rainy Columbia she seemed reserved but interested to see the Boys and Grandma and Grandpa. We had no problems with the car seat. I was shocked! She climbed right in and started to strap herself in like it was old hat. This was a far cry from a few days ago when she refused to be strapped in on the plane leaving Hefei! No problems with the drive home from the airport. Must have been the driving in China... She seemed very excited when we got to the house and was really enjoying the Boy's and running around the house. Some friends of ours that watched the house and took care of the pets while we were gone left a very nice decorated cake and some gifts for her along with some balloons and gifts. AL was very excited and happy.

After a while we went outside and introduced her to Mako our cat and everything was going Ok until we said "say goodbye to Mako" because we were going back into the house. Well, that triggered something. We are not sure if it was because of lack of sleep, jet lag, or what but we had our first meltdown since the first couple of days in China. I think she thought we were taking her away again to somewhere else but I don't know. After a nap which Angi had to wake her from she was all better. No problems today so far. She's happy as a lark. Whatever a lark is I don't know but I understand they're very happy. She is going non-stop. Angi is worn out. She has a cold and didn't get much sleep last night. AL got up a couple of times. So far today AL has played with Spencer even though he didn't know what to think of it. She has found a buddy in big brother Noah, whether coloring or playing with the blocks. He's an expert at construction so he's the right man for the job.

I think we are off to a great start so far. We are soooo glad to be home and I think she is glad to be home with us. We love AL. As you can see from the picture above we ate at McDonalds in the LAX airport. Free re-fills! They don't give free re-fills of soft drinks in China. Angi and I also had a quarter pounder with cheese while AL had a chicken nugget Happy Meal. Of course she liked the plastic doll that came with the meal and played with it the rest of the way back. We had pizza for supper last night and I think we are good now. Thanks for keeping up!

- Ric