Home...Sweet...Home

Yesterday we finished up a few last minute shopping items...mostly small gifts for the girls to give them as they grow up....then we had our consulate appointment in the afternoon ( a 20 minute bus ride across Guangzhou)...then back to the hotel to pick up luggage and off to the airport. We had no time in between for dinner...so when we arrived at our airline gate we stopped at a small shop and ordered some sandwiches, fruit, rice, etc... THEN we found out they didn't take credit cards ( a lot of places in the airport do) and we had spent all of our Chinese Yuan....we only had large U.S. bills and travelers checks which they either couldn't or wouldn't take...so we told them we were sorry and walked on down to some chairs that were close by. In a few minutes one of the girls from the shop came to us with a bag with some of the things we had ordered...we explained again that we didn't have any Chinese money to pay for the food....finally Wanda told her the only small U.S. bill that we had was a $5 she had found in her coat pocket...she asked the girl how much she could get for the $5... the girl replied only the rice and took it out of the bag and handed it to us... she apoloqized profusely for having to keep the other food. So Lauren and Lili enjoyed their last China rice (at least for a while) and the rest of us snacked on beef jerky and crackers. Between the two of us Wanda and I later counted over $2000 in U.S. funds that didn't do us any good at the time.

Lauren and Lili were both great on the flight from China...we left there at 9pm...flew for 12 1/2 hours and landed in Los Angeles on the same day at 6:30pm ( go figure on that one for a while). Lili never cried or got upset at all...she slept part of the flight and played and giggled the rest of the time. We spent the night in Los Angeles and flew from LA to Houston this morning...arriving there around 1pm. We then had a 4 1/2 hour drive home. Lili never cried on this plane ride either...or on the drive home... She sat in the car seat behind Lori and watched everything that was happening. After we got home tonight, she sat in the floor in the girls room and played with
Lauren and Lori. Lori put her down to sleep in her new room around 8:30 and she did great.

Thanks to all of you again for your thoughts, concerns, and prayers. Our trip was as good as it gets...and much better than we had expected. We know that Lili will still have times that she has some grief over her foster parents....but I really feel that it will be minimal. She has such a happy disposition and has already shown a real comfort level with all of us. She is a real blessing to our family. Hopefully in the next few days we will get some additional pictures on the blogsite...maybe early next week.

P.S. We wiill probably keep a low profile the next 2 or 3 days to recover from the jet lag and to let Lili get comfortable with her new surroundings...but I'm sure Lori will have her out soon to see everyone. Rick