WE ARE HOME!!!!!---AND THE PARTY HAS JUST BEGUN!!!!!

I realize that I'm writing this almost a week after we actually arrived home from China.  The delay isn't because we have needed time to adapt and adjust to our new life----it's because I've just been having TOO MUCH FUN playing with our sweet baby girl, that I really haven't thought a lot about posting a message!!!
I guess since it's 2:00 A.M., and I'm having to pull the graveyard shift to do laundry, AND our baby girl is sound asleep, I can take a little time to tell you about our trip home.

We left Guangzhou at 10:30 on Thursday morning, March 10.  Even though I was VERY ready to see my family, friends, and pets, it was rather bittersweet to leave China.  I realized that we were taking our precious daughter away from her homeland---her heritage, but at the same time, I knew, without a doubt, that we were taking her to a NEW country---a NEW home where life could offer her SO much more than she could have ever dreamed of in China.

Needless to say, I dreaded the LONG flight home, with Molly Kate who absolutely hated riding on the bus every time we had an outing.  I figured if she didn't like bus rides, she probably wouldn't like plane rides, either.  I prayed A LOT about our trip home.  I just wanted Molly Kate to be able to rest, and not be miserable for so many hours.  My prayers were answered.  Even though she did fuss some, we really had a good trip---LONG, but managable.  We DID have one episode, though, that I MUST share.

Let me start out by saying, that we made a mistake by not buying a seat on the plane for Molly Kate.  I LOVED the closeness of holding her, but even had we not used the extra seat for her, had we had one, it would have been nice to set the diaper bag in to give more leg room.  We opted, though for the lap seat, so we had to make the best of it.  (The NEXT time I WILL buy a seat for the baby!!!!---the NEXT TIME?????!!!!!!!)  ANYWAY, I had held Molly Kate for quite some time, and she had taken a nap.  She woke up, though, and it was obvious that she was tired of being held, so I sat her on the floor right in front of my seat, by the diaper bag.  She was happy.  She laid her head over on the diaper bag, so I figured she was still sleepy.  She was hot when she woke up, and I had stripped her down to her shirt and diaper.  I put a blanket and my jacket on the floor, and had her lie back on it.  She immediately stretched out and fell back asleep.  I had a little problem.  She kept stretching her legs out, and her tiny feet would stick out in the aisle, so I had to stay awake and keep my foot at the end of her feet to keep them pushed in so they wouldn't get stepped on or run over by a food or drink cart going down the aisle. WELL, our little angel slept for FIVE STRAIGHT hours!!!!  It was GREAT!!!! When she awoke, she was in the BEST mood, BUT there was a SERIOUS problem!!!! 

Let me back up a little and tell you that Roger and I had done some problem solving before we ever started our flight home.  Molly Kate came to us potty trained---that is, she is potty trained, as long as she has her potty chair.  SO, we got the smart idea that we could remove the SEAT of the potty chair and I could take it to the bathroom on the plane, and set it on the commode seat, and Molly Kate could use the bathroom as normal.  Let me tell you, that may SOUND easy, but on my first AND last attempt to do this, I found out that it was quite a difficult task. Those bathrooms just aren't BIG enough to hold a baby, put at potty chair seat on the commode, take the diaper off the baby, and stand and say "Ba Ba'" for 30 minutes.  The noise in the bathroom from the engine of the plane, and the potty seat's instability on the commode were enough to convince Molly Kate that Daddy's and Mommy's idea just wasn't going to work.  That meant  we had to rely totally on diapers for the bathroom jobs.  Since we discovered from the beginning that Molly Kate could probably win any POOPING CONTEST against any other child OR adult, we were a little concerned about what might happen.

