Friday, November 27, 2009

Home

I am home!

We left Delhi at 1:35AM on Tuesday morning and landed in Chicago at 4:45AM. (Go figure it was a 14 hr flight, that landed in 3 hrs, 10 min.) I, thankfully, was able to use my American Airlines miles to book my flight so I flew back in 1st class. I didn't realize I had slept very well on the flight until I looked my watch and realized there were only 5 hrs left of the flight! I thought, OK, I can handle 5 hrs. Thankfully it was an uneventful flight and we landed in Chicago almost 30 minutes early.

We all made it through customs & immigration (Keira is immigrating) very quickly, found our bags, and met Dad very easily. We left the parking lot at O'hare by 5:50. Keira did well in the car seat. She & Colin had each only slept the 1st 4 hours on the flight and were awake for the last 10 hrs. So, they both slept in the van on the way to Mom & Dad's house. She cried a bit, but then fell asleep. When she stirred, she'd let out a cry, reposition herself and fall back to sleep. I was ridng up front with Dad and after she cried a few times, he said with a smile, "That's a baby girl cry!" (This is the first baby granddaughter! He's quite a proud grandpa) I think we were all expecting her to be older acting than she was. Since she's a year old, I think in my mind I had more of a toddler expectation, but she is still very much a baby, just not a newborn. (Her older brother Isaac is 2 and he was the last baby, so I think my point of reference was set for a 2 year old, not a 1 year old.)

We made it to Mom & Dad's house by 8:30 Tuesday morning. Mom had Drew & Isaac out on the front porch swing when we pulled up the driveway. The boys started jumping up & down and Isaac ran to the van when Rod opened the door and just screamed "DADDY!!!!!" Both little boys were very excited that their parents were back.

They both jumped into the van to meet Keira for the 1st time. They were so excited we couldn't take the time to get everyone out of the van first. It was quite loud, but super happy. Drew peeked at his litte sister first and just said "aw, she's so cute!". Isaac looked at her and said "Keira!" They're all going to be (and are) great big brothers for this little princess!

It was quite a reunion in Mom & Dad's living room when we all got in the house. Drew & Isaac took a closer look at their sister and touched her hands and ooh'ed and aah'ed at her. Then they realized that oldest brother Colin was home too. Isaac said "COLIN" and ran and gave him a big hug (twice). (SO CUTE!!!!) Drew, just kept saying how cute his sister is and he's so happy they adopted her. It was a great scene to get to witness. I was snapping pictures the whole time.

We stayed at Mom & Dad's until this morning to be able to stay and celebrate Thanksgiving. But, I'm home now and needing to unpack and relax. Jetlag has kicked my butt. I woke up at 2:10AM on Thanksgiving and then didn't nap all day (I went to bed at 7:30 last night). Then this morning, I was up at 3:55AM. But, since Rod's family were leaving by 7AM this morning, he, Michelle, Colin & Drew were all up and in the kitchen by 5AM. So, we still had a couple hours to spend with them before they left. (The whole house was up by 5:30 at the latest so we could all spend more time together.)

It was an incredible trip. I have a ton of memories, experiences, and bonding moments to keep in my heart and share with Keria when she's older. I'm glad to be home too though.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and thoughts in this whole process. I truly appreciate it and was glad that so many were interested in this.

(Now that I'm home, I'll try to add some pictures - supposedly takes forever, so check back in a bit.)

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