Home!

Thank you for your prayers! We are home, safe and sound. The killer flight was the flight from Hong Kong to Chicago--14 hours! And all the parents were nervous about how their kids would do, because no one wants to be a nuisance to the other passengers because they can't keep their kids from crying and squirming.

Callie did very well, because in answer to your prayers, the Lord kept her asleep for most of the trip. She slept the first 4 hours and then about the last 6 hours, and during the awake times, she did well.

All the kids did well, except for one, and it was a difficult experience for her parents, though they wore it well. (On top of that, the turbulence made the mom sick.)

Anna and I played lots of UNO on the trip to pass the time.

Long lay-over in Chicago, and it was all I could do to keep from falling asleep. Eventually the six families went their various ways, and we said good-bye to people we had come to love and lean on for two weeks. (The seventh family left Guangzhou before the rest of us did.)

Andrew and Caty, Sara's brother's family, my parents, and three of my brother's kids met us at the airport. Andrew and Caty were able to elicit smiles from their new sister. We collected our luggage--it was amazingly never displaced during any of our seven flights--and went home. Home! China was great, but it's great to be home. Andrew, Caty, and Jessica had decorated, and Caty and my mom had baked a cake.

We were up until midnight talking with the kids, and Callie seemed to enjoy exploring.

The next day, Sunday, was a difficult day for Callie, possibly because of her cold, and possibly because she's experiencing jet lag. We had many "Welcome back" greetings from our church family, slept four hours in the afternoon (and could've probably slept longer), and then went over to my parents in the evening to show them my 27 quality pictures of China and the 838 other ones.

The journey for Callie is at its end, and yet the journey for Callie has just begun. I don't know what that means; it just sounds really insightful and deep, like something appropriate to put in a blog. Perhaps a better ending is, Man, am I tired!