Thanks, everyone, for all your prayers!

Short version: We are happy to be home. We are already starting to gel as a family, and it is fun to watch Mayana get to know her other sisters.

Long version:

Our last day in China was interesting, since it was the only day that we had a daytime outing with the other FTIA families (shopping tour and noodle shop for lunch). We enjoyed that, returned for packing suitcases, finished our very last shopping as quickly as we could, said good-bye to our new friend Judi, and then, for our grand finale, had a Christmas dinner with our FTIA friends: Papa Johns pizza with sharing and praying for each other. Pretty awesome!

We awoke at 4:30 AM so that we could Skype with our Amlung family for Christmas -- great to talk with EVERYBODY that way. We left for the airport at 5:45 am, and didn't get to Cincinnati until 5:45 pm (inlcuding the 13 hour time difference, that made the trip 25 hours long.) The trip home was long and tedious, with some turbulence and long lines at airports. But the girls stayed peaceful and mostly happy throughout the trip, and they slept for several hours, which helped a lot. I was exhausted and continued to feel like I was on a plane until I finally went to bed at 11pm last night. I slept until 9:30 am. That helped a lot! I still have some stomach upset, but it seems to be getting better.

Mayana has really taken to Kayla and AnneMarie! She thinks having big sisters is very special. Grace is enjoying a break from Mayana, and Lia doesn't know what to do with her, so she basically ignores her. Grace and Lia have been busy catching up on play time together.

Tom is catching up on a few things around the yard and garage (since it is warm today - near 70) and I am working on laundry and unpacking.

We can't believe that we actually have Mayana here and that she is mostly smiles, hugs, and giggles. We will take a few days of being just us -- the family, here at home, and then start visitng with others.

Love to you all!