homecoming

We had such a sweet homecoming. After some of the longest 30+ hours you could imagine on a plane with a VERY unhappy baby who did not want to sleep...we were exhausted and were so happy to see our sweet family and friends there to greet us with banners and balloons to welcome Sadie home! I am posting lots of pictures below!

Sadie did so great in the car seat...we weren't sure how she would do since she had never been in one. It was nice to get back to normal driving! Traffic in China was insane, just a huge unorganized mesh of cars, bikes, people, all coming within inches of each other at fast speeds. Atlanta traffic felt so calm :) 

Adoption is beautiful and messy and hard and joyful. I have heard other families say this but have not known the extent of any of it until now. At times we are overwhelmed with the beautiful and joyful, and at other times we are overwhelmed with the hard and the messy. Sadie's transition the first few days has been difficult....harder than we expected. She does seem to be doing a little better every day though. We have to keep in mind that she has not even had as much time at our home as she had in each hotel so she has no idea what is going on or that she is home for good with her permanent family. She doesn't know if this is just another temporary stop or if she will be in a different place with different people tomorrow. She is still grieving the loss of her foster family and her familiar surroundings, and trying to figure out everything else.

She is pretty captivated by Carter and Myah, and maybe a little overwhelmed by the chaos of two other energetic toddlers :) Though she may just be more energetic than either of them! They are all definitely going through some adjustment and figuring each other out. Carter and Myah are too young to fully understand what's going on or why Sadie responds to some things the way she does, and too young to verbalize their feelings well, so they have been struggling some too. All three have needed a lot of extra attention and with some major jet lag and just all of the exhaustion and emotion from the past two weeks, we are worn out...but so thankful to be home and to have our little girl home. We do ask for your continued prayer during these difficult days of Sadie's continued grief and transition, adjusting to being a family of five, figuring out our new normal, and getting over the fog of jet lag. 

One of the biggest struggles I think is communication. We have no way to really communicate to her what to expect and she has no way to communicate what she wants or feels. Her foster family told us she only knew 4 Chinese words and in English she has tried to say mama, daddy, Sadie, Myah, and nose. She has started picking up on some sign language - please, eat, and all done. But still, it is frustrating for her and for us to not have the ability to communicate more. But all of this will come.

Sadie is doing better than I expected with eating here. In China she ate mainly traditional Chinese food like noodles and dumplings - while we had her in China she pushed away most fruit and there were not many vegetables available. Her first meal in the US was Chickfila :) A big deal - she fits right in because she LOVED the chicken nuggets! She has tried several new (for her) fruits and vegetables and has liked them pretty well. She is still struggling with drinking...she is not very interested in drinks that aren't super sweet and she does not like sippy cups at all, so we are working with her on that. (In China they sweeten the babies drinks a lot. We were told instructed to add sugar to her water and her formula, and all of their milks for kids taste like syrup).

Working at using a fork and eating her broccoli

She thinks it is HILARIOUS to jump on the little trampoline with Carter and Myah, and she likes to chase them around or copy what they are doing or try to give them kisses. They are really cute together when they are all playing or running together or walking circles in all their squeaky shoes from China. It is pretty chaotic though with 3 kids under 3 in the house, and when they aren't happy with each other or all wanting something, it is a challenge! We are trying to spend extra time focusing on this important bonding and attachment phase with Sadie, while at the same time trying to get things somewhat back to normal for Carter and Myah.

One morning just after getting up (Myah was still sleeping) I sat Carter and Sadie down on the couch and walked into the kitchen to get them some milk and a bottle. I heard Carter start to tell her what was going to happen next..."Sadie, we're gonna watch a video then Mama's gonna get us some breakfast".....silence....(he tries a lot to get her to talk back to him)...then he said "Sadie...were you in China?....And did you get Mama and Daddy?" Tears. :) So sweet.

I am so thankful that God adopts us into His family and is patient and loving and merciful and forgiving. Please pray for rest, for patience, for grace for us to handle the difficult days in a way that reflects God's love for us!

We missed these two crazy kids so much!

Myah kept saying "Hey Sadie, Hey Sadie" over and over

I laughed hard at this one because it looks like I have crazy weird legs here

sweet little face

family of 5!

trying to get together for a picture, haha.

love our family!

My wonderful parents decorated our house for Sadie. They and John's parents and my
sister's family did so much to help us and to love on our kids during our time away.

newest little citizen! 

one of my sweetest encouragers and closest friends

This little girl doesn't know it yet but she is gonna LOOOVE her Pops!

staring at her big brother

Sweet nieces were so excited to see Sadie and made her several signs with Chinese words on them

love my parents.
we are so thankful that our families have wholeheartedly supported and been involved in our adoption.
they already love this little girl so much.

my sweet friend Kelly who adopted little Jenna this past November

love my in-laws!

kisses

love my mama and love this picture

Our sweet Social Worker and others from our agency came to welcome us home.
They are a great agency, if you are interested in adopting.