First Day At Home

Although our trip home was filled with trials and tribulations, when we arrived home, we discovered that our house was filled with quite the opposite.

Pulling into our driveway late Saturday afternoon, we were greeted by balloons and streamers, welcome home signs, donuts and dragon cupcakes, pictures of our adventures in China, and love.  Thank you all for the sweet welcome home we received after such a long journey.

I have been continually amazed by how well we are transitioning to a family of 8.  God has been very, very gracious to us.  I know it doesn't always go that way and we are thankful for His mercies.  The kids have all been amazing.  Lily and Caroline are pretty tight buddies and Lauren loves being (and they love for her to be) the doting older sister.  And Michael is the funny big brother who makes her giggle.

The weather was gorgeous today and so they had plenty of time playing outside.  They loved the trampoline and spent a good deal of time jumping, giggling, and being silly.  And don't you love how Caroline and Lily dressed themselves this morning?  Right down to the same hairstyle.

This afternoon we had one more transition to make.  My babies were back!  They came running in and the noise level elevated about 25 decibels as it always does when they are here.  But it was a sweet noise.  They ran to Lily giving her a hug and then were off playing with her as if they had been doing it together forever.

There have been moments of jet lag induced friction but not nearly as much as I would have expected.  And there are times when I sense the language barrier is alienating her.  I know she will get it soon but it is hard for all of us right now as we want her to be fully involved in everything.


Tomorrow we tackle school and some chores just to keep the natives from getting a little too restless.

 I'm really interested to see how that is all going to go...

...and how many pots of coffee I will ingest before lunch time.  :)