Dah!!!

Hello Dear Readers,

Thank you all so much for your kind and thoughtful comments and emails while we were in China. We are excited to post our first message (finally!) from home.

We left on Thursday, February 16, and even though we were traveling for over 24 hours from door to door, we still arrived here on the 16th! Gaining a day back was nice. The flight was not as easy as the one there. Joy had a hard time settling down and only slept three hours! Mary got about 45 minutes and Paul maybe 30. When we were greeted by family at the airport in San Diego, we were pretty exhausted.

Theoretically, returning home should be easier than being in China, but returning home means returning to laundry, cleaning (no hotel maids), bills, late bills, hungry kitty cats and...unpacking!!!!!! Combine this with wicked jet lag and an interested and mobile toddler, and you've got trouble. Well, not trouble exactly. But we child-proofed our home prior to leaving thinking we would get a semi-barely-not really walking baby, not a fully striding girl who likes to pull books off the shelves and give everything the "bang" test. Which items provide the biggest sound upon smashing!

But actually, although we had a hard time getting back to normal, Joy seems to be flourishing. We are surprised and impressed with how resilient she is. She loves her new surroundings, is excited about our cats-she points and exclaims "dah," which is code for anything good and exciting. She is eating and sleeping fairly well, and has had her first trip to the beach and to the park. She absolutely loves birds and is able to catch them out of every corner of her eye. She is apparently inexperienced with the idea of sand, but after a few tries, she thinks it might be ok.

She has met much of the immediate family, including a very exciting 7th birthday for nephew Zach. Joy can hold her own with the boys!!!!! She had her first visit to an American doctor (unpopular) and her first visit to her parents place of employment the Rhoades School (popular!)

It gives us a very warm feeling that, after all that she has been through, and after being taken from the only home she knew, dragged through hotels, airports and plopped down here in Encinitas, that she is still so willing to put her trust and faith in us. We are truly lucky!

We feel we have made it though the survival period and all three of us are now ready for more adventures!!!