The Journey Home...

As promised, here are the red couch pictures from yesterday! We had a very small group of 3 families, so we grabbed a couch and had Bea, Keira and Jessica all pose for the pictures. I think that it started with Keira having a rice cracker, then Bea wanted one, they were eating them, then Jessica wanted some of Keiras, so she grabbed some, then Keira grabbed some of Bea's and it was anarchy from that point on! We also took a couple of pictures of some of the other kids in the families along with the babies (Lily, Audrey and Jason). We went to the consulate yesterday to have our swearing in ceremony. Basically that is when they have us raise our right hand and swear that all of the information that we have given about the adoption is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I had to go to the restroom and immediately ran back to let the other girls and women in our group know that there were western toilets, so if they needed to go, they should go NOW! We all ran into the bathrooms. There have been a mix of regular western toilets that I know and love as well as the squatty pottys. They are basically porcelain like a western toilet, but pretty much just a hole in the ground that you squat over to go to the bathroom. Well we made it into Beijing late last night- almost midnight. At the airport Keira was so wound up she was bouncing around and going crazy. I was really worried that she would be going even more nuts on the plane. We stopped for a bite to eat at an airport restaurant and for the life of him, Dan just could not get them to cook his hamburger. There is rare and then there is raw. His was somewhere in between leaning more towards the raw. He had a really HORRIBLE stomach day yesterday where the room was even spinning for him, so he definitely didn't want to take any chance with what he ate or drank after he started to feel a little better! Finally after the 3rd attempt in the microwave, the burger was blazing hot and about as cooked as it was going to get (I'd say it was still medium rare believe it or not!) I learned something new at the airport! In the public bathrooms, people don't stand in line waiting for a stall, they just kind of push each other out of the way to pick a door to stand in front of and whether you got there first or got there last, it doesn't matter. All that matters is how fast the person already in the stall you picked pees! I left Keira with Dan to brave the bathroom when Keira started screaming for me....guess what she was screaming??? Mama over and over again! That was the first time she has ever really called me that. Whether she calls me that again for a long time, who knows, but it sure was nice to hear- especially considering that our guide told us that "Da!" which she was calling me already doesn't mean anything! :)

She was bouncing and screaming and going nuts from boredom when we were waiting for the plane and finally once we got inside she finally went to sleep! She thrashed around a few times in her sleep on the plane almost knocking my front teeth out, but all in all, thankfully we made it safely. Once the plane landed, everyone pushed and shoved their way out of the plane to get to waiting busses that took us to the baggage claim area. Candy was there (our original guide) and it was a relief to see a familiar face. Keira was pretty much out the whole night and woke up again the laughing, smiling angel that she is when she isn't being a little devil ;). We are waiting now to get back on a shuttle to take us to the airport for the trip home. It's so hard to believe that tomorrow at this time, we will be back home. It has been such an adventure being here and a new adventure will begin! Keira has adjusted pretty well and I'm so happy and feel so blessed that God has seen fit to give us a healthy, happy, beautiful little girl that we love so very much. Thank you to everyone for all of the comments, emails and for following along in our story to bring our baby girl home! We love and miss you all and can't wait to share this silly little girl with all of you so that she can make you laugh and smile as much as she does for us. See you all soon!