Alesha is HOME! Originally posted May 2010

Darin took this photo in the Amsterdam airport. What a beautiful girl God has blessed us with!

We finally arrived home on Tuesday night at about 11:30 p.m. It was a LONG trip home. Alesha did fantastic considering she was on 3 different planes for 20 hours total and 2 layovers totaling 12 hours. Everybody said what a good girl she was and were shocked to know that we had only had her for a few days. She only had one mini breakdown on the last leg of the trip. The boys did a bit better on the way home. They were able to sleep some, but they still had a bit of an upset stomach. I think the layovers helped them readjust a bit before boarding another plan. Darin was wonderful tending to our needs. He made all of Alesha's bottles, washed them, and kept things organized. Thanks, Babe!

Alesha, has bonded so well to me. We had an instant bond. I feel EXTREMELY blessed! I know this doesn't always happen and feel very fortunate. She is slowly warming up to Darin and the boys. She doesn't seem to care for men, probably because all her caregivers have been women. The boys have been able to walk around carrying her on their hip, it is really cute to watch. Darin takes her on a daily walk outside and shows her the yard, garden, etc. We are longing for the day when she will reach out to daddy!

We are happy to be home and to able to finally give Alesha some Consistancy. She is eating much more food since we have been home. She is really a happy little girl. Alesha, claps her hands, babbles all the time, waves bye-bye, crawls all over the place, pulls her self up to a standing position, grabs everything in site, and loves bath time. She could stay in the bath all day and be thrilled, but very pruney!

Our once problem is that she is not sleeping the best. The current trend is to wake up crying at around 1 a.m. and play, talk, babble, etc. for about 3 hours and then fuss and cry for the next 2 hours. This is making me a bit crazy as the rest of the family is on a more normal schedule and when everybody wakes up I end up trying to get a few hours of sleep to function through the day. I am hopeful that his will pass soon. It is difficult for me to know all that is going on with her; I tend to all of the her immediate needs (diapers, food, cuddle,etc.) but trying to figure out if she is she scared, nervous, upset, overtired, jet lagged, etc. is difficult. My guess is probably everything I listed and more. We are just taking it a day at a time.

We feel SO blessed to have Alesha a part of our family. We are thankful to all of our family and friends who have prayed and journeyed with throughout our process. It is great to see the faithfulness of God is so many ways. Our time is India was amazing and I will be blogging about it as time permits. There is A LOT that happened! Darin is still processing photos so it will be a bit before I will post pictures.