Saturday, September 8, 2007

HOME SWEET HOME!

Well it is Saturday afternoon and we have been home 2-1/2 days. WOW life is full and just trying to get caught up.
Laundry is done waiting to be folded and put away, suitcases unpacked but only 1/2 put away. Mail done, bills paid, groceries bought..... we are on our way to getting into a schedule again LOL

We had a long - i mean long journey home! Reagan of course hardly slept as the past trip and we all paid for it :-) Taylor did better than I had expected - but had a wonderful experience... she is gorging a bit and stuffs her mouth so full of food she can't chew or swallow. Well on the plane we had one of these moments and of course she decided to pack in some milk with the cookies. She was chewing but nothing was moving LOL well there was some dribble and I went to wipe and she decided to let it all out it was cookie mush all over the place - even in her eyes which she let out a scream and cried and I rushed to find more napkins to clean up the mess. Scott had a similar experience on our last flight home - I kept warning him, but I guess he wanted the full experience LOL

Another great memory was our going through security in SF. We were spoiled and had soon forgotten that in other countries shoes stay on so you can quickly go through.
Well unprepared we are rushing through - throwing all 5 carry on's onto the belt of the inspection machine, scrambling to take out the laptop and any liquids that are stored in their own ziplock bag, taking off shoes and making the kids get theirs off, getting Taylor out of the carrier - it was a zoo and one of the reason's I have avoioded unprepared families in the past :-) well by the time we had gone through and were now scrambling to collect all the bags and some get re-inspected... Taylor wanting to take off he socks and trying to find them,,, the kids all were frustrated and all three sat at the end while Scott and I were running back and forth with our stuff... all three sat their crying....
There were three pilots all standing there waiting and watching our total family scene with great enjoyment - but Scott noted later, they were all saying to themselves that is why we are single!

So now we are a family of five!!! We had an hour or so to wait on the final leg and were anxious to get home. Mixed feelings since there were many good moments and a family vacation. Not really getting homesick - other than missing some good food and a nice bed. But looking forward to getting on with our lives - getting onto a schedule and having Taylor know our home, school and daily life.

We finally got home around 5 PM or so, later we had Scott's mom and Jim come by. It was good to see the cats, but Odessa had definitely had a hard time and she let us know. Lilly ruled to house while we were gone and totally stressed out Odessa our #1 cat. Cat hair is everywhere the house looked bad - so now house cleaning is top of the list.

We kept the kids up to 9 PM so that we could try and control the jet lag, they all crashed and I was right behind them.

Thursday we decided it would help if we just had Reagan and Kaitlyn back in school. So Scott took then and went to work. I started laundry, unpacking.... and took Taylor or our great adoption doctor - Dr. Bledsoe. She is the best!
Taylor is actually 9.9 kgs = 21 lbs and is tiny. But is healthy, teeth are actually good, thinks her hair color will change once she gets better nutrician. She also thinks Taylor maybe younger than what we have been told, so we will get her evaluated next week. Otherwise she is actually barely on the charts for height and head size - but they definitely give us hope she will grow healthy.

Friday we got Taylor in school with Reagan and Kaitlyn. The first 5 mins. she had a meltdown, so left and came back later. She did much better and napped and actually had fun in the playground with the other kids. I think she had never been on a swing before so loved that. The kids just swarmed her so that set in panic, but soon she was ok and of course they all wanted to know about her small arm? So tried to explain to them about it - Reagan was so brotherly - protecting her all the time and pushing her on the swing - when people asked him about her arm, he just stated mater of factly - Jesus made her that way - its her special arm. Our little missionary!

Friday I had Reagan try and take a nap - Thursday he didn't and refused to when the teachers asked him. I picked him up and I saw it coming, but the time I had him in the car he was just crying and did for a full hour - got him fed and into bed - but he woke three times with almost night terror behavior. He was just so overtired!

Taylor is trying more since home, very happy and even has tried a few more words. We do believe we'll have to enroll her in speech therapy. I don't believe she knows how to make some sounds, since she has mostly babbled.

Each day Taylor has melt downs, but not hourly like Kaitlyn did, and is quickly learning about obeying and boundaries :-)

Scott headed out of town last night for Leavenworth for a conference and will be home late tonight - so that has slowed me down in getting on top of things. But our schedule is just insane, I start work Monday, Tues morning have our heart doctor apt. Wed am our friends from Thailand come and stay for 16 days with us. My parents arrive (thankfully staying at a hotel) Friday-Sunday. Sat I have a wedding, Sunday is Taylors dedication - then doctor apts the rest of the month and then Oct 12th is Reagan's 3rd surgery this year. Kaitlyn's birthday has to be planned for which is on the 8th, our anniversary... and it just goes on and on. If I think about it too hard I my head starts to hurt LOL so will just try to take it one day at a time!

Hope to post more photo's of the trip and some home photo's in the next day or two.
Thanks for joining us on this journey - I plan to update regularly so you can see how Taylor is doing. God Bless you, and for some - good luck on your upcoming journey's!

Lavonne and Family

1 comment:

Shannon and Boyd Bringolf said...

Welcome home and to the menagerie of a family of five! It does take a few weeks to get in the groove. We are currently a family of 6 untl the end of the school year. And things have fallen into place after just 2 weeks. I have loved following your journey. Remember to take time to rest or you could end up sick and trying to parent 3 children.
Hugs! Shannon B