At last

So good to be home.  We are exhausted and a little overwhelmed, but so happy to finally have our family together.  Adjustments are being made, as we've now made the shift from man-to-man coverage to a zone defense - I'm learning to let some of the little things get by and just focus on not giving up the big yardage.  There are still things to unpack, pictures to organize, phone calls to return.  We've been up since 3:30 AM.  But everyone in the family is fed, including the dog.  Everyone has on clean clothes.  It's just before 9 PM and the children are all asleep.  Life is beautiful.

Ellie is now an American citizen.  It was a pretty complicated mix of emotions as we left China to bring Ellie home, and time alone will tell how she will feel about all of this when she grows up.  There will be many questions we cannot answer, and others we won't want to - but we will for her sake, when the time is right.  In the end, it will be Ellie's story to tell.  But I hope that she will always be proud to be Chinese and glad to be an American.

I have lots of pictures to sort through from our trip, so I will post some favorites over the next week or so.  Many thanks to Sharon Nix for being our blogger while we were traveling.  And a few people have asked what we need for Ellie, which is so sweet, but really we need nothing.  If anyone wishes to give a gift for Ellie, we would love a donation in her honor to one of the following organizations (who will know her by her Chinese name, Hu San Ping)...

The New Hope Foundation , who cared for Ellie from a very early age until we adopted her, providing her with expert medical care and lots of TLC.  Ellie is the happy, healthy child she is because of the Hope Foundation.

MedArt of Hong Kong - China Orphan Outreach, whose talented doctors performed surgery on Ellie pro bono, including a lip repair that truly is a work of art. 

Chinese Children Charity Fund, a charitable organization established by our adoption agency to improve the quality of life of the many, many abandoned children in China who will not be placed for adoption, most of whom have medical needs.