Homecoming

Wow -- that was a long 24 hours to get home! I can't believe that out of 8 flights in 2 weeks, the only one to be delayed was my very last flight home. It was only 1 hour late, but it was the last flight I would choose to be late!

It was so nice to walk off that plane in KC. Alana Xinyi was quite overwhelmed and just exhausted. Collin and Dylan were hugging and kissing her and she sort of shut down. She didn't cry, but she definitely wasn't excited either. Grandma and Grandpa Dunakin were there as well as Uncle Chuck. Xin Yi liked the balloon that daddy brought for her and it helped keep her from melting down in the car over the car seat. She kept asking me to hold and her motioning for me to take off the buckle. It didn't take long for her to start playing with Collin and the balloon though. There was even some tattling before long! I also broke out some M&M's and gummi bears we'd bought in Minneapolis to help keep the kids pacified for the car ride home.

When we got home, Xin Yi got really excited and she and Collin started running around the house. They were playing with the other balloons Victor bought and all of the toys. Xin Yi was screaming with excitement and she and Collin kept feeding off each other and the excitement just kept escalating. It was fun to watch them so excited to play with each other, but at the same time we had to keep them from tearing the house down! We finally put Dylan to bed around 10 pm, Collin around 10:30 pm and Victor, Alana and I went to bed around 11 pm. We put Alana in the crib in our room. I pulled it up next to our bed and I put my hand in the crib to hold Alana's hand until she fell asleep. She wasn't happy about not being in our bed (she's been sleeping in bed with me in China), but she feel asleep fairly quickly anyway. She woke up around 4 am, but went back to sleep and we all slept until after 7 am this morning. My bed never felt as good as it did last night! I'm hoping that we will slide right back into the correct schedule, but I keep thinking it can't be this easy.

Xin Yi poked me this morning and said "Hi". I had to focus for a minute, because I thought it must be Dylan. She smiled and seemed happy, but after we went out to join the rest of the family she got grumpy. We ate some breakfast and then she kept going into the bathroom as if she were going to be sick. I dug out some of the DVD's I'd bought for her in China and she wanted to watch Shrek again. That seemed to calm her down and she's been happy ever since. We went out by the pool while Victor was cleaning it and she put her feet in and happily splashed away. We are planning to take the kids out this afternoon once it warms up to go swimming. I'm sure she will have a blast!

Everything seems to be falling into place amazingly well right now. Language is definitely an issue, but we seem to be working with it as well as possible. We have been so blessed and are so happy to be starting our life as a family of 5! Everything will be so exciting the next few months as we take Alana Xinyi to all of our favorite family spots. I'll be sure to update the blog regularly so everyone can see pictures of her exploring KC!