Finally a Family of Four!

Boy, I kept you all in suspense, didn't I? I really did mean to post yesterday. Unfortunately, it was such an incredibly busy and exhausting day, I didn't have the chance.

We are a united family! At 7:01 a.m. July 11Th, Bill and Andrew crossed through the Delta gates at the Cincinnati Airport. Honestly, I can not come up with one analogy to explain the anticipation we felt as we watched the passengers file past. Many seemed to look at us and with a knowing smile. One gentleman even said to us "He's coming! He's on his way......By the way, your husband is a saint."

Then we saw what we have been waiting for......Bill carrying Andrew! They both looked good and reasonably well rested for traveling almost 22 hours straight. Here are a few photos of the first moments together








Do you ever wonder what would happen if you would take an infant from his foster home, spend 3 busy days in Taipei, fly 11.5 hours to California, have a 3 hour layover, travel 4.5 hours to Ohio and then meet 5 new people at the airport??? Well, you can all believe me when I tell you that it'll result in a 3.5 hour, very understandable, inconsolable meltdown. As we loaded up for the 2 hour drive home, I honestly thought we were in for more of the meltdown. I'm thrilled to tell you it was a much calmer drive home and once home I got the chance to see some different sides of Andrew's personality. Don't get me wrong, we still have had some fussing. However in the calmer moments, I've learned the following:
*he's very curious, alert and observant
*he can eat 8 oz of formula very quickly
*he is small, but he is mighty. When he arches his back or pushes with his legs, I must really work on holding onto him *he rolls over with some serious force.
* Along those lines, we had to run out quickly and get those crib bumper thingies. Never needed them with Lily.
*he's a wiggle worm when being changed. Now I know why they have buckles on changing pads.
*he makes that open "Oooh" mouth face when he's happy and continues to do that for Bill
*he thinks tummy time is the best. He can spend a long time on the floor exploring toys and his environment
*he thinks baths, changing his clothes or getting a new diaper is the worst.
*he's really, really close to crawling. Which means, I'm really,really close to being even more busy. *he finds the pacifier very, very soothing.
*he appears to be a good sleeper. I fear that posting this will some how jinx us. However, I am very pleasantly surprised that we were able to get Andrew to sleep last night at 8:45 p.m--7:00 a.m. with only waking once for a change and a feeding and a tiny bit of effort to get him back to sleep. For a little guy who's been through a million changes including a major time change....that's a huge victory. Please keep good thoughts going that this will continue :)
*he's completely, utterly 100% precious! I can't believe he's our son!

I anticipate that the next few days will be filled with the discovery of getting to know our son, figuring out our new routines as a family of 4 and perhaps the challenges of sleeplessness. No matter what growing pains we may experience as a family, I know it'll all be worth it. Just check out this video of I took a few minutes after getting home.

Doesn't get much better than that, does it?

Take care,
Melissa, Bill, Lilianna and Andrew