The LONG journey home!

Ellie enjoying her first meal with her new family at home. It felt so good to be back together again- all 8 of us! Thank you Father for safe travel and for reuniting our family.




First night at home and ready for bed. Thankfully Ellie slept all night in a pack n play in our room.

The journey home was long and mostly uneventful other than a huge problem at the very beginning in Guangzhou. Our travel agency instructed us to have our seats assigned when we checked in on the day of our departure. We almost missed our flight out of China because it was not an easy or quick task for the Northwest agent to assign all 5 of our seats on all 4 flights back to the US. We stood at the counter for over an hour and prayed. I was so afraid we were going to miss our flight. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity and after watching all the other adoptive families head towards the gate, we had our seats assigned and could proceed through customs and security. We asked two Chinese gentlemen who were ahead of us in the security line if we could go in front of them. Thankfully, they both agreed which probably saved us from spending another day in China. Fulton, the girls, and I ran ahead of David who was still trying to get through security. We made it to the gate after everyone else had boarded. A very kind Northwest agent who knew what we had just endured told me it was ok and that they would wait on my husband who had all of our boarding passes. I was almost in tears at that point. David finally made it and then we boarded and had only 3 seats rather than the 5 we had paid for because only 2 seats were together, and we certainly could not let Ellie or Lilly seat alone . Several kind passengers offerred to help by switching seats. The flight attendants could not believe the situation we were in and were very kind and compassionate. They said it was unacceptable, and they wrote up a report and instructed us to file a complaint and request a refund. Eventually, they worked it out so that we had 2 pairs of seats, but we were still one seat short for Ellie so she rode on my lap to Japan. Moral of the story: Do NOT postpone making your seat assignments. Make sure it is done in advance of the day of departure. After all of that drama, the rest of the trip was very smooth. Thank you Lord!

Ellie was a little overwhelmed when we arrived at home. This was the first picture in her new house although she was less than thrilled at this point.

Thank you Sharon and family for the decorations on our gate. We felt so loved and missed! Thank you to Hayley and her mom too for the balloons. That was SO sweet of you!

Our Ethan had been fighting the stomach bug for a day or two so he is looking a little pale here. He was so happy to see us and to meet Ellie. Hopefully, the worse was over before we arrived home as I can not imagine dealing w/ a stomach virus sweeping its way through our new family of 8 while we are still recovering from jet lag!

Our family was so happy to see Lilly again too. They really missed her as well as Fulton.

Shelby taking some pictures of her newest (and last - per her father:) ) younger sibling!

Supper on the run in Memphis. I was feeling very ill at this point so I skipped dinner. David enjoyed the BBQ which Memphis is famous for. I had to sit away from them or else I would have been in the bathroom. Thankfully, my stomach settled down before we landed back at home.

Lilly started sleeping in the seat and then squirmed her little self onto the floor. She slept so well until a flight attendant came by and said it was unsafe. Thankfully it was almost time to land by the time we had to wake her to get her back in the seat.

Ellie fought sleep for hours until I finally pulled out the Benadryl and held her in my lap. She cried because she did not want to give in, but after 5 minutes or so of pretty loud fussing she was sound asleep! Here she is having breakfast with Dad before landing in San Francisco and becoming a US citizen!