We're home!

I feel like I have completely abandoned the blog. The last few days in China were a whirlwind, and then the travel home was LONG. Alliot screamed most of the flight to Beijing (3 hrs), but then we decided to give him some Melatonin for the flight from Beijing to Detroit. The bottle said to give it about 20 minutes before bedtime, and like clock work he was passed out about 20 minutes later. :) He slept most of the flight home. The flight attendants gave us a little bassinet that they attached to the wall in front of us, and he slept so well. It was lovely! Customs was a breeze, and then we had some food before we got on the short flight from Detroit to Grand Rapids. I had a salad in Detroit, and it was SO yummy!! I did have to think about where I was before I ate the salad. For over 2 weeks we had been so engrained to think about what we were eating, most of the fresh veggies and fruit in China are washed with contaminated water that will make American tummies very sick.

We were greeted at the airport in grand rapids by lots of family and friends. It was very very exciting to see everyone!! The kids wanted to have a slumber party in our room for the night, and that was totally fine! I think that we all finally settled down around 1am. I was up at 4 am (jet lag), and decided to unpack and go through the mail and kids papers that had piled up since we were gone. I got a little bit done before Alliot woke up too (although I may have woke him up with my unpacking), Dan woke up shortly after, and by 6:30am all the kids were up. Needless to say, we did take a LONG nap on saturday. Saturday night some friends brought us over dinner and ate with us, it was so nice to catch up with everyone after such a long time away. Sunday we made it to church! and Monday Dan was back to work. Avi stayed home from school on Monday. I was a little nervous to have all 4 kids by myself, but she was actually pretty helpful. We went to the Meijer Gardens and looked at the butterflies. Alliot LOVED them, and of course the rest of the kids were freaked out a butterfly might land on them. We had a cold lunch there and then got our traditional butterfly suckers as we were leaving. Tuesday Asher was back at preschool, and Avi was back at school. Today was Alliots dr. apt. The apt. was good... we have to get some lab work done, and go back to see the dr in 2 weeks. Everything else seemed to go well. He does have an ear infection... which I was suspicious about in China, but we were told his ears were completely fine... now we have medicine so that is good.

The kids are completely in love with their new brother, and are very (almost too) helpful. Alliot has already been in the little tikes shopping cart, had work googles on, and has attempted to eat lots of play food. Monday morning I found him half undressed in Avielas arms, as she was attempting to dress him for the day. Poor kid, he has one crazy new life!

Yesterday after dinner, we had a marathon hair cutting party. Asher, Dan, and Alliot needed hair cuts. Alliot was NOT a fan, to say the least. Poor kid, his hair cut is awful too... I think maybe Ill take him to get it done the next few times. I need to learn how cut Chinese hair. After the hair cutting traumatic event, Alliot was able to meet his cousins- Eleanor and Juliet, as well as Uncle Aaron, and Aunt Aimee.

Last night was the first night since being home that Alliot and I slept all night... hopefully we are kicking this jet lag. I probably wont be posting as much, I have plently keeping me busy around here now. I will try to post of Facebook more often. Thank you so much to everyone who has followed our journey, prayed for us, brought us meals, and shared in our joy. Adoption is truly a miracle, we feel lucky and blessed that he was created for our family. Our prayer is that someday he will know that he wasn't an accident, or unwanted, but his life was perfectly planned out from the very beginning.

Bassinet  on plane

At the doctor today.