We're home!!!

Wow! I added it up and Keith and I haven't slept in 41 hours, with the exception of a few half hour snoozes on the plane from China to LA. (I'm counting from when we woke up that morning until now.) We got on the plane and Emma and Ellie were doing great. But it was 9pm in China and it was the girls' bedtime. Emma usually sits on the bed and then falls over to go to sleep at night. There was no bed and only a small couch (4 coach seats in a row with the armrests pulled up). When we took off, Emma got out of my lap and began a tantrum. Keith and I looked at each other and panic set in. We've learned that when she does this and we try to sooth her or calm her down, she just gets more agitated and out of control. If we don't feed it, it dies down pretty soon. We sort of talk to each other as though she's not there. And she gets bored and it doesn't get her her way, so she stops and comes to me and looks at me with puppy dog eyes and points to her tears for me to wipe her eyes. It's hard when you are in another country and haven't had time to bond, much less teach and train your child and you are constantly in public places where your child is trying to figure out her boundaries and just plain scared and confused. Don't know what ole Dr Dob would say, but after trying a number of things, that seemed to work the best for us. Anyway, about 15 min. of stares and whispers, my little angel looked up at me with her puppy dog eyes for me to wipe her tears and was out in 2 minutes. Two minutes after that, my other little Chinese angel was out. They stretched across the 4 seats. Keith and I decided rather than risk waking them, we'd take turns, one pacing up and down the isles while the other sat on the tiny spot left on the couch / seat, then we'd trade. We were scared that Emma would roll off the seats. She's fallen off the bed at the hotel a couple of times so far. She's like a gymnast doing a floor routine, as she sleeps she feels the need to touch all 4 corners of the mat(tress). Whoever sat on the half seat couldn't sleep because they had to make sure she didn't fall. She only fell twice... since I'm the one writing this I'll say it was on Keith's watch. Finally I sat on the floor in front of our seats. The seats in front of us were all reclined and I barley had enough room to squeeze in, but it was pretty comfy or I was pretty tired. I laid my head on a tiny pillow across Ellie's legs, one arm stretched out to catch Emma, just in case. But hey, they slept all but the last 2 1/2 hours and woke up happy! After a 3 hour layover in LA, we got back on a plane for a 4 hour trip to Atl. Ellie slept the first 2 hours and Emma the second two, Keith and I not at all. Our flight arrived at 5am, my sister Dawn and her husband Tom picked us at 6am and we got home at around 7:30am. Emma loved Grandmama and Grandaddy and her three brothers immediately, but screamed when she saw our dog. It's quarter til 3:00 in the afternoon and she is now tossing pizza and Easter candy to our dog already. She still squeals when he barks though. She loves her room and is walking around the house like she's always lived here. She seems to feel very safe. She will come and look for me every once in a while to make sure I don't leave her, but really she is doing great. Ellie was soooooo happy to see her brothers!!! We are all gonna try to stay up today and go to bed early. I can't believe how awake I feel. We all seem to be pretty awake and feeling good. Yawn, oops, well maybe a little woozy, but for how long we've been up, I think we're all doing pretty good. We gave the boys their gifts. They each got a Northface jacket. The kind we got apparently go for $200.00, we got them for $33.00 in Guangzhou. It's got the inner jacket that zips away from the outer jacket. So it's like a jacket and a coat. They look great in them! I'm not too up on that stuff, but the boys were stoked. I'll post pictures! Thank you all for following our blog and posting, emailing, praying, and encouraging us all the way through our journey. You mean the world to us!!! Farewell China...