Safe trip back home

Leaving Guangzhou airport Wed. morning 6:30 with our friends we met in our group from Memphis.

This is what we looked like in Shanghai airport we needed to recheck our luggage to fly to USA.

Brock relaxing and patiently waiting after bags were checked.  He and the other kids traveled great, better than we could of even asked for!  

Last picture in China. 

Hanging out in the airplane. 

Sleeping beauty on the airplane.  Braelyn slept 6 of the 12 1/2 hours from Shanghai to Chicago.  She is a Awesome traveler.

Arriving in Grand Rapids, going to meet all of our friends and family.

Braelyn with her new friends.

2 prayer partners with their precious little girls from China.  Oh, how we have prayed for these girls and God as answered our prayers.  God is SO good!

Arriving home around 10:30 and we were welcomed into our subdivision by this.  We have the BEST friends. 

Surprise more signs and balloons in our house. 

 Braelyn loved all the balloons. 

Our garage door with signs. 

More signs!

More signs! I told you we have the best family and friends :)

Every door had a sign.

Signs even in the garage!

We started our day off by leaving our hotel in Guangzhou  at 6:00 a.m. ( a 4:30 wake up call).  We flew from Guangzhou to Shanghai.  We had a 6 hour layover in Shanghai.  By the time we did all our paperwork and rechecked our bags we had about 4 hours.  We traveled with one other family from our group so that made the time go faster.  We ate lunch together and did some shopping.  Our flight to Chicago was 12 1/2 hours.  It went great.  This time, the t.v. screens worked ( unlike our flight to China) the kids did fantastic.  They watched movies, slept and ate.  Little Braelyn was a trooper.  She slept for 6 hours, played and ate.  She did amazing considering there isn't much room in a airplane seat. We had 2 hours in Chicago but needed to go through customs and recheck our luggage once again. Everything went very smooth.  We found that traveling with a big family had advantages because the airport employees would bring us to the front of the lines!  We soon were on our way to Grand Rapids. We arrived in Grand Rapids to a outpouring of love from our family and friends.  It was a overwhelming feeling to see the support from everyone.  Thanks also to Herk, Jeff and Tim (maybe others not sure-it seemed to be a blur) for loading all our luggage into our truck and delivering the items that did not fit.   Braelyn seemed to do well, she just took it all in, by the time we left the airport she was giggling with the kids.  In China children don't ride in car seats, some ride on the back of bikes right next to all the fast moving cars.  Braelyn did very well her first time in her car seat, she got right in and of course on the ride home she was "hamming it up" with everyone.  She has figured it out that she has us all wrapped right around her fingers!  I couldn't help but think of the changes that she has endured in the last 10 days.  She has gone from her foster family back to the orphanage for 3 days then with us, her forever family!  But looking at her in her car seat she is just where she is supposed to be with us in our  family.  God certainly had this all planned out perfectly we just needed to trust him and follow his direction on the timing.  I am certain that Braelyn is going to BLESS us more than we will BLESS her.  She has already added so much to our family.  Yes, we are BLESSED!  5 times as a matter of fact!  Life is good, God is GREAT.

THANKS to ALL