We are home and we are pooped. It took us over 30 hours to get home from the time we got up and left for the airport to walking through the front door of our well missed home. We are adjusting to the time switch, sleeping on the plane helped some but it was a really rough flight coming back. It was the first time we have heard the pilot yell, “Aircrew down” and they all kneeled down on the floor right where they were standing as we were dropping altitude very quickly Jim saw the wings flapping out the window like we were a huge bird, meanwhile the whole plane shook for several hours. We all prayed very hard. Jim was sitting with Emilea as she was occupied and distracted watching her movie on her DVD player as Jim held it down with one hand and the other clenched to his armrest. My sister Glenda and I were sitting in front of Jim and Emilea and just kept looking at each other and hoping Hannah would continue sleeping peacefully through it all (and she did...thank goodness) We got our moneys worth for a thrill ride! Ha

We had several good friends waiting at the airport for us when we arrived. James, Michelle and Jake and Caroline, Shawn, Laurie and Makaila and Laurie's sister Joan. It meant a lot to us to have you all there and it meant a lot to Emilea to have her "little" friends there too. My brother-in-law Kenny was there as well. He missed us, but I think mostly Glenda...lol. It was a blessing that Glenda went with us. We honestly don't know what we would have done without her help. We thank Kenny for giving her up for two weeks and for watching Muffin for us! Before leaving the airport, Hannah placed her feet in the same place Emilea did 3 1/2 years ago in the Jax Airport and officially became a US Citizen as her feet touched US soil for the first time. What a time of excitement - squeeky shoes and all...lol. When we got home, we found out that our friend Patty, had stocked up our refrigerator with Milk and drinks and food for easy fixing. She was waiting there at the house to greet us as well. She is so great and we appreciate all she has done for us. What a blessing all of you have been to us! Even Shawn and Laurie as we frantically emailed them from China and ask them to crawl up in our attic and get down the baby crib and get a mattress and sheets and set it up for us after we found out how small Hannah was and realized the bed we had setup would never work...not just anyone would brave our attic for us...lol.

Our luggage got held up in Chicago (all six pieces) but made it’s way home the next day around 4pm. Glenda was then able to head home to Panama City Beach and made it home late last night. We started washing and putting everything away yesterday after the luggage arrived. We are still in the progress of getting it all done...but we will eventurally get there. It's nice to have fresh smelling clothes again. Hannah is adjusting to her new home and lifestyle. We made great progress today as she walked several times by herself holding onto a childs walk-behind walker. She has made a lot of progress in the short time we have had her but we have a long ways to go. She was pretty jet lagged yesterday as we all were. Last night Emilea was up at 2pm and hungry. I managed to get her to go back to sleep with us for about an hour then she was up again so I gave her a small snack. Then we all went back to bed and slept until 11:30am Sunday morning. Hannah was up a time or two but put herself back to sleep. It is very difficult to get readjusted with a 13 hour difference in time zones and we are all extremely tired and all are adjusting to having a new family member. All in all everything is going pretty well though. God will get us all through it and in a few months we won't remember how tired and how trying this time is right now. We are hopeful for a normal nights rest tonight...that is still to be determined though. We did get Emilea in bed around 9pm and she has school tomorrow. Hannah just went down a few minutes ago.

Our friends Shawn and Laurie brought us dinner tonight. It was nice to have a hot meal that didn't involve rice. lol. We thank everyone for the support & prayers. It is great to be home and back in our blessed country, we missed it! We ask for your continued prayers that the transistion with Hannah goes smoother as the days pass and we are able to get her the help she needs to get her pallete repaired as well as any other special needs she has taken care of.

For now...we are going to try and get some rest while the girls are sleeping. Oh how we missed our soft beds...the beds in China were like sleeping on a plain box spring.