It has been exactly a week since we returned from China and 18 days since we met our little Lilah.
To review the past week: Our return flights were LONG, but rather uneventful. Lilah slept off and on for about half the major one from Beijing to San Francisco and was wild and crazy during the connecting flight to Seattle. We were greeted at the airport by my mom and friend Deb and at that point were beyond tired.
We returned home to a very large banner reading, "Welcome Lilah" and a wonderfully decorated house, thanks to Mom, Deb, and Carrie. Also , our fridge was stocked with all sorts of homemade dishes. What a great welcome home..Thank you so much. We settled in a bit, ate "dinner" around 4:30 PM( 7:30A.M. Beijing time) and Lilah fell asleep in my lap. We put her to bed in her brand new room, she proceeded to wake up at 9:30P.M and Quinn, Lilah and I played until we all went to bed