Home Sweet Home

We have been home since Thursday around noon and are so glad to be done with the long travels home. Thankfully Chun Le did excellent on that long flight home but it is a really really long 14 hour flight. She slept for about an hour somewhere in the middle of the flight and then asleep again for about the final 4 hours of flight and did not make a whimper or wiggle around at all the other 9 plus hours in the air! She is an amazing traveller! The only "incident" we had along the way heading home happened when our driver was taking us from our hotel in Guangzhou to the train station. On that 30 minute drive she was not acting quite herself and seemed nervous and when she was sitting on Phil's lap she threw up all over (Michelle, I remember a similar incident happening with A at some point during your time in China). Poor thing! Luckily we were near a hotel when this happened and we had to wait for our guide to pick up our US Consulate paperwork so the driver let Phil get out and change his clothes before the two hour train ride to Hong Kong and we were able to get Chun Le all cleaned up as well. After that sickness she was fine the rest of the trip home. We think it was just nerves as she anxiously was watching us pack up the hotel room all morning long and probably could not figure out what was going on.

It was wonderful to walk through the exit door at O'Hare International terminal and see Rachel, Isaac, my parents, Susan, Trevor and Charlie all awaiting our arrival with a welcome home poster handmade by the kids. We were sooooo happy to see them all!!! Chun Le went to her quiet mode as she greeted all her family and during the van ride home. Thankfully she did not have any issues with being in a car seat. When we got to our house she became the "active" child that the staff at her orphanage described to us. :) Chun Le was just giddy with excitement to play with toys and be with Rachel and Isaac. Each new thing that the kids showed her just gave her the biggest smile (we limited how much new stuff she was introduced to as it was obviously sensory overload for her!). Rachel and Isaac really loved being with her and kept telling us how cute she is. :) We think so too! Since we were home by 1pm we decided to have her take a late little nap around 3pm and she was a little sad about that and again at bedtime took a bit of rocking and comforting before she was ready to be put in her crib...totally normal. Once she gets to sleep she really enjoys her sleep and does not wake up during the night and sleeps until at least 7:30am.

Today (Friday)she had a harder day as I think the reality of all the major transition is sinking in. When Isaac plays with one of the toys that we had for her in China, she gets really upset and cries/screams at him. It probably feels like to her he is taking away one of the few things that she labels as "hers". We know that he is just trying it out and will of course give it back, but that concept is pretty foreign to her right now and will take time to learn how to share. :) The other really hard times she had today were nap and bedtime. She was sooo tired still from the travels but resisted sleeping both times. When she knows we are going through the routine to prep for nap or bed she starts getting sad and then resists us holding and rocking her and tries to wiggle her way out of our grasp. The crying and screaming at times lasted about 30 minutes at naptime and about 1 hour at bedtime. Bedtime she fell asleep twice when we were holding her and seemed to be really out, but when we laid her down in the crib she woke up and immediately started crying again so the cuddling started over. She does stop resisting our hold after about 5 minutes but it takes her a long time to finally calm down and stop the strong crying. She often ends up coughing, burping (thought it was going to be vomit), hyperventilating she is crying so hard. It is hard to see our little one so sad/scared/unable to be comforted. We know that this is pretty normal and were a bit surprised that we did not see more of this while we were in China. I think the dramatic changes that have happened since we have been home (new language spoken by everyone around her, new smells, new bed, new sis and bro, new toys, new foods to try....) are just overwhelming and hard to process all the loss and change that she has experienced in her little life over the past couple weeks.

In contrast with the difficult bedtimes and sometimes difficulty sharing, she also has lots of giggles and smiles during the day. Chun Le loves to be "chased" and tickled by Rachel and Isaac, loves to have us help her up and down the stairs, she enjoys cuddling with us and the kids. We are enjoying her so much and I am constantly reminding myself of the TTT principle that we learned about at my Moms Mentoring group at church--THINGS TAKE TIME! We have not even been home 48 hours yet so all in all the adjustment is going as well as we had expected. We have a 9:15am pediatrician appointment for her tomorrow morning so we will see how that goes. I am sure she is not going to like it and will be scared similar to the medical exam they had to do in China. We will be there right by her side to comfort and hope this is another opportunity to build her trust and bond.

Will attach a few photos. One is us on our train ride from Guangzhou to Hong Kong the day before our flight home. The other two are Rachel and Isaac with their new little sister. We have done more videotaping than photos since we have been home, and I realize my mom was the one who took pics when we arrived at O'Hare as our camera was tucked away and we were too weary to pull it out. We will have to get those from her but don't have any family of five pics to post right now. :)