Home!

Well, we are home, my family of four. Traveling home was 29 hours of hell. Aili took it better than any of us. It started with a terrifying 3.5 hour van ride from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. Our driver scared us to death and made Raleigh sick. Sucked big time. We got to the airport around 9pm but our flight didn’t leave Hong Kong until 1am. Luckily, we were on the same flight as the Marietta folks I wrote about before. After we all grabbed a bite we went to the gate. Thank goodness they had a playroom and cartoons on for the kids right there. Our first flight to Seoul, Korea was about 3.5 hours. We had a 4 hour layover there. Might not sound bad, but at 5am knowing we have to stay up until 9am after barely sleeping on the first plane and knowing we’re about to get on another plane for 15 hours was bad, very very bad. There was another little playground at that airport and the kids did fine. It’s us that looked like zombies.

The second flight went straight to Atlanta and was brutal. It was bumpy. Very bumpy at times. And Aili wouldn’t sleep. At one point she fell asleep then woke up screaming and crying. The flight attendant came over asking if there was anything she could do, obviously worried about the other passengers waking, understandably. But I felt like saying (but didn’t), can you undo the last almost 5 years she’s been living in an institution, mostly in a crib? Can you change the fact that the right side of her head is almost completely flat from being left in there most hours of the day? Or that she’s only been tended to for her most basic needs? If you could start with these then we might have a chance of getting her to stop crying.

Eventually we made it all in one piece to Atlanta to our amazing welcoming committee. My mom and stepdad, Sam’s mom and dad, and Sam’s brother (Stuart), his wife (Kimberly), and one of their beautiful babies (6 month old Emma) were all there. It was so wonderful to see their faces and to be home. Of course this was after we went through immigration and Aili became a US citizen!!

We went out to lunch with everyone then came home and slept mostly from 4pm-6am. The jet lag yesterday and today has been pretty rough. Hoping tomorrow we’ll feel like new!

I wanted to thank all of you that have left us messages here and on FB. Even liking my blog posts was very uplifting while we were half way around the world. Knowing all of you were following along kept us posting which has lead to a better record for Aili when she grows up. I know I didn’t respond to the comments, but please know that every word you wrote was read numerous times and meant a lot.

We have 2 doctor’s appointments next week. One for her heart, and a pediatrician appointment. We’ll know more about a plan for her eyes after we talk to Dr Abrams. My thought all along has been take care of her heart then we’ll worry about her eyes. I’m assuming he’ll agree, but he might want us to see someone right away. I’ll definitely keep you posted.

The rest of this post is going to be thoughts and memories I have that I want to share and record for Aili.

Well, she might be embarrassed about this one, but I can’t resist. Aili has the tiniest little hiney. It’s the cutest little hiney I’ve ever seen! So while we were in China I would sing about it. Then Raleigh would. Before we knew it, Aili was also singing about her own Tiny Hiney. Of course she has no idea what she’s saying. We would sing it and dance to it everywhere. It’s a catchy tune. Sorry, Amanda, if it’s stuck in your head again 🙂

She’s definitely becoming more picky about food, feeling pretty confident that there will be another meal and snacks soon. But she’s still “hoarding” food. I give her a snack cup with grapes or nuts or gold fish and she has to have it with her. It could be full be she’ll ask me for the whole bag to hold. She’ll either keep just one left in the cup or eat it and keep it in her mouth for a looooong time. But she’s not being as open to some of the veggies. I’ll just keep serving them and hope she gives them a try. We weighed her tonight. We just knew she’d weigh over 30 lbs after how much she’s eaten. If you remember, the hotel scale had her at 27 lbs a couple days after we got her. Our home scale said 26 lbs tonight. Wtf?! Well, she’s certainly not low on energy. Besides her nap, she’s going all day long. The orphanage said she was quiet, but she was just never allowed to be herself because she is full of personality and things to say!

Aili has learned that we give kisses on boo boos. This was completely foreign to her before, and even uncomfortable. I tried to get it across to her that this is what mommies and daddies do. Not sure if I succeeded or it was just repetition, but now she asks us for a kiss every time she gets a little owie. And offers them to us if we get one 🙂

Now I have to talk about Raleigh. She has been amazing. She did great on the trip and I couldn’t imagine it without her. She loves her little sister! She protects her already. We could hear her on the playground if someone got too close to Aili yell, “Be careful! That’s my sister!” Raleigh has been a fantastic helper too when I need it. There has been some regression. When we were in China she wanted to be held while walking around too or ride in the stroller. We’ve heard numerous times that something’s not fair. All to be expected. But my lil monkey has shown more kindness, love, courage, patience, and bravery in the last 2 1/2 weeks than I’ve ever seen in her. This sister thing looks quite good on her.

I’ve got to end it here for tonight. More to come soon! With pics!