Home Sweet Home!

Well, after a very long 24 hours of travel, we got home safe and sound! The long plane ride from Toyko to Oregon was extremely difficult on Kaitlyn. It was late at night for us, she hated sitting for that long, and dispite my attempt to "drug" her, it didn't work. She stayed awake and restless the whole way. It was actually the first time she ever cried. When we arrived in Oregon it took about an hour to go through customs and immigration to make Kaitlyn an official US citizen. Then my brother picked us up and took us to a nearby hotel to hang out with him, his two daughters, my sister and her two boys. It was so great to see them!!!!! It had been almost 3 years - the kids have grown up so much!!! It was about 1:00 am for us, so we were very tired.

The flight to Phoenix was much better. The seats were a little wider and we had much more leg room. Kaitlyn, Kailey and Austin slept almost the entire way. Tim and I got a cat nap in. When we arrived we were greeted with family and friends, lots of welcome banners and many tears of joy! It was pretty awesome and emotionally overwhelming. We hit the drive through on the way home and everyone ate at our house. When we came through the front door there was big banner stretched across our entry that said, "Welcome Home Tim, Tanya, Austin, Kailey and Kaitlyn!" It was fabulous! Then, all the bedroom doors were shut with a sign on each door saying welcome home and our bedroom door said "There's No Place Like Home". There were welcome balloons and a card in Chinese telling Kaitlyn welcome to her new home. My mother-in-law cleaned our whole house, cleaned out my refridgerator and stocked it with food. My sister-in-law Audrey, made us a lasagna too! Our neighbors, Micah, Alyssa and their two kids stopped by to meet Kaitlyn and bring her a gift. It was all so touching and we felt so loved, missed and cared for. It truly was a great homecoming from a long trip!! When it was time for everyone to go, we had to explain that they don't all live here - they have their own houses. It think that was weird to her. Kaitlyn slept in her own bed in her own room the whole night! Praise God! I don't know if she'll do this every night or she did last night out of being too exhausted to argue about it!!

Today, Monday, Kailey and I slept in until almost noon. We were completely and utterly exhausted. Tim and Austin got up early, but Tim crashed right after dinner. Kaitlyn had a really good day exploring more of the house and getting used to our dogs. (she has a fear of animals). We had to teach her to throw her TP in the toilet, because in China and Japan you can't flush it - you put it in the waste basket. We also demonstrated you could drink the water from the sink and brush your teeth with it. The water is not drinkable in China - even for them. My in-laws took us the the Olive Garden for dinner tonight and bought her a doll she could play with, feed and bathe! She gasped with joy, got the biggest smile on her face and was all hugs!

Thanks for all your prayers and comments!! I'll write more later this week and let you know how things are going at home. Bye!