Home Sweet Home!!

Well, we are so happy to be back in our home and beds and eating food that we are familiar with......God is awesome!! Our trip home was uneventful, Maiah was great on the plane, although she kept wanting to stand in her seat and look,talk and smile at the family behind us. She kept speaking Mongolian to them, little did she know they were Chinese and did not understand one word she said. She relates to all Asian faces!! I must have said "please sit down" 200 times during the 14 hours. Our homecoming was so awesome, we were so blessed by our family and friends as we were greeted with balloons, posters, hugs and kisses at the airport. Maiah was very still and quiet, let me just say that does not last long. She made an instant friend with Kaytlins little friend Jordan and actually cried for her when we put her in our truck. She was not having the car seat thing at all, we figured we would tackle that another day. God took us this far, we figured He would get us all home safe, car seat or not. At home, she explored a little and before long, her true self began to come out, smiling and playing with my family. We are still all messed up time wise, I actually took a nap this afternoon and Kaytlin slept for four hours, got up and was in bed at 7. The day was great though, with Nathan on a retreat and Kaytlin sleeping, Maiah loved on Mommy and Daddy and we had much quality time together. I got a few photos of Daddy snuggling with his sweet girl for the first time. This was a very sweet moment for him physically and me emotionally. She has experienced lots of mamas in her short life but she has never experienced the love and tender touch of a daddy. This was just a great moment. She is doing very well, loves her room, is scared of our cats, and is not sure about going outside of her comfort zone. She did walk outside and take a look at the swingset and walked over to say hello to our neighbor, Mrs. Morgan. However, she was ready to come inside. So many changes in such a short period of time, we will just continue to be patient. She is very smart, already loves to talk on the phone as many of you know, counts to 10 in English and sings songs and repeats everything we say in English. All we can say is what a journey our God took us on. To think that we were introduced to a photo of a beautiful little girl that lived on the other side of the world in March of 2005 and here we are in January of 2007 and she is running around our home (her new home) playing,giggling and calling us Mommy and Owa(Daddy in Mongolian). God is so much bigger than I ever knew, he never ceases to amaze us. We look forward to what He has for us next. Much thanks to all of our family, friends and friends of friends for your love, prayers and support. All of your encouraging words helped to get us through the tough moments of this journey and those words will be a keepsake for our precious treasure. MeiMing, you are awesome, thank you for being there to listen,share, and pray with us throughout our journey. Thank you for the beautiful Welcome home banner and all your prayers, love and support. Almarie, we are so glad you invited us and are so blessed to be part of the Meiming Family.

Love,
Petrin 5