Dorothy says it so well, even if it is over-done...

I am sure that there are a million quotes about home, being home, no place like home, home being the core of who you are, etc. All I can think of is Dorothy clicking her heals with the “There’s no place like home.” Which is pretty trite and basic, but there you are.

We have been home for now over a week. It feels like a month. I will try to catch you up on the highlights of the last week. When I say highlights, I really mean sort of the extremes of the last week, the good, the great, the bad, the ugly. When I say ugly, I am thinking about 9:30 on Monday night when I called my mom hysterical, sleep deprived (4 hours in the last 48 and it looking like it would soon be 4 hours in 72) and ready to ship this little kiddo off just to get some sleep and to know that the heck we were doing. Ugly is me, with no sleep, having a hard time eating anything outside of bread, crackers and chicken noodle soup, telling Josh, “I just don’t know what else to do!”, listening to Kai scream in a scary, animal-like way, thinking, “Oh my gosh, what have we done.” We will get to that though.

When I say great, it is Kai, laughing while he lays in bed listening to me singing, “The Rocking Chair Song” part of it goes like this,

“Let’s go rocking in the rocking chair,
We’ll go rocking in the rocking chair,
We’re not really going anywhere, we’re just sitting here rocking in the rocking chair.”

Ok so here is the part he likes…

“We’ll rock high, high, high, just as high as the sky.
We’ll rock low, low, low, just as low as you go.”

(When I sing this part I sort of wrinkle my forehead and pucker up my lips to sing in a really exaggerated low voice. He thinks this is hilarious. And he laughs with his thumb loosely planted in his mouth as he watches intently. I can almost read his thoughts. I imagine something like, “Boy this lady is crazy. Who sings like that? Seriously? And she does it every night…oh well, it’s funny anyway. I’ll just sort of suck my thumb here and see what she does).

Great is realizing that he will fall asleep if we sit in the rocking chair by his bed and that he will still fall asleep if we move it about 2 more feet away each night. Great is him falling asleep for his nap today with the rocking chair just outside the doorway. Great is waking up at 7am and realizing he only woke up once during the night and your fabulous husband got up to sit in the rocking chair, so you slept through the night!

Good is the fact that we see changes in him each day. Good is watching people meet him and witnessing their delighted reactions. Our neighbors have loved Elizabeth since the first day we moved into our home. We live in an older neighborhood and many of our neighbors have grown children who no longer live with them. Elizabeth is very social and loves to run over and chat up the neighbors as they rake their lawns or plant their flowers. When we returned home, all of our neighbors came out to meet Kai as soon as we ventured outside to play. Lucky for us, Kai is also a very social kiddo, and loves to chat with people outside too. Does it matter that he doesn’t really speak English yet? Apparently not!

Good is how wonderful our families are. I will not get too cheesy and gushy here. But honestly, Josh’s parents were so wonderful with Elizabeth for the 2 weeks that we were gone You know people who do things for you and then have to point out all that they did for you? Well, our parents are so kind and generous in such a understated way. My in laws did so much for Elizabeth, got her all kinds of treats and clothes, etc. I wouldn’t have known this, I just keep on finding things that “Gran and Papa got me.” Ann and Harry had a great dinner waiting for us when we got home from the airport as well.

Then my sister drove here to be with us that first weekend, dropped off the perfect age appropriate and high interest gifts for the kids and kept her “big- sister- eye” on me. Just having my sister here was so nice. I know that I cannot hide much from my sister or my mom. If there was a problem, I wouldn’t be able to hide it. My reinforcements would be there to talk it through, make me some food and allow me to get some rest, all the while finding some good laughs in there too.

And my mom…I have said over and over again, that my mom is a hard one to live up to. She made us a week’s worth of meals, took Elizabeth for us so we could sleep, and came over at night to help with what she could when Josh and I were are our wit’s end with Kai and trying to get him to sleep. There are people who complain about the bad parenting of their parents. Me, well, as a mother, I have a pretty high standard to live up to if I plan to follow in my mom’s footsteps. Each year I learn and appreciate how much our mom did for us in how she raised us and the loving patience which seems endless.

Harry, my father in law, kept Kai laughing on the way home from the airport. This is big deal as Kai was violently opposed to any kind of seat belt, so imagine a 5 point harness in a car seat? And my Dad was my wonderful Dad, laughing, telling stories, playing with Kai, giving me big hugs and letting me know how much we were missed, running errands and picking up things for me that I suddenly found I needed.

I do not know how people do this on their own without family close by. I am so glad that we didn’t have to find out. I imagine there would be much more items in my “ugly” category.

Ok, enough gushing. You want to hear about the plane ride don’t you? Oh, people love the gory stuff. As with most things in life, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Kai did scream for about 15 minutes, during which he proceeded to kick the seat in front of him. As hard and I tried I could not keep that kiddo’s legs down or keep myself from obsessively watching the man’s head whip back in a surely exaggerated movement, each and every time his foot even touched the back of that seat. The man did quite a bit of rubber-necking and eventually found another seat, upon which time Kai promptly stopped screaming and was just fine until it was time to land. The man moved back to him seat, and Kai, as if perfectly timed, began to scream and once again kick the seat. Poor guy!

And I have a confession to make as well. While we were in China we tried our best to try new foods. When I say we tried our best, it really means that we chickened out. We played it pretty safe. I was not a huge fan of the food there. Outside of the Thai restaurant with the green curry there, which was like one of the best things I have ever had, we didn’t experiment too much. So, flying home we had a layover in Tokyo. We needed to grab lunch and I spotted a McDonald’s sign. Oh, I wanted that McDonald’s so bad. All of the reading on healthy eating, watching, “Super Size Me” and feeling that I would never put that stuff into my body, aren’t I so aware and healthy attitude went so totally out the window. I wanted a burger and fries so badly that I was totally willing to throw out all good eating intentions. As I was thinking this Josh said, “So, where do you want to get lunch.” I came clean, “Josh, this is so bad, but I really want Mc Donald’s”

“Good,” he said, “because that is exactly what I want too.”

As we ate our horribly good junk food, we both commented that it was the best McDonald’s we had ever had, and that it tasting so good was pitiful, but we didn’t care! Kai was happy to lick ketchup off of the french fries, but didn’t seem to keen on eating them. I was actually trying to get him to eat french fries!

Over all, Kai slept most of the plane ride and did as well as could be expected.
I haven’t taken any pictures myself since we have been home, although our families have. I will be sure to post more pictures here and also try to update the blog a few more times as Kai grows and changes. We have his appointment at the International Adoption clinic this Friday. I hope that all goes well. I feel like I will breathe easier once he is cleared through the American doctors.

This is a monster-ly long post, so I will close. Ironically, I am actually once again at Starbucks doing this update. This time I am here in Carmel. I am so thankful to be home and the United States is wonderful, but I am pleasantly surprised to find that I do miss many things about China. To any of you who have taken the time to follow us through this whole journey. Thanks. This is sort of my therapy, my way to make it real and think through all that is going on, and all that has already happened. No one has to read it, it works just to get the words out for me to see them and sort them out. But hearing that people take time to read and are wishing us well, is just really neat. (Ok, so “neat” is lacking, but that’s all I’ve got right now.) Time for my “alone” time to end and head back home to Josh and “the kids”. I love saying that, “the kids”.