We're home

(E)

We arrived home yesterday after more travel than anyone should have to do at one time. I don't do well without much sleep and by yesterday evening I was barely conscious. (I'm pretty sure that I have felt better after delivering a baby than I did at 8pm last night.) But we succeeded in keeping ourselves awake until a normal bedtime and after 11 hours of sleep life looks much better.

The plane rides were uneventful...just like you want them to be. Basically on time, all the luggage made it, and the children all slept most of the time. K probably got the most sleep as he slept 9 out of 11 hours on the trans-Pacific flight. It's much easier to sleep if you can actually lie down. (And can I just say it's cruel, just cruel, for the airlines to show advertisements of the lovely fully reclining seats available in first class to the economy class cattle at about hour 10 of the flight?)

The worst part of the trip happened about 2 hours before landing when we hit some major turbulence. It was the kind of turbulence that makes you actually locate the emergency exits like they told you to do at the beginning of the flight. And the worst part is that it was ongoing, with the plane doing that quick drop in altitude-thing that makes you think you're actually on a roller coaster. Well, with that much movement, you know what happens next. Yes, three of our six travellers needed to make use of those handy bags located in the seat pocket in front of you. And they weren't the only ones on the flight. At one point, the flight attendants were actually walking up and the down the aisles passing them out instead of coffee and tea. I'm quite sure they didn't mean it when on one of the final announcements they said they hoped we would fly with them again soon.

K is a little confused by all that has happened. He loves A, as all small children and babies do. (Who doesn't love someone who caters to their every need?) But, he has that lost, staring look again that he first had when we met him at the orphanage. I'm sure he will lose that once he begins to feel comfortable. Our first mission is to teach him to go down stairs. I worry a little that he has no depth perception. It's as if when he sees the step, he has no idea that it is not on the same level as the ground he's standing on. At the hotel, we caught him several times as he was about to walk out onto nothingness. The ability to navigate stairs is an important skill to have in this house. Luckily, there are a lot of volunteers to follow him around.

Speaking of the house, it's still not done. My fantasy of coming home and immediately moving into my new kitchen remains just that. But the good news is that I should be able to move in next weekend. In the meantime, I won't have to spend too much time in the basement as we have wonderful friends who are bringing meals this week during our adjustment to 7 children.

We feel so blessed. Blessed by our wonderful children who it is so good to have all together again, and by wonderful friends and family who have supported us through this entire process. We are so humbly grateful to God for all these blessings. We ran across a couple of people in Vietnam who understood the blessings of a large family. One was a woman from whom I bought some laquerware. She asked about our family and when I told we had 7 children, her first reaction was not, "Wow, how do you do it?" or "Better you than me!", but "You are such a lucky and happy mama." And you know, she's right.