Friday, May 22, 2009

At 9:40 am Thursday morning in Guangzhou we started a 25 hour journey back to America. Lily started off the day a little anxious about leaving. She clung to our guide in the morning and I was afraid she was going to refuse to go with us and make a scene in the airport but with excellent guidance from our guide she easily went with us and was a perfect traveler! Once we were alone with her she noticeably was more attached and was careful to stay close to us and held my hand. She even lay in my lap on the plane. She entertained herself with coloring, playing games with mom and learning checkers. On the longest flight she had an empty seat next to her and was able to lie down and slept for 8 hours. It hard to wake her but I really needed her to sleep when we got home so we woke her and at that time had about 4 more hours of travel. Once we got on the last plane she was very excited because she knew we were soon to be home and she kept asking about her brothers and whether they would be at the airport. When the plane landed she could hardly contain her excitement and kept pulling us toward the main terminal. We were greeted by our family and many signs welcoming us home. Lily was a little shy with so much attention but she did great. We were not there very long before heading home. When we got home the boys were very excited about showing Lily her new house. We went in the front door and they ran up the stairs. They were so cute dragging her around the house. She liked her room and is very cautious about taking care of it. Today she wouldn’t let Mason on her bed without washing his hands because they were dirty. They were all so excited I let them stay up until 12:15 and then told the boys we need to show Lily how we do bedtime here so they were great in helping model how we do bedtime. I didn’t know if she would sleep in her bed the first night home but she did not hesitate to pull the covers back and snuggle in after getting ready for bed. She slept until about 6:30 and then proceeded to wake up everyone with her loud feet! We are all a little tired today.

Today she has been doing a lot of different things. She has been outside in the sandbox, playing Leapster, playing with Barbie’s, and running around the house with the boys. With no sleep last night and a new sister I let the boys stay home from school today. It is so cute to see them in her room playing Barbie’s with her. I heard one even say, “this is fun”.

One of the biggest struggles for me is figuring out what to feed her. This morning we boiled eggs since I knew she liked them. For lunch she had a bowl of Chinese noodles and for dinner we are having hamburgers. I am going to try to get her to try a hamburger but we’ll see, I may be making noodles again ( update-she ate more than half!). She doesn’t try new things so I am worried she will not transition to our diet too well. My Chinese cooking skills are pretty limited so I hope she will learn to eat what we eat. If not I may become acquainted with the Chinese take-out nearby.

After months of waiting, mounds of paperwork, over 50 hours of travel and two weeks in China it is so hard to believe we are home with our daughter. I am serious when I say she seems to fit in with our family so well. We have a lot of steps to take toward attachment but I am very happy with the way things are going. We are truly happy and look forward to developing our relationship with her as time goes by. She is a great little girl, we are blessed.

I will update the site monthly until our first anniversary of Gotcha Day. Thanks again to everyone for your kind words, support, love, donations, and for meals in the fridge! Lily has a great support network from you all and we love you!