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Our trip home took a full 24 hours to get to Ft. Worth and then one more day to get to Lake Jackson. It was a long hard trip but it was oh so good to finally be in our home on Thursday night. This is a long post - because I'm bad at choosing just a few pictures and I want to remember everything about those few days. It was all very overwhelming and a lot to take in, but the biggest emotion we felt was just simple gratitude. For so much. We have much to be thankful for.

We left our hotel in China at 5am Wednesday morning there (4pm Tuesday afternoon here). We drove in a van for almost 3 hours to Hong Kong, where our first flight began. It was pretty interesting going through customs at the China/Hong Kong border and neat to see a little of Hong Kong on our way to the airport. Calli stayed in her pjs and was great in the car, even sleeping a little.

Here is our plane to San Francisco! It was two levels - very cool! First class was on top. We wanted to just walk up there and see it but they don't even let you go up. Stink.

Our flight to San Francisco was 12 hours long. Calli did great. She never slept for long but she did take three or four little 30 minute or 1 hour naps. She stayed in Randy's lap the entire time, which was tiring for him. We had a seat for her, so at least we were on a bench of 3 with no one next to us or between us.

I got really sick on this flight. It is miserable to be that sick on a plane. Randy said it was the first time he's actually seen someone use the barf bag. Yes, I did. Ugh - it really was awful.

When we arrived in San Francisco, our flight was about 30 minutes late, which only gave us about an hour and a half to get through customs, go through immigration so Calli could officially be declared an American citizen, go back through security and recheck our bags and get to our gate. We were very blessed to get a wonderful immigration officer who processed Calli's citizenship quickly and helped us through. We would not have made our flight if it wasn't for him and we were so grateful. We got to our gate just in time to board, so no time for resting or cleaning up at all. Our flight to DFW was another 3 hours and I felt bad on this flight again. Just not a fun way to arrive home at all. We were so glad to be on the ground in Ft. Worth and so ready to see our girls and our family!

Here they are, all waiting for us with signs and everything! So fun! 

Finally! We missed Kendall and Cooper so much and were so happy to finally hug them. They gave us quick hugs but were really most interested in seeing, touching, hugging, and talking to Calli for the first time. She's such a rock star!

All our moms! So glad to finally see them, too! And introduce them to their newest granddaughter!

 Gracie and Evy were there! Oliver was, too.

 Sweet Cooper just could not get enough of "Sweetsie Calli!" She kept putting her hands on her face really gently and talking to her and hugging her. She also needed to be held by Dad, so he had his hands even more full! And he loved it.

 We loved seeing how Calli responded to the girls right away. She smiled at them and didn't seem annoyed by all their attention. In China when we would Skype, she really didn't pay attention to the computer much. She was all about her sisters now that they were in person though!

Finally! All 5 of us together!

From there, all our parents and sisters went to Gigi and Peeps' house for dinner and to just hang out for awhile. It was nice to be able to let everyone spend some time with Calli before we left the next day and share stories from our trip. I got sick again on the way to their house, so part of this is a blur to me. I just felt so bad and couldn't shake it. Not fun at all. Randy was so amazing though, taking care of me and all the girls, and it was wonderful to have our parents' help. The girls had fun playing outside and letting Calli swing for the first time!

That night we gave all three girls a bath and all five of us slept in Gigi and Peeps' king sized bed for the night! We crashed around 8:30. Calli and Randy were up at 4:30, which made for a long day the next day, but was really a pretty good night's sleep, when you start at 8:30!

The next morning we re-packed, got all the girls' things together and left for Love Field about 10:30. I was so thankful for only a one hour flight, and the girls were so excited about getting to fly again!

Because of weather, our flight was delayed taking off, but when we finally arrived in Houston, we had another "Welcome Home" party at the airport! It was so fun to walk out to our friends waiting to meet Calli and see us! We're so thankful for friends who are like family and would drive up to Houston, wait even though we were delayed, and make us feel so special and loved coming home. We are so blessed.

Calli even got to play peek-a-boo with Caleb! Love that! She was all smiles for her friends.

Michelle drove our van up and drove us home. It was so good to be home, but then I was sick again right when we walked in the door. Ugh. She was wonderful though and stayed to help Randy take care of the girls while I rested. Kathy Pickering brought chicken noodle soup for dinner and we just felt so loved and taken care of.

And look what we walked in to! We had groceries in the pantry and fridge from Michelle, Lisa and Mary, our yard had been mown by Tamara, Kent, Debra and Nathan, and we had gift cards and diapers from so, so many friends. It was just so overwhelming and so wonderful to come home to. We are so thankful for our friends and don't feel like we deserve all this. Calli is so loved already and it just made me cry to see how many people love her and us.

Our neighbors, Frannie and Bud, even kept Molly for us for a whole two weeks while we were gone. And then told US thank you! Those are some good neighbors and even better friends. We're thankful for them.

We have so much more to write about coming home: all the emotions, how Calli is doing, how the girls are doing, and how life is going adjusting to being a family of 5. I'll save all that for another post though.

I just want to finish this one by saying again how thankful we are. We felt so covered in prayer while we were in China, so supported and encouraged by all your texts, emails, facebook messages and comments on the blog. We read each one of them to each other and would just cry sometimes at how amazed we were. To have the community of family and friends we have is something we don't take for granted and we have prayed God's blessings over each of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottoms of our hearts. We love you and can't wait to introduce Calli Faith to each one of you. We're so glad to finally be home with her.