When I last wrote we were about to get on the plane to come home from China. 21 hours of travel later we arrived at home. Katie slept for 3 hours of the journey. Heather and I...not a wink. Katie screamed at the top of her lungs in two different 45 minute bouts. Other than that, she was content for the rest of the time. The trip was long and hard, but we made it and boy is it ever nice to be home. It's great to be home.
Once we were home it took about two weeks to get totally adjusted to the time change. Katie had some real issues with sleep. After sleeping for most of the day following the trip home, she reverted back to the early days in the hotel room. Scream, scream, scream...but only at bedtime. Which was better than before. It took several weeks to get her comfortable sleeping in our house. We tried every sleeping arrangement possible and every sleep technique known to man without much success at first. After about a month, she finally became comforatble going to bed and sleeping all night. With jet lag, Katie screaming for bedtime and waking up frequently at night, plus having another child who did not go through the time change and was sleeping well every night, the first month was rough. Things are much better now.
Being home has definitely had it positives. When we first received Katie she would only sit in one place and play with whatever was in front of her. She did not crawl, scoot, or move around. She did not like me at all, which was well documented throughout our trip. She could not feed herself. She did not attempt to talk. She did not smile or show much expression at all. She cried a lot.
Fast forward almost two months. Katie is now: walking, running, climbing, feeding herself, talking (about 15 words in English and expanding daily), she likes daddy a lot, she likes Ellie a lot, giggling, laughing, smiling, interacting, learning "no", getting into everything, gaining weight, riding in a carseat for about an hour without crying, the list goes on and on. With every day comes more comfort with her surroundings and new behaviors. We are so thankful to see her personality and get to know her as a person. She is bringing us great joy.
The pictures will tell the rest of the story. I will attempt to update possibly monthly now that we are home. I know many of you missed the daily updates from China. It was an amazing journey that was really only the beginning. Merry Christmas!
