We are Finally Home

Mommy's Gotcha Day

After 17 days, we have finally made it home.  I know many are wondering how she did on the long plane ride.  She was pretty good for the most part.  She played and ate.  The hard part for her is sleeping in your arms.  She doesn't do well with that.  She likes to roll during her sleeping and be free.  When she can't, she gets upset.  She slept probably a total of 2 hours on the 14 hour plane ride home.  She was a little fussy during the end of the plane ride as she was exhausted.  It is hard because you can't do anything for her to make her feel better and you know it is because she want's to sleep, but can't.  Anyway, we made it back on our first leg to Chicago and had to get thru customs and make it to our gate within 2 hours.  We made it thru.  Customs was very easy.  We got to the customs area and there were 3 families with adopted kids.  All of us had little girls of which came from the same orphanage.  If you remember earlier from one of my post, there were 3 of them that came from the same home.  It was pretty cool that they were all on the same flight to America and became US Citizens at the same time.  We all entered customs and then had to turn in paperwork for them.  They took us to a holding room while they processed the paperwork and then said welcome home.  Best words ever.  We then ventured to get our bags and recheck them.  Once all was complete, we made it to the gate with about 15 or 20 minutes to spare.  We loaded up on the flight to RDU.  She had a bottle on the plane and feel fast asleep.  She slept most of this flight home and woke up as we landed. We got off the plane and of course, we wanted to change her clothes.  She had food all over them and we didn't want mommy to think we didn't take care of her.  We finally made it to the waiting area where mommy was anxiously awaiting.  I had already text her when we landed so she knew we were there.  When we got to mommy, she just gazed at her for a short time and then I handed her off.  She kind of had that same look as when I got her on "Gotcha Day".  This was mommy's Gotcha Day.

So happy to see this little angel

She just sat in Amy's arms as if she was trying to figure out everything.  We went downstairs and Amy played with her while I got luggage together and then we headed to the car.  This was going to be the first time she had been in a car seat.  China doesn't require this and she had never been confined in a car before.  We got her in and mommy sat in the back with her.  She had a few snacks and before we got out of the parking lot, she was asleep.  She slept all the way to Rocky Mount.  Mommy just sat in the back and looked at her.  She even made the comment, "I just can't stop looking at her".  We made it home and she came in for the first time.  We took her thru the house and then upstairs to her room.  She just took it all in.  It seemed as if she really liked all there was to see and then we sat in the floor and played for a while.  Some of the family came by to see her for a minute and she played.  She had a blast.  We gave her a bath and it was off to sleep.  She was exhausted and we were too.  First night with mommy.  Let's see how this goes.

Tears of joy and anticipation of this day. FINALLY