Home

We are safely home. It's been a bit of a whirlwind and updating the blog has just slid off the list for a bit :) But we wanted to confirm we ARE in Minneapolis and we ARE all together as a family!

Picture taken near the beginning of our first flight when all was still well :)

The trip home was a bit challenging as Josie was pretty much tired of traveling. We had a delay in Seattle for a bit and that was just too much for her. She at one point was screaming over and over "I want to get off the plane!" (A kind man on the flight translated this for us. Although, we sorta got the gist from her other non verbal cues). We finally made it to Minneapolis around 9pm and were so thankful to see our kids and our family and the Connors, who are pretty much like family :) They all helped us rally from the exhausting last 30 hours or so. When we got home, the scene pretty much looked like this....

So excited to be together.

Unfortunately, the excitement is paired closely with jetlag effects and for Josie, another level of sensitivity in the transition.  Sleep has been hard for the four of us coming from China. We just can't seem to sleep at night and we're trying so hard to not sleep during the day, but getting dizzy and irritable and well...most of you have been there.

Grandma Sue and Papa T were great in continuing to help us get everyone fed while we were in lala land not sleeping. But they took off for Milwaukee on Sunday and we were left to figure out our new reality.

Jude, Annie and Ben are pretty enamored with Josie - trying to accommodate her every whim and request. She's eating it up for the most part. It does remind me of when Ben came home and how welcoming TJ, Jude and Annie were. But this time, I am seeing a new side of Ben. He has truly become a big brother. He's showing her where the eyes and toes and nose are on dolls and handing her toys when she is sad and putting his arm on her back when she's walking. It's really awesome to witness. He's growin' up.

There are already some new dynamics we are encountering that will take some working through in the family. And this morning, it was sad to send Dad off to work. I'm not super big fan of putting the struggles in detail on the world wide web, but feel free to reach out individually and I will gladly share specific prayer requests :) One clue, for myself, is that for the few hours of shut eye I was able to catch last night, I had a dream that I was losing children. It happened to be a little girl we met at Josie's orphanage who still needs a family and we had last minute said we'd take home. She wandered off and I couldn't find her in the neighborhood. It probably doesn't take a dream psychologist to realize maybe that's an indicator of some inner fear that I have more on my plate than I'm capable of handling? In the dream, thankfully, I did find the missing child. Hopefully that's a good reminder that eventually it will all be OK.

Overall, we wanted to say thank you for being a part of this portion of the journey. We are thankful for your encouragement.

Please don't stop praying and checking in. We still need it!
Courtney