We're Home!

We made it home safely. Jeff was feeling better, not great, but much better. Katie did very well on the flights/ She cried for less then a minute on only two occasions on our flight to Tokyo. She slept a bit, but was pretty happy. On the Tokyo to Detroit she did pretty good too. She cried a little bit, but nothing compared to what we were expecting. We were almost home free, 3 hours to go when I(Shannon) got what Jeff had. We thought he had eaten something bad to make him sick, but no, he must have had the stomach flu. Our flight was full of turbulance which made it even worse. I seriously have never been so happy to be home in my life. Jeff took such good care of us, even though he too was still not feeling back to normal, not to mention the jet lag. It is now Monday at 3am, and I am feeling much much better. Katie and Brooke were both up, just 1 hour after we went to bed. So I am letting Jeff get some very well deserved sleep. The girls are now sleeping but here I am wide awake.

Seeing our boys as we passed the exit doors was a sight for sore eyes let me tell you. They all seem to have grown in 2 weeks. They did such a good job while we were gone. We had some very dear friends of ours bring over a huge casserole dish of various barbcue for them one night, and other then that they cooked dinner for themselves everynight, and did the laundry, and cleaned the house. Our oldest son even had to take one of the younger boys to the dr. as his throat was hurting. I am truly blessed to have them. Proud is an understatement.

Today we have 2 dr appts for Katie. The pediatrician, and the plastic surgeon. Tomorrow we have an echocardiogram, ortho, and the ent. Even though I was sick our first 2 days home, today, or should I say yesterday I was able to spend alot more time with Katie. Let me tell you, she is adjusting so well. She absolutely loves each of her brothers and shows no fear. She is very curious and likes to look around at everything she has never seen before, and she loves all her new toys. She is sleeping well in her crib, although still getting use to the new time zone, which we all are. She even liked her car seat, which Brooke absolutely hated, and screamed all the way home from the airport. Katie is very antimated and has alot of expression. She wasn't too sure about our pets, we have 2 dogs, and 2 cats. Our dachshund is always wanting to give her kisses, and she is now starting to like the dogs.

I want to close this post by saying thank you to all of you who sent kind and encouraging words to us. Thank you for all your prayers. This journey was much different then our last journey to China. For all of our experiences we had we have learned so much, and are stronger people for it.