Walking With Faith: Home Again, Home Again, Jigity jig

Well, we wound up finally leaving Hong Kong after being delayed close to an hour on the tarmac due to being OVERLOADED and having to wait for 6 people to volunteer to deboard and take later flights. And this was with multiple seats already empty on the flight home. We also got a downgraded plane, and so we didn't have the individual tv/gaming consoles we'd had on the flight over, and that kinda stank! Instead we watched an overhead tv mounted in the aisles and whatever was playing at the moment. They played some movie I don't know the name of with Zac Efron first. He was a Marine and he followed this picture he found on the battlefields to a girl in the states. Then we watched The Three Stooges, then Salmon Fishing in Yemen, and finally Wrath of the Titans, which we slept through. We'd seen it on the way over already. They also played some tv episodes, 30 Rock, Big Bang Theory, CSI some city, and a few true documentary type things. We watched one on finding Atlantis and one on animals in the wild, and one about amazing crashes.

Annabella was a true champ the whole plane ride. She wanted to sit in our laps pretty much the whole time, but she only cried a total of MAYBE 2 minutes the whole 14 hour ride. She melted down in Chicago because she wanted to be held, and we had too many bags to haul through all the security and immigration checkpoints to hold her, but once we finally got to our gate and let her out of the stroller, she laughed and ran around and played until boarding time.

Leaving Chicago we were again delayed, but only about 20 minutes, and by the time we left the tarmac, she was already sound asleep, and she slept until almost landing. She'd have slept the whole time had a child sitting behind us not started freaking out about putting the try table up when it was time to land. That kid shrieked so loud I thought the glass would break in the window beside us! It just made me all the more thankful for answered prayers, as that could have been us on a 14 hours plane ride...the people with the shrieking child!

We were met at the airport by our parents and boys, and it still seems as if our boys all grew an entire foot and matured incredibly while we were gone. They look like little men instead of little boys now, and it is so strange! You don't realize how fast your kids grow until you are away from them for a length of time... I mean three weeks isn't too long, but WOW, we are still in shock of the difference it made.

Being home is almost a bit bittersweet. I know that sounds strange, but a part of our adoption is now over and that was the part we spent in China, getting to know Annabella's culture, soaking in every bit we could so one day we can spill it all back out to her. I hope I've done an adequate job of describing what I could here. I plan to print out the trip part of this blog to give her one day as well. I know my memory will fail me, and hopefully she will be able to feel some of what we felt those first few weeks.The jet lag is pretty rough. We really didn't have much going over, but coming home has been different. Greg has managed to sleep through the past two nights, as has Annabella, but even after taking an Ambien last night, I'm still having a tough time adjusting to the sleep schedule.

Annabella is doing fantastically! She took right to her grandmothers and to her brothers...it's taking a bit more time for her to come to her Grandfathers, but she's really fitting right in to life here. She thinks the cats are funny. She was a little afraid of them at first, but once she finally touched one, she has laughed at them from that point on. Her brothers have given her their undivided attention, and she has just LOVED that! Nathan has really been awesome, and has fed her, helped with her bath, and played with her. She loves playing with her wooden blocks and her little kitchen, but her favorite toy is a tiny doll in a tiny stroller that she has to bend over to push. She pushed it all around the house yesterday!

And in true Bennett fashion, we HAD to go to 20 mile bottom yesterday afternoon. We just took 1 four wheeler, so Greg drove, the boys piled across the back, and I sat with Annabella between Greg and I. We thought she might be afraid, but she seemed to love it! She enjoyed being in the creek and laughed and splashed at her brothers. They did all kinds of things to make her laugh, and she just kept rewarding us all with her laughter!

Today we have her first appointment with the pediatrician, so we will be heading to Southaven soon. At the airport when we first put her into the van into her car seat, she screamed and cried and was pitiful. We rode about 30 minutes to Greg's parent's house, and she'd quit by the time we got there. When it was time to leave, she didn't fuss a bit about getting back into it. I'm praying that today goes as well and she will not fuss about the car seat. Andy also has to see the pediatrician about the penny he has yet to pass. They will be doing a repeat x-ray to make sure it's still there, and if so will be making an appointment to have it endoscopically removed. Annabella will get a full physical, some shots, and we will be making a follow up appointment with the cleft palate team. I can't wait to see how much she weighs...I think she's put on 5 pounds since we first got her!

Well, I'd better start uploading these pictures so we can get ready to hit the road. I will continue to update the blog with more stories and pictures as we continue to settle in to being a family of 6! BTW...there are 50 pictures today : )