Home Sweet Home!

Home sweet home!!  It is wonderful to be back in America and not living in a hotel room!  Lizzie did really well on the long journey back here.  The first flight we were on was 4 plus hours long.  There were 12 newly adopted children on that flight.  Much of the flight there was a chorus of cries going.  Lizzie threw a couple of fits but they didn't last long.  The 12 hour flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis went surprisingly well.  We got to see some family in Minneapolis which was wonderful.  Lizzie met 2 Grandmas, one Grandpa, 2 aunties, one uncle, and 3 cousins.  She is already so well loved and welcomed.  Given how happy she seems, I think she knows it!

Introducing Lizzie to her new home was lots of fun.  Our wonderful neighbors decorated the front of the house in anticipation of our homecoming, complete with a lantern in honor of the upcoming chinese Moon Festival (you knew that, right guys?).  Lizzie explored around the house and once we got to her room, she clapped and smiled.  She seems really comfortable here but is very busy and into everything.  We spent the day baby proofing things. 

She truly is such a blessing to us.  This whole experience has blown us away.  There were many other adopting families with us in Guangzhou and watching all of them love and embrace their new children was so beautiful.  Most of the kids we saw had some type of "special need."  It is hard not to feel sad realizing that often these kids were abandoned because of medical needs with which their birth parents could not cope financially or emotionally, but what a blessing it is  to know that they will get the care they need now and that their future is full of possibilities.  It gave me a picture of how beautiful it is to be adopted into God's family.  I often take this concept for granted but have been given a renewed sense of the privilege that it is.  We are all so truly loved even with all our unique flaws and "special needs."

My neighbor told me that Lizzie looked like she belonged in our family.  I am not one to believe in fate or predestination, but I really do believe that God hand picked this little girl for us and that she truly was meant to be our daughter from the very beginning.  Life is still hard and the world is fallen, but God is good and we are so thankful for all He has done!

So the saga of Lizzie's life continues.  We, again, thank you all for participating in this journey with us.  we cannot tell you how much it has meant to us.  While we know little of the twists and turns ahead, we know this for sure... Lizzie is now, and will always be, a Kedl.