We're Home!

Wow, we spent A LOT of time waiting in airports the last couple of days! Our first flight took us from Guangzhou to Shanghai. We had a 7 hour layover in Shanghai and then our flight was delayed, so the layover became even longer. Thankfully the airports in China's big cities are pretty nice!

Guangzhou airport...it even had a play room!

Taking a nap, airport style:

She LOVED this "da doo doo" (car) which was a good way to waste some time during our 7+ hour layover in Shanghai.

 

Saying "bye bye!" to all the planes taking off:

 

Seriously people, let's get going.

 

First timeout. She kept running away and we didn't want to chase her for 7+ hours, so we had to do it. It worked ;) 

She learned how to sign "more" after watching her friend Ellie sign it, here she is asking for more yogurt, which she loves and has really helped her digestive issues!

 

It was so nice to have some of our family at the airport to welcome us home, especially since our flights were delayed and didn't arrive until 1:30 a.m.!  When we got home, we had planned to let Camden keep sleeping, but he woke up anyway. When I went in his room, he was shocked and happy to see me, but then he quickly stared out the door in anticipation, knowing his Mei Mei was going to come through the door next. Mark came through carrying Luyana and he got the hugest smile on his face. He stroked her arm and cheek and kept saying "Mei Mei" so sweetly and then said, "She's so beautiful." (No joking, this kid is the sweetest.) We then got out pretty much every toy in the whole entire house to play with. Unfortunately, so far, the picture below is my only picture from home and it was taken at about 3:00 a.m. last night! Today we basically tried to unpack and learn how to manage two 2-year-olds. Every time I held one, the other was there in seconds wanting to be held, which made heldee #1 a little annoyed. But so far, they seem to really like each other. Camden had her laughing at dinner and sharing is going as good as to be expected given the certain situation.

When we were on our long flight from Shanghai to Chicago, Luyana and I were hanging out at the back of the plane for a little while to let her get out some energy. An older flight attendant was admiring Luyana and held out her hands to her. Luyana thought she was holding out her hand to help her walk, so she reached one arm up. So the flight attendant scooped her up and held her, kind of encouraging her to rest her head on her shoulder. I was surprised Luyana didn't struggle, so I peeked around to see her face and she looked terrified and had silent tears running down her cheeks. This was confirmation to me that cacooning is necessary for us. She is an active little girl and does seem to be making progress everyday, but there is fear and insecurity that we need to work through. We thank you all for understanding and I will try to get some better pictures tomorrow. (You know, in between changing 6 poopy diapers, which was the grand total for today!)