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Daddy's Girl

We are home and almost recovered from jet lag. Very thankful to be here, safe, sound and with all the t's crossed and i's dotted on all the immigration work!! It was a wonderful/exhausting/strange/exciting trip. China is so very different, in so many ways, and 2 weeks is long enough. We had a very good trip home, well not good, but under the circumstances it was good. Kelly slept on the second flight, the long one, for most of it, thank goodness. We made great time thru immigration, and Kelly is now a legal U.S. citizen, hurrah!! It was wonderful to sleep in our own beds and spread out a little in our own house. Both Cory and Jamie were troopers thruout the whole trip and have been a HUGE help since coming home...they play with Kelly, take her for walks, take Kelly when I need to get dinner on or a shower, and get her to mimic them in most all things. Kelly thinks they are wonderful.

Ron had to get right back to work and has finally gotten close to catching up, Cory is back to crew and Jamie is "hanging" with friends, and I am remembering what it's like to organize your day around a toddlers schedule. I am so fortunate in the timing that I can take it all slowly and have nothing really to juggle other than just being a family.

Kelly is amazing. She has such a funny personality....she pretends, she mimics, she hams it up to get her sisters to laugh at her, and she is making great strides forward in her progress. She seems to be attaching very well, thank goodness, and is soaking up everything around her. We sometimes overdo it, and I have to remember that just going for a car ride can be a new and exciting event, and you add that to a trip to Target, swimming in the pool and walking the neighborhood and you get an overwhelming day for a 21 month old who's spent her life up till now in an orphanage. We saw some of the CHOC cleft "team" today and will be setting up a surgery date soon to repair her palate, just to add tor the excitment! The only real issue different from other toddlers is she is having trouble getting to sleep, which she struggles against, but this too shall pass.

We are continually amazed and thrilled at this whole adventure, and are so very happy to be almost done with the "exciting" part and are more than ready to settle down to the everyday, "boring" part...being a family.

Beth