A little catching up

It's been a while and a lot has gone on since the last post.  We finally made it home, and had an awesome homecoming with friends that met us at the airport.  It truly meant a lot to us, more than they will ever know.  Once we saw them, we knew we were "home", something that felt was never going to happen.  

Here's a little recap of the events before we landed on American soil......

The 4 hours we sat on the plane hoping to take off were hard to keep 3 kids occupied.  Luckily, we had ipads, kindles, and friends on board with us to help with the slow passage of time.  Harper was really good even though we were confined to an incredibly small space.

Scott also mesmerized Harper with a little bubble action

Once the flight had officially been cancelled, we were off the plane and back to our old friend we had just said goodbye to.... the Marriott hotel.  This time we were in room 740, just down the hall from our last room 715.  At least it was changed up a bit so it didn't seem exactly like deja vu.  It's the little things that made us happy at this point.  We were all so wired we were starting to get slap happy.  The kids were rough housing in the room and being loud, but I didn't care.  They needed to release it.  We stopped them short from killing each other.  

They tickled Harper so hard she was laughing in silence at one point. 

 You know the kind of laugh.... the kind, because you're being tickled so

 much, it just takes every breath out of you that you can't even make a peep.

We had an early wake up call to get us back to the airport by 7:00 in time for our 9:30 departure.  As you can see, we were all so chipper  and excited beyond belief to be back.  

Yes, Harper was double fisting it with her suckers.  I would've given her two more if she could've held one in each foot.  I was just done.  As you can also see, Miss Harper is sans pants.  Her Chinese Huggie failed miserably so I had to strip her down and 'air dry' her pants on the magazine rack in front of us.  We were keeping it classy in the 45th row.  Not to mention, this was the second day for all of us wearing our outfits since United was so kind to hold our luggage overnight.  Needless to say, we were also smelling pretty ripe!

All to the delight, and actual shock to all of us on the plane, we actually rolled back from the gate!!  There was a round of applause from everyone, and an actual scream from an overly emotional lady in the row in back of us.  

Harper's last flight, and actually her very first flight, was from Hefei when she lost her mind on take off.  This time, she sat in the seat with her seatbelt on and actually enjoyed the take off.  You can't really hear it in the video too well, but she was giggling during take off.   Such a change from the last flight!

Once we were in the air, we broke out the iPad for Harper.  She loves to draw scribble on everything, so we got her an app where she can do just that.  All clothes, walls - pretty much any surface - were not harmed in her creativity for once.  

We were sitting right behind the bulkhead in our section, and Harper was loving the big tv on it.  It was great until I was trying to sleep.  It was like having head lights shining on you all night.  I'm pretty sure we also got some sort of "light" burn from it :)

Harper did really great on this 14 hour trip.  I was really worried she would get bored with all our tricks we had to keep her happy.  She slept for about 4-5 hours or so, and the glare of the tv didn't seem to bother her.  

We made it to Chicago around 11:00 or so, about midnight China time.  Finally.  We were all whipped and barely had any energy left.  In fact, Griff just decided to strap himself to the bar on the tram we had to take to get to our next concourse.  It was just too hard to actually hold on for yourself.... haha.

Landing in Chicago also meant Harper was now officially an American citizen!  We celebrated with a REAL Diet Coke.... with ice!!  Yes, it was good to be back in the states.

Our 2 1/2 hour flight from Chicago to Dallas felt more of a 30 minute flight compared to the beast we just got off of.  In no time, we were home in the greatest state ever.  God Bless Texas.  Oh how I had missed it!  

Driving home, we were almost all blinded by the bright light given off by the sun.  We had not seen a true ray of sunshine in a little over 2 weeks.  The sunshine on our face felt almost as good as the real diet coke with ice!

When we got home, our neighbors had totally stocked our fridge and freezer so we didn't have to make a run to the store for anything.  They will also never know how much that meant to us.  My sister Jill had decorated our house in American flag decor for he newest American.  Red, white and blue never looked so good!!

I still had my stopwatch going from when we first went to the airport in Hong Kong trying to leave, and I stopped it once we opened the garage door.  It was just shy of a complete 48 hours of trying to get home.  No wonder we felt like we had been run over!

We took Harper to her room for the first time.  I just wish we could listen to what she's thinking.  From where she came, she had to have been completely blown away by it all.  A new house, 2 dogs she had never seen, and her own room with her own things!  She seemed a little over stimulated because she kept running from thing to thing checking it all out.  It was so fun to watch!

She has amazed us from the very start.  When we got her, we were prepared for a screaming fit because she was being left  by the only people she had ever really known.  She didn't seem traumatized at all by being left by her nannies with complete strangers who looked nothing like her, and didn't speak like her.  In fact, it seems she's never looked back.    We were also prepared for her to go psychotic crazy when we introduced her to our dogs.  She loves them!  She went right up to them at pet them and went on her way.  We were stunned.  When I say God has answered every little detail in this adoption, He has.  Right down to her liking our dogs.  Un-be-lievable.

Our first morning home was Easter.  We were in no shape to try and make it to church.  I was really sad about that, especially since it was Easter, but we needed the rest.  The Easter bunny had left a basket for each of them, and they tore into it once we were all up.

  

Scott made a big breakfast for us from all the things that had been stocked in our fridge.  It was so nice not to see noodles, or corn, or salad at the breakfast table for once!  

Barney's no fool.  He knew where the best seat in the house would be for getting scraps.  He had everything she dropped picked up almost as fast as it had fallen.  

During breakfast we did a little face time with my brother, his family, and my mom and her husband who were at my brother's celebrating Easter.  This was the first time for them to "see" Harper.  My niece Kaytie and Harper got in a little chat time too.  I cannot wait to see the two of them together for the first time.  I just hope Kaytie is quick with her reaction time and knows when to duck.   Harper has gotten better about her hitting, but without notice her hand can come flying!

Harper also 'met' crazy Uncle Chris.  Again with the amazement from her, she didn't cry when she saw him.  haha!!

Our friends had us over for an Easter lunch and a Easter egg hunt.  This year was the first for Brannen not wanting to look for eggs.  That was pretty sad.  I wasn't sure if Harper would even grasp the whole concept of looking for fake candy filled eggs, but she's a quick learner and had 12 in her basket in no time!

Oh, and notice her shoes?  We finally got her some somewhat "decent" shoes.  We stopped in Wal-Mart on our way over for lunch.  Scott commented how it was so nice to be able to read everything in English and not have frogs or turtles staring back at you as their plea to break free from being someones dinner.

And what Easter is really Easter if you haven't eaten a few handfuls of Peeps?  Another first, and I'm pretty sure this is a definite first for her, she ate her first Peep.  She wasn't quite sure about it, but then again, we were all staring at her to see her reaction, so she may have had a touch of stage fright.  She took a couple nibbles and passed it on to me.  

Even though it didn't feel much like Easter to us, it was still a very good day, and ever thankful to be home!