We're Home

Monday, February 11, 2008 WE'RE HOME! Wow! What a week it has been. We don’t know where to begin, so we’ll begin with our apologies for not updating this page before now. We arrived home on Friday, February 1st, at 10:30 pm – 36 hours after we left the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, China. Merina was a great little traveler and slept most of the 12-hour plane trip from Hong Kong to San Francisco. We were overjoyed to welcome her to America as a new US citizen. And what a special welcoming party of family and dear friends that met us at the Denver airport! It was also fun to pull into the driveway and see ribbons decorating the yard and welcome home banners inside the house! As glad as we are to be back in Wyoming, we all left a part of us in China. There is no way to express the emotions we felt in seeing our daughter’s birth country, meeting the people, and learning about the culture. We boarded the airplane in Guangzhou with sadness for the country we would be leaving behind. During our layover in Hong Kong, Merina was sitting on a blanket on the floor, eating baby food and babbling. An airport employee stopped and talked to Merina and to us. He was a Chinese man who spoke very good English, and he was curious about Merina. He left after several minutes of visiting, and we talked about how nice it was for this man to take time from his duties to visit with an American couple and their Chinese daughter. To our surprise, the same man returned later and said, “I just wanted to thank you Americans.” He went on to say that he was thankful to America for protecting the world and making it a safer place to live. He said Hong Kong would not be what it is today without the help of America. His final comment was, “Congratulations on more than 200 years as a country, and I wish you 200 more.” As you might imagine, we were speechless. With all the negativity about America that we hear in our own media, it was an honor to hear this man speak so highly of the land we love and the country in which our daughter will have her citizenship. Since we’re home, Merina has been having a major case of jet lag and hasn’t been sleeping very much at night. She only wants comfort from Mommy at these times, so Wanda is exhausted. She would accept Daddy in China at all times, but now at home she would rather play with Daddy and seek comfort from Mommy. This isn’t too unusual, so we expect it to be just one of the passing phases of parenthood. What a little trooper she has been, though – always ready to go to see people. The three of us had the pleasure of attending church on Sunday, and we learned by chance that it’s helpful to have someone sitting behind us because Merina is content to look around, smile, and try to get someone to smile at her. Merina has enjoyed going outside (even though she isn’t sure about the snow), going to visit her grandparents, and meeting her aunt Teresa and uncle Larry (Curt’s sister). She and our black lab Blake have developed a fast friendship. He is very protective of her and very worried when she cries. He also loves to pick up her toys when she drops them and to steal the socks off her feet. Our first visit to the pediatrician was this week. Merina enjoyed the doctor but wasn’t sure about the nurse who gave her four shots. She also had blood drawn for post-adoption testing, and this was a very traumatic event for everyone in the lab! Merina cried VERY loudly during the entire process. Mommy and Daddy wanted to cry with her! But even though she was so hurt during this time, when the needle was out and the tears dried, she even had a smile to offer the nice lady who drew the blood samples. We often have heard people say how lucky Merina is to have a family now, but we believe that we are the lucky ones to have our Gift from God realized in such a beautiful way! Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, gifts, and for following our journey. Although our trip to China is over, we will be adding another update to this site in approximately a month. We are also so grateful to those of you who signed our guestbook. It has been such a blessing to read the posts both while we were in China and also now at home. It is an honor to have so many friends who are sharing this incredible opportunity with us. We hope that we have conveyed a small amount of the China that we fell in love with, and we look forward to introducing our daughter to each one of you as our paths cross in the upcoming years. May God bless you and may you find comfort in family, friends, and most importantly Jesus Christ – the one who died for every person in every country in the entire world!

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