Garland Half Dozen: H-O-M-E!!

We are HOME! After traveling so many hours and losing track of what time zone and where we were, we finally made it home last night.

Our day started out by taking a van from our hotel in Guangzhou to the Hong Kong airport. We were warned that the drivers were fast, but oh my gosh, were they! We reached speeds of more than 145 kilometers per hour. We were weaving in and out of traffic and on the left hand side of the highway, there is no shoulder, only a concrete wall. I think I prayed the entire time. I kept thinking, we made it this far, please do not have an accident now. And remember, there are no carseats for little ones, so we held on tight to Eli. The trip between the 2 cities took a little over 2 hours. We were able to see more of Hong Kong as we drove through (at much more reasonable speeds). It looked beautiful ... someplace I really would like to go back to visit. Mountains and water surrounded the city.

We had some time to hang out at the airport and "try" to wear Eli out a little. Once on the plane, Michael and I had great seats. We were in bulkhead and we had a bassinet for Eli. We had a lot of room considering. Eli did great on the flight. He did not cry, but he laughed a lot and he laughed loudly. This would have been just fine if the entire plane wasn't trying to sleep. None of us got a lot of sleep, which may have worked to our advantage.

We had a wonderful welcome home. Family and friends joined us at the airport with lots of smiles, hugs, signs and balloons. It was so sweet of everyone and we thank everyone for coming out and meeting our new little guy. We thought he might be shy, but he showed everyone his smiles and love for playing peek-a-boo under his blanket.

We grabbed dinner with family and then headed home. Eli did great in the carseat considering this was the first time he was ever in one.

Since none of us slept much on the plane, we all went to bed easily when we got home. Eli got up a couple of times in the night, but slept most of the night and so did we!! I hope that we get him on this timezone quickly so we all can rest and catch up.

This morning all of the kids have been playing with him and showing him all of his toys, his room and all around the house. I am not sure what he thinks of this place. I wonder if he thinks we will be leaving here again soon since each hotel we have stayed has only been for about a week and then we have gone somewhere else.

The kids all love him and keep saying how cute he is. Bella asked if we could keep him. She has been a little more timid around him and attached to us, but we expected this. Here are some photos from the last couple of days. I will continue to blog, but it won't be everyday. Thanks to everyone who followed our journey and encouraged us along the way. And thank you to everyone who helped out with the kids while we were gone. We COULD NOT have done this without you!! Much Love to you!

Our first Half Dozen picture