Aug. 21

I'm hoping to add more photos soon. (I'm having a few problems at the moment as I may have exceeded the size limitations for the blog.)

Peter woke me up at 7:30 a.m. (He had been awake since 4:45 a.m.) I wasn't ready to get up, though. He let me sleep a bit more. It really didn't help. But since I had slept for about eight hours, I told myself that I needed to get moving.

We bathed and got dressed and went down for breakfast. Again, the food was delicious! I particularly liked the toasted bagels with brie. After breakfast, I spent 10 minutes on the computer in the business center as I didn't feel like setting mine up in the room. Plus I knew I could use it later in the day for an unlimited amount of time!

We packed our bags -- we were now up to eight -- and wheeled them over to the terminal. After we checked them in, we went back to the room to get our seven carry-ons. Our flight was on time, and I slept most of the way. We didn't have much time in Atlanta before boarding our flight to Florida.

When we arrived in the late afternoon, we were greeted by some familiar faces from our local chapter of Families with Children from China. The group's president, Melissa, was there with her precious twins, Natalie and Neelee. Our dossier consultant and friend Pam was there with her adorable daughter, Delaney (whose sister, Kelli, will be coming home from China soon). And Bev, from Peter's office and also a good friend of mine from Chinese class, was there. We can't wait for our twins to meet her amazing daughter, Angel, who came home from China in May. The "fan club" presented the girls with beautiful balloons that said, "Welcome Home." It was such a sincere message, too.

The adults helped us with our carry-ons and shared their excitement with us as Peter collected our suitcases from the conveyor belt. We had a porter wheel our gear to a mini-van taxi. We said goodbye to everyone, knowing that we will be seeing a lot of each other at various events in the near future. It is so wonderful to have such a supportive community!

When we got home, Peter paid the cab driver while I went to the door to release our cats. The girls sat contentedly in the yard. We took our luggage inside and then carried the girls over the threshold. Our extremely reliable and helpful petsitters, Natasha and Roman, had created a mound of mail that looks like what a letter carrier would be delivering in a typical day's work for a typical mail route. Alas, it is all ours. Plus our helpful neighbors apparently have three days' worth of our mail, too. Natasha picked up Roman at the airport about an hour after we left, and they stopped by our house to meet the girls on their way home.

We thought we would have the energy to pick up Lucky, our kitten, but it wasn't meant to be. And from talking to Owen, his loving minder, it sounds like he may need another night to properly say goodbye. Because of this successful three-week placement, Owen said he is going to provide a home to one of the stray cats in his apartment complex. Peter said he felt fine when we got home, but after an hour, he said he felt so tired that he wouldn't be able to do anything put bathe the children and go to sleep. So that's what we did, while I hopped online to update the blog. The girls enjoyed walking around the house and touching everything within reach.

It seemed like waiting for the girls was so difficult, but the truth is, the hard work of parenting is just beginning. However, this is something we are really looking forward to ...