Home!

The bags are unpacked. The laundry is done. And the house is clean. Now all we have to do is go to the grocery store, and we'll be all set.

Travel home was a breeze. I'm not kidding. In 24 hours, Maddie maybe did a total of 20 minutes of whining and NO crying. Really. She was a stellar traveler. The worst part of the journey was the five hour layover in LA waiting for our Minneapolis flight. As for the flights themselves, Madeleine slept about nine hours on the way from Guangzhou to LA and almost the whole time from LA to Minneapolis. Going through immigration in LA was interesting because they had no idea what an IH3 visa is. It used to be called an IR3 visa; that's the classification Isabel got when we brought her home, and it means that the individual entering the country becomes an immediate citizen. Now, when adopting through the Hague guidelines, the visa is called an IH3. It's still pretty new. Thankfully, there was somebody who knew what the classification meant, and so after a short delay, we were on our way.

Aunt Sue picked us up at the airport (thanks for getting up so early on a Saturday, Suzy Q), and after a quick stop at Grandma Sandy's, where Maddie showed off all her new English phrases, we were headed for home. Our dear friend Joann, who was going to go with us to China when we planned on taking Isabel, had picked up Ibby from Wisconsin on Friday and stayed with her at our house, so she would be there when we arrived. We were so anxious to see her! When we finally got to our house, after another quick stop at Starbucks (neither of us had slept as much as Maddie), I went in first. Our alarm beeps three times when any door in the house opens, so as soon as she heard that, Isabel knew someone was there. She hollered out, "Daddy!" because that's usually what the three beeps mean...that Daddy's home from work. But then I appeared at the bottom of the stairs. She was up top, looking down, and when she saw me, she said, "Mama!" I ran up and grabbed my girl, and she just clung to me, saying, "Mama! Mama!" It brought tears to my eyes. After a couple of minutes, Daddy came up with Maddie. And then Daddy got a big hug. She wasn't too sure about Maddie at first. And Maddie didn't really take much note of Isabel because she was far more interested in the toys and the cats. Every time she'd see one of the cats for the first several hours, she'd say, "Meow! Meow!"

For the first few hours after we arrived, Isabel didn't want either one of us to leave her sight. She would start to cry whenever one of us walked out of the room. In fact, when Richard went outside to unload the car, we had to watch out the window to make sure he wasn't going anywhere. Today, she's much better, but she's still clinging pretty tight to both of us, and she didn't go right down at bedtime. She needed us to come in about five times before she realized we weren't going anywhere, and it was safe to go to sleep. And Madeleine? She slept all night long in her own room in her big girl bed without a peep until this morning when she had to la shee shee.

Maddie acts like she's lived here her whole life. She goes up and down stairs easily. And Isabel has begun to show her the ropes. For instance, when Maddie started pressing buttons on the dishwasher, Isabel told her, "No, no!"

The two of them have gotten along better than we could have ever hoped. Isabel was a little shy at first, but in less than 24 hours, they've been giggling together, sharing toys, holding hands in the car, and giving each other kisses. They took a bath together last night and had a grand time. It's almost like Ibby can't believe Maddie is real. She keeps touching her head and saying, "Maddie," like she's trying to reconcile the fact that the little girl she's been looking at in a picture is a real live human being. Maddie is the big sister, but she is taking her cues from Isabel. She follows her everywhere, and often imitates what she does and says.

It's going to take a little time for them both to completely adjust to their new lives, but I think we've had a smashing start. Here are a few pics of my two girls together for the first time.