Back to the five hour nap......As I think I've already said, Molly Kate woke up in a GREAT mood,  but when I got ready to pick her up, it was obvious that she felt MUCH better, not simply because of the long nap.  She had pooped SO much, that it had OOZED out of the top of her diaper, all the way up her back, and UNDER her on the plane floor, SO much that there was a nice BIG pile of POOP!!!!  Needless to say, I couldn't just pick her up and carry her to the bathroom, because we would have left a poop trail all the way.  I did what any good mother would do.  I proceeded to sit down in the middle of the aisle on the plane and start cleaning her up.  Well, it didn't take long for the stewardess to approach with a can of spray deoderant and tell me that I couldn't sit there and change her---that I had to take her to the bathroom.  I tried to explain that I couldn't pick her up in the condition she was in---she insisted that I couldn't change her there.  I was rather ticked....I mean, what was she going to DO about me sitting there????---kick me off the plane?!?!  I continued to clean as quickly as I could, and then when I felt I got her to the point she wouldn't drip down the aisle, AND I had also cleaned up the floor as best as I could, I wrapped her in the blanket and proceeded to head to the bathroom---you, know, the bathroom that isn't big enough to turn around in while ALONE, much less with a child who has POOP all over her.  I got the changing table down from the wall, though, and eventually, I had a spotless Molly Kate.  I washed out her clothes, and I gave the poopy blanket to a stewardess and asked for clean one, which I took back to my seat, and then folded and put it on the floor over where Molly Kate had leaked (I did clean it as well as I could before I did that, so don't say, "Yuck!!")  And, where was Roger during all of this?  I don't exactly remember, but I'm quite sure he was either, playing games on the screen in front of him, listening to music, or snoring, which he did a lot of on the trip home.  Oh, well......

LUCKILY, Molly Kate didn't have another dirty diaper until we got to Atlanta, and was waiting in immigration.  We actually had to wait in immigration long enough for her to have had TEN dirty diapers.  Let me say that the evening shift gets in NO hurry there.  In fact, it took them SO long for them to open our "MYSTERIOUS SEALED BROWN ENVELOPE" that we missed our flight to Nashville.  By the time immigration got to us, and said their few words and sent us on our way, with our little girl made in China, who was now OFFICIALLY a U.S citizen, it was ten minutes before our flight was supposed to leave, and we hadn't even been through customs.  We were advised to rebook our flight.  Luckily, there was a flight leaving about three hours later, and we were lucky enough---no, BLESSED enough----to get the last three available seats on the plane.  In everything bad, there's something good (my favorite saying).  After we rebooked, we went to customs.  We were a little concerned about having trouble there, because of stories we had heard.  Roger had bought a set of golf clubs in Guangzhou, and I had 18 birthday candles that were actually a form of fireworks, spread out in our five suitcases....we weren't sure that they wouldn't be confiscated there.  I think, though, we looked a little ragged and worn to the main officer working customs, and I think, too, when he asked if there was anything else in Roger's golf bag, and Roger replied, "Only dirty underwear," he had mercy on us and just let everything pass through.  I honestly don't think any of our suitcases were even opened!

We arrived in Nashville sometime around midnight, and my mother and Phyllis, my sister-in-law, were waiting for us to drive us home!!!  It was SO nice to be able to ride and not have to drive ourselves.  I was concerned how Molly Kate would react to riding in a carseat for the first time.  She was as snug as a bug in a rug in it, and went to sleep.  She never fussed all the way home. 

When we pulled in the driveway, there were pink balloons tied to the mailbox, and a cute sign taped to our door welcoming Molly Kate home.  Our sweet neighbor next door had done the decorating.  Molly Kate is blessed to have a playmate who is only three days older than her.  His name is Tate.  The sign was from hiim!!

Once we got everything unloaded, we decided we were hungry.  We had food on the plane---YUCK---and we really needed some nourishment.   Roger and Shea went to Waffle House and ate breakfast, and then brought food back for me.  I got Molly Kate settled in the Pack 'n Play in our room, and by the time Roger and I got in bed, it was getting daylight outside.  We slept until almost noon on Friday.

Roger is still suffering from jet lag.  I haven't had time to have it yet, since we now have a little sweetheart to take care of!!!!   I'm glad to be home, and have that LONG plane ride behind me, but I DO hope to go back to China some day!!!!

I have new pictures of Molly Kate, but I will post those later.  I will add another entry soon, and tell you all about her!!!