So Good To Be Home

We're home at last. Including flights, and layovers and more flights, our travel time was a little over 37 hours. It was absolutely exhausting. The flight from Hong Kong to Newark was 15 hours and 40 minutes and little Addie did an awesome job, with no crying. However she did not sleep but three of the fifteen hours. She wanted to be held, cuddled, and entertained. I didn't mind thinking she would at least sleep during the long 9 hour layover in Newark. I was wrong. She seemed totally wired and did not sleep. Bayley on the other hand slept for 8 hours on the floor on the plane, and then she dozed on and off on the floor of the Newark airport. The funny thing was how Bayley would just plop anywhere on the rug in the airport, and it always seemed her head was on a coffee stained spot or whatever else we can imagine the stains to be. Finally at 12:38 am we landed in Bangor, and Addie met her Dad and her wonderful brothers.

We all crawled into bed sometime around 3:30 this morning, and then the crying and screaming began. It lasted for hours. Perhaps some of it was fear, but the major problem was again severe constipation for Addie. Today Addie had a very good day meeting many new people in her life. Everyone is quite surprised by her delays, as she does not seem like an 18 month old in any way. Her muscle weakness is quite severe, and she has every sign of a frightened and very neglected little girl. While in China I chose not to criticize her care for fear the blogs were monitored, but now I can clearly say that her level of care was atrocious. The flatness of her little head tells much of the story which included day after day of just being in a crib on her back. When offered toys she has no idea what they are. She rarely smiles, as if she doesn't know how. With all this said, there is something in her eyes that lets others know she is very much interested in the world and just needs lots of love and patience as she figures it all out. Her head is constantly moving in attempts to seek out what antic a particular sibling is up to. She hears every sound and makes small soft noises in reaction to things she loves.

She explored the outdoors today with her grandfather, and once again loved the grass. She slept so soundly and relaxed on her great grandmother's bed, and then had her first messy chocolate cookie upon waking. She played a special foot kissing game with her Uncle Lawrence, and every time he would stop, she would lift it up for him to kiss again. She hummed at her Uncle Jeremy and loved tinkering with the pens in his pocket. Clearly, she has so much to learn and much catching up to do, but today was a very good day for the start of her new life with us.

The picture is one taken by another couple as we put our sweet girls on the famous White Swan red couch in their traditional Chinese dresses.