Thursday July 10 / Friday July 11

This picture is of little miss Georgia on the plane ride home. It's hard to tell, but she is leaning over the foldout tray and attempting to bite one of her stacking cups. (lol) She also stacked them, knocked them over a few times (and we ended up losing one under one of the seats...oh well, I got them from Target and will just go and get more at some point. I didn't know much about keeping a toddler occupied on any sort of plane ride, much less one that long. And to tell the truth I dont know that there IS any one thing or several things that will keep a young, physically active child occupied for that long. The first hour or two of that flight was pretty aggravating -- and it wasn't really any one thing other than the fact that I was dreading the flight..and poor Georgia is your average two year old, lol

There's also the fact that the flight attendants, at least at take off seemed a bit.. er...strict, at least at take off. And not to me, personally..but to some of the Chinese passengers. Admittedly, some of the passengers didn't seem to understand the idea that when the seatbelt sign was lit that they needed to stay in their seats and be buckled up. But the way these ladies (most of the flight attendeats were female) hollered.. let's just say I wanted to nickname them flight Nazis. ;)

After the first hour or two..or maybe it was three... Georgia fell asleep. And she pretty much stayed asleep the entire flight. It helped that she and I were in a row to ourselves near the back rear of the plane. I was able to lift up the bar between our seats and make one bench area for her to stretch out on. It didn't leave much room for me to be seated, but as long as the fasten seatbelt sign wasn't lit, I wasn't too worried... I could even get up and walk around for a bit. My mom was in an seat on the asile just across from where Georgia and I were -she was willing to make sure Georgia was okay and didnt roll off or anything like that.

The only real "problem" with Georgia sleeping on the flight was that by the time we landed just before 7pm was that she was awake and raring to go. To her body it was 7AM China time. Mom and I had dozed on the plane, but it wasn't anywhere near a deep or complete rest. Royce, his sister Rae and our nieces Tracy and Erica had come to meet us at the airport...and it was so neat to see my calm and laid-back husband running around the gate area with a patriotic balloon and another balloong that said "Welcome Home" to greet us. I don't know if it was the balloons, or the fact that I was there..or that Georgia was more used to caucasian faces..but she was pretty laid back meeting all of these new folks and did NOT scream at her baba/daddy -- and that was a fear that I had. That she would scream and cry at him like she had when she first met me...and even tho he knew she might that he would get hurt feelings. (Thomas was not there at the airport. Our good friend Steve came over to watch Thomas while Royce picked us up..since we didn't know how long we would be getting through customs and immigration for Georgia.) And Thomas was asleep by the time we got home.

We got home and Royce cooked us some burgers on the George Foreman grill. Then mom dozed on the couch for a little bit and Royce went to bed. Our thought was that he would go to work as usual. Now by this point, I was exhausted beyond all belief...with a 2year old that thought it was "wakey-wakey" time. Thomas had not seen either of us yet..so I was worried how that would go.. I also pictuerd myself alone in the house the next day (Friday) with two kids who would both want me and I wasn't sure how they would react to each other or how I would handle it. I knewe there was no way Thomas would willingly go to daycare when I had only just gotten home -- and there was no way I was going to make him -- or set him against his sister by making him feel he had been shunted aside in favor of her. I was overwhelmed already... I cried and cried.

Eventually I got Georgia to nap on the couch and my mom sent me to bed - saying she would get me if Georgia woke up. (She didn't come get me, but had caught a short nap when Georgia was asleep and was okay with watching her... bless you mom!!)

And bless my husband for calling out to work explaining that he had a sick and jetlagged wife and needed to be home. His job is a long-term temp job and it made him a bit short on time -- but I really appreciate it. I slept until about 5am, and came down to find Georgia playing happily.



My mom took this picture not long after Thomas came down the stairs.. I wish I could adequately describe the beaming smile on his face when he came down the stairs and caught sight of me. He rushed over..and Georgia (who is a bit scared of our two cats) rushed over..and I took them on my lap..and cried... I was so glad to be home..so glad for both my children...and even after being asleep for 4 or 5 hours, still so exhausted...I think it shows in the photo. LOL



At one point later in the day Thomas would come up behind me and exclaim - "I love this mommy!" I think that makes a good caption for this photo.

So basically we got Georgia to sleep at 9am (which would be about 9pm China time) and we woke her up at 1pm. We went to my workplace headquarters to show documentation of her adoption -- to make my Family Medical Leave legal, and to get her enrolled on my medical, dental and vision plan. (I have a family plan, so my premiums will stay the same...but we have to get her enrolled asap.)

We also took her to the Columbia Association to get her an ID card so she could go to the swimming pool with us.

Now we're home, and its about 6pm as I write this... we're hoping to keep Georgia awake until at least 7pm or later... that will give us a good start to getting her on our time schedule. She's getting drowsy, so another splash in the bathtub might be in order..it will wake her up a bit... and if baba/daddy gives the bath, it will help the two of them bond.

Before I forget to mention it... Thomas and Georgia seem to at least get along..no major jealousies on either one's part.

All in all, its been a good first day.