WE ARE HOME!!!

We arrived in at PDX on May 17th at 8am. After passing through customs and immigration our little girl officially became an American citizen.

OUR LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL

Thursday was one long day and Elysa,the international traveler that she is,did great until the last 1/2, of the last plane change home (the long 9 hour flight). She then was just simply overly tired and had way to much stimulation around her to be able to try and sleep. Needless to say once we got home all she and us wanted to do was sleep.
These first four days home have been extremely rough for all of us. Elysa wants to sleep all day and play all night...Her schedule we had her on in China was so good and she did wonderful with it. Since being home it has been very hard trying to get her back on that schedule. We have to wake her up for her naps in the day so we can try and get sleep from her at night...
These last few days we have been pretty successful with the schedule in the day getting on track but not so successful with staying asleep at night. We set the alarm clock for her naps to get her up in an hour or so and of course all of us could continue to sleep for several more hours. Fred and I are like zombies and feel so fuzzy in the head. We are trying to sleep when she does but its just wrecking havoc on our systems...
It is sooo much harder coming back from china and getting back on track than it was going to china and getting on their time. We are glad we have off from work right now to get her and us onto a schedule and of course we are just praying it doesn't take 6 weeks to this. We went to town for the first time today to get some necessities and Elysa, Fred and I were exhausted and ready to go back to bed when we got home.
Its way to much for her to sleep in her crib and wake up without us near by so she's been sleeping with us and needless to say this also wrecks havoc on our quality of sleep when she's the sprawler of all sprawlers. No matter what though she is always so angelic looking whether she's asleep or not.

YEP, SHE'S A SPRAWLER (sleeps much better when she can do so)

FIRST BREAKFAST AT HOME (egg and prunes)


We received two disposable cameras on our Meetcha day (Family Day, the day we met Elysa. So the orphanage and the foster mom had received our packages and someone took lots of pictures. We guarded these with our life until we got home to get them developed. Here is a picture of Elysa and her precious foster mom. No words can thank her for the wonderful, loving care she provided Elysa during her first 10months of life. Elysa still has several periods throughout the day that she just wails and her crying just breaks our hearts. Its a sad, grieving cry. Night time is worse than during the day. She is very insecure and is constantly looking for both of us and whines/wails when she lies down at night or when one of us leaves her sight in the daytime.

ELYSA AND HER FOSTER MOM

Even though we are rummy, fuzzy in the head and deprived of sleep we are both very thankful for this beautiful, precious little girl that has been brought into our lives. She has added so much to our lives in these first 14 days and we look forward to many more experiences, hopefully with more sleep...heheheheheh.