Home, home, home!!!

We are home! We had a pretty uneventful trip home but as you would expect we are pretty jet lagged. Ally is in a worse position since she has lived her life 12 hours different from ours and now has to get used to being awake when she used to sleep and sleep when she used to be awake. She is fighting sleeping in anyway possible and is pretty ticked at me right now because i tried to get her to settle down on my lap and sleep. That was not in her plan!!!! So from my last post we didn't do much other than a swearing in ceremony at the consulate and also get Ally's visa, fly to Beijing, then get on a plane to JFK and finally to Burlington. Ok, so maybe that was a lot. Well for the swearing in ceremony, it sounds like you are swearing in your child to the US. That is not the case, you are basically just swearing that all the info you have submitted to the consulate and immigration is true and accurate. Don't get me wrong, it's a significant step but not what you might think. The next morning we decided to do the "red couch" photo. i wish I new the origin of this photo but I don't. What I can tell you is that the red couch is in the
White Swan hotel on ShaMian island. The hotel is a more traditional place for adoptive families but the Victory which is where we were, is getting more popular. Our hotel is just a block and a half to the Swan so it's an easy walk. So families traditionally get there photos taken on the red couch. So who are we to break tradition? Later that day we had to check out and get to the airport to fly to Beijing. we could have done it the next morning but I guess that would have put our connection too tight, so we flew late that night and stayed at an airport near by. The next morning we jumped on the big 747 Air china flight to come home. 13 pretty uneventful hrs later we landed in New York only 30 minutes after we took off. You lose a day going the other way, but

y

you gain it back coming home which is nice. We also fly ridiculously close to the north pole. I find that very bizarre. Ally slept about 5 hours on the plane and myself about an hour. Not sure what Jo got but I guess about 2 maybe 2 1/2. Ally did well even with our lack of entertainment for her. It's hard to remember how to keep a 3 year old entertained for that long. It was fine, even though we ran out of snacks about half way home. Of course as Ally does, she fell asleep during our decent. She did it on every single flight. We thought though since she had slept a decent amount on the international flight that the JFK-Burlington hour hop that she'd be fine and be awake and happy to meet her brothers. Nope, she fell asleep 10 minutes from landing. She was exhausted. She wakes up extremely well though and this was no exception. She woke up like she had slept for hours. We told her it was time to meet her Gugu's and she perked right up. Gugu is Chinese for older brother. We were very nervous how this was going to go, she however was all smiles in anticipation. I have to credit her foster family for this. Back in September we sent Ally a photo album of all of us and that coupled with us video chatting everyday with the boys while in China really let her form an attachment to them even before she met them. Well we turned the corner walking from the concourse and there were Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Brian, and her three Gugu's Zack, BJ, and Seany. Priceless to us was the smile that was one Ally's face! She was clearly nervous but you could just see she was happy inside, not just outside. My eyes are a bit watery just remembering. Time out, Jo just got home and we need to get the groceries out of the car..........................Time in. So where was I, oh, Ally meeting the boys. Well all the boys had a stuffy to give her and they were all super excited to see her. She just kept on smiling. She clearly had begun to form an attachment by the photos and video chatting. It was a great moment and one I can't do justice with my writing. I may very well be wrong, but after watching how Ally did with her brothers, grandma, grandpa, and uncle Brian and then how she acting once at the house, I think she new that meeting her brothers meant she was home. There was no leary tentative moments or anything. Not even when she got to the house. She walked around like she had always been there. I truly expected it to be like when you bring your cats to a new house and they tentatively walk into each room slowly checking it out. Not so with Ally. The true test she new she was home. Withing the hour she was going to fridge to check out what there was to eat. I kid you not! one of the unexpecteds you don't see coming is her complete infatuation with Zack. She sits by him, holds his hand, and just wants to know where he is at all times. We think that may have something to do with her foster brother who was also about 10yrs old. Speaking of which, Zack turned 10 yesterday. Pretty awesome, but a bit overshadowed by all this. So we are going to go and get him a BB/pellet gun tonight or tomorrow.

Well, all the above is pretty much the rose part of things. That really aren't may thorns, but she is having a tough time with her new schedule and time zone and threw a full out hissy screaming fit when I tried to get her to chill with me and take a nap. The upside to that is she and Jo went up and Jo got her calmed down and asleep. While there is still a bit of favoritism toward me when tired, she is very much okay with Jo now. So all in all we are very fortunate. Many adoptive parents have an unbearable time and we have had it relatively easy up to now. Hopefully it continues.

Lastly, I would like to thank you all for the support you have shown us thru comments and actions. We also want to thank my parents and my brother for watching our boys during this time. one last big thank you goes out to the sewing group my mother is part of. I call them Dorothy's Debutantes, and they went into action to make many blankets and hats for the orphanage. Of course we had to pay a large fee to the orphanage called a donation, but it was a far more important to us to be able to give them something functional that would make a difference. So thank you again Deb's.

Catch you later, and we will try to keep you updated.