The Lacher Family

We are so glad to be home! Thank you for all your prayers. Our God was faithful in answering them. Julia did really, really well on the flight. She was able to crawl around and play for a bit before boarding, and then enjoyed playing with the menu cards and flight safety info cards. Having her own seat made a huge difference – we were really expecting the majority of the 14 hour flight to be filled with crying given our experience on the flight from Shanghai to Guangzhou as well as the train ride. In reality, Julia only fussed for about 2 of the 14 hours. It was toward the end, when her body was telling her that it was time to sleep but the clock was starting to tell us it was daytime. She had some fitful sleep, during which time Dan and I each watched a movie. The rest of the time was filled with playing little games with Julia to pass the time. Lunchtime was a bit eventful as she threw up after we ate. We are not sure if it was something she ate, the turbulence, or the wet cough that she seems to be developing. Thankfully she was still wearing her bib so it was an easy cleanup. The same cannot be said for our landing. Right after we touched down she threw up again (and see above on possible causes, as she had eaten a ton.) This time it was all over her clothes, and I had a handful as well. Fellow passengers jumped to our aid, and we quickly got her clothes changed so we could move on to immigration and customs. Immigration took FOREVER – an officer moved us to three different lines trying to speed us along. Finally she just processed us and 3 other adoptive families herself. As much as we wanted to pause to put Julia’s little feet on the ground and declare her a US citizen via a photo opp, we just couldn’t afford the time. We had to reclaim our luggage, then stand in the infinite customs line, followed by security screening. I must have looked suspicious because I got to get scanned by one of the new machines. Fun stuff. Once we regathered everything and rechecked our luggage, we literally ran through the airport and arrived just in time to board our connecting flight home. Running was awful and we are both hurting from it today but there was no way we were going to miss that flight.

It was so great to see my mom and the girls again. Julia took it all in and regarded each of them with interest. She was doing ok until we put her into her car seat. To say she didn’t like it would be an understatement. I am sure in time she will get used to it. Once home we were able to introduce her to Nuba and that went well too. She is not approaching Nuba but she doesn’t appear frightened of her either, which we are very thankful for. She just watches Nuba with curiosity. The girls are doing a good job not overwhelming Julia (with a little bit of reminding, especially for Norah.) I am so thankful my mom is with us for a few more days. Last night we had an early dinner and then Dan, Julia, and I went to bed around 5:30. We were so tired after being up for so long. Julia slept in the pack-n-play in our room for a while, but then she was having trouble going back to sleep so around 11 Dan held her for a while and we all slept. Then somewhere around 2:30 a.m. or so we switched and I held her. We were awake at 5 and got all the suitcases unpacked while waiting for the rest of the house to be awake.

Today has been great. Julia is having fun exploring the house and playing with her sisters. We had some trauma this morning with nail cutting again, but it is a necessary evil. It will be another early night for us. Julia went down around 6:30 and we are following as soon as I finish writing this. Oh, Julia did successfully take a few drinks from a sippy cup today so that was exciting. And she continues to show off her flexibility. She also was showing a bit of a jealous streak if Emily or Norah was in Daddy’s lap. All in all, we are very pleased with the adjustment so far. Please continue to pray for us – the few times Julia was thrashing and wailing today caused Dan and I to get very agitated and take it out on one another. The lows seem a lot more difficult but they are also a lot less frequent. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully tonight will bring a good night of sleep.