Home - safe and mostly sound

Mostly sound - someone stole our diaper bag in the Beijing airport.  Hope they enjoy the cheerios, diapers and stuffed animals!  We were on a flight with other adoptive parents and everone pitched in one or two diapers - and I still had one bottle and bought some cookies so we made out OK.  JJ made a toy out of the airplane magazines and a paper airport shopping bag.  She tore the pages into large sections, put them in the bag, took them out, gave them to me, put them back in, and so on.  For 3 or 4 hours.  That kid can concentrate.  After that I got her to sleep, for which I think I paid when we got back to the US. We actually came in last nite about 4:30.  Immigrations in LAX was moving a bit slow, so JJ did not become a citizen until they stamped her paperwork around 6PM Christmas Eve.  Nice Christmas gift for her. We stayed with my Mom and sister last night.  They may regret that offer as JJ was jetlagging and had a hideous nites (non) sleep  This resulted in Mom having a hideous night.  I think I got her to sleep about 5 AM, and we two slept until 10 am. However, when awake she is a delightful little girl and Grandma and Aunt show every sign of spoiling her.  They found a animated rocking horse that is really something.  Don't know why I did not get a picture, it is so cute.  However, JJ has never seen any kind of ride on toy (I tested this in Guangzhou) and wants only to view this guy from a distance.  I expect she will warm up in a bit and really enjoy that particular toy.  Right now she gets a kick from looking and listening to it.. My dear friend Kathleen brought the family over and we overwhelmed JJ with attention.  I think soon enough she will like it. So now I am  at my house checking out mountains of laundry and what ever we forgot to childproof, which was too much. Wish us luck getting some sleep tonight.  Pictures later when I dig out from under the laundry. I want to thank all of you who took this trip with us and followed along with comments in the blog or private e-mails.  This is a wonderful and amazing journey we just took, but it is also physically a very tough road to walk.  We appreciated the comments and notes more than you all know.  I'll be getting back with you - and I want to thank those who sent/left gifts for JJ as well.  One of the things that will always remain with us is the kindness we experienced from everyone on this life journey - from the people at work who are so excited for us even though they get to cover for me, our friend and family who are cheering us on and offering to help us out to the agency staff/guides, the orphanage staff and the Chinese people themselves.  We experienced so much support, encouragement and kindness along the wey.  We have nothing but gratitude for the wonderful way we have been treated. God is good, and sometimes people are too.  We will say that in this instance both God and Man have been kinder to us and more generous than we deserve. Thank you one and all. Mrs M (Mr M and JJ - the Mongolian princess)