HOME!

More from the Hong Kong Airport- waiting to leave!

On the plane and ready to go!   Macie was LOVING looking outside and seeing all the airplanes and she got super excited during take off too.

Before Evan started not feeling well again...poor guy!

Well, we made it home safely!  We did have some rough moments getting there, but we're here and well now.   Our flight went fine.  Thankfully Evan and the kids slept a fair amount.  Rick slept a little bit and I was only able to sleep maybe an hour.  The kids all did really well on the plane.  Evan didn't fare so well with the motion sickness/jet lag combo, but we were prepared this time.  Sadly for him, unlike in the past when he got sick during the landing, he was sick every single time he woke up. I think he had to be dehydrated by the time we landed- he couldn't keep anything down and was so pale.  We ended up landing about 25 minutes early.  We quickly went through immigration and then were headed to use the bathroom and get our bags.  The one bathroom in that area was flooding and I mean totally flooding- water was pouring out of the toilets and onto the floor and eventually it made it's way out by the area where we were waiting for our baggage. It was absolutely disgusting and poor Lena had an accident because she was not able to use the bathroom.  Luckily we were able to change her before heading home.  After we got all our bags, we headed over to turn in our adoption paperwork.  Once they were finished and our luggage went through the security, we were on our way out.  My mom, stepdad, Jayce, and Rowan were not there yet because we were earlier than expected.  That gave us time to get Lena cleaned up.  We ended up meeting them outside as the van pulled up, so they didn't get to come in with their sign and balloons, but we were fine with that.  We were just so ready to get home. It was so nice to see Jayce and Rowan again!   The baby of the family always looks so much bigger when you've been gone for a couple weeks.  He's really not all that much smaller than the girls!  We beat the other boys home and even had time to go through our backpacks and get Evan and Lena a bath.  Evan was feeling much better with fresh air, a bath, and some rest on the couch.  So thankful for that!  We said goodbye and thank you to nana and Grandpa JP right about the time Grandpa and Grandma Henningfeld arrived home from school with the four big boys.  Reid, Elijah, Jonah, and Landyn didn't act too excited to see Rick and I, but they were SUPER anxious and excited to see and meet their new sisters!  

HOME!  They wanted to start coloring the back of our welcome home sign right away.  I think we're going to have to keep markers out of reach- these two like to use them to color on their clothes and many other places where they shouldn't be used...

Lots of balloons were waiting for us!

There were even some on their beds.  This is a new bed Rick made for Lena and Macie right before we left.  We have some finishing touches to do yet, but he did such a great job!

They were loving checking out all the toys we have and definitely gravitated to the toys that Rowan likes.

Saying goodbye and a BIG thank you to Nana and Grandpa JP.

These boys couldn't wait to see and hug their new sisters.  Their sisters weren't so sure at first- there was a lot of noise and a lot going on, but they quickly warmed up to them!

This girl!  She is always doing stuff like this.  I'm not much of a sports person, but I think I think we may need to get her signed up for gymnastics.

All the kids with grandma and grandpa Henningfeld.  That is one FULL couch!

After everyone left, Rick and I were wondering if we could even make it up til the kids' bedtime.  We were really starting to feel the jet lag and exhaustion.   We had tacos for dinner- thank you so much to the Johnson family from AWANA for that...such a blessing!   Then we went through backpacks and got homework done and studied for spelling and reading tests with our first and second graders. We actually had everything finished by about 6:30 p.m. and started bedtime a little early.  Macie fell asleep on Landyn while playing in her bed.  SO sweet!  The girls were all out very quickly.  The boys...not so much.  Rick and I were out pretty quickly too, but it was only a couple hours later and we had someone crying.  Evan came down many times, not able to sleep.  We were up a lot on and off between about 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. and I was in and out of rooms and beds all night.  I am feeling it today!  

Evan and Lena both decided they wanted to go to school today- Friday.  It's a short day for Lena so that shouldn't be too bad.  Hoping Evan makes it through the day!  We've gone through the mail and the school work that came home while we were gone.   We've had some phone calls that needed to be made and Rick's been outside trying to get our lawn cleaned up and garage re-organized for winter.  That was the biggest shock to our systems- the weather change!  We went from 70s and 80s to 30s and 40s!  We are so not ready for winter!   I've heard it's supposed to snow tonight too. Yikes!  The girls may wake up to their first snow tomorrow....crazy!   Tonight we plan to take it easy and have a movie night- a big thank you Rick's Vivayic team for the packages to make it a fun one tonight!   I am thinking I'll be sleeping during the movies.  I'm definitely dragging.  We are hoping that each night gets a little easier.  We will get through this, but these are definitely the hard days- getting used to our new normal and recovering from jet lag.

So glad to be home!