Home-home

Getting to Chicago felt like "home". But now we are home-home at last.

Dear Nate and Andrea met us at the airport, having been ready to go since the afternoon before. And you amazed me, Andrea, with your thoughtfulness. Thanks you two - you blessed us so much!

As soon as we got out of the car in the driveway at home, MeiLi met Nick. She was fascinated, not afraid, but didn't want him facing her. She pointed at the horses, who were grazing nearby, and walked over to them.
She's not ready to get too close to them either. Then we walked around the house to see the pool. (She had pictures of all these features in the book we had given her and recognized everything!).

Then we went into the house and forgive me, but the only thing I can compare to bringing home a 5-year-old is bringing home a puppy. You set them down, and they start exploring. With a truly glee-full smile, she wandered through every door, down every hall, picking things up, putting them down. She wanted to wear all the clothes, have a tea-party, swim in the pool, take a bubble bath, play dolls, and we pretty much indulged her. Emmi and I swam with her - having her in the pool was absolutely delightful! She discovered the slide quickly, and put Allie, Nate and I through quite a workout. Then she squirted everyone (dog and cat included) with her squirt gun.

Doug and I took a nap while the girls played some more, then we all sat up for awhile together, catching up on recorded episodes of So You Think You Can Dance (thanks Nate!). When it looked like MeiLi wasn't getting tired at 2am, we decided to all go to bed anyway. The household is asleep now, except me, probably because of that nap. All 4 girls are in the bunkbeds. Cute cute cute!

Thanks y'all for the fun welcome home banner, balloons and gifts!! You're awesome and thoughtful!

It felt presumptuous to assume we'd make it through this whole process and end up with a new little daughter, and going to China was especially hard to imagine, but here we are back home, safe and sound, by God's grace! Thank you a gazillion times over for all your thoughts and prayers.

So, in our Holt Families in Process group of 4 families, we are the second to be home with our new child. The 3rd family in our group is now in Ethiopia, meeting their new little son for the first time. They won't be able to bring him home this trip, because the process is different for Ethiopia, but they'll get to spend a little time with him, and I think, process some more paperwork. Please pray for them (Jenny and Ben) - they've had some bureaucratic difficulties.

All for now, it's 4am KC time. To bed to bed. Tomorrow we unpack and do laundry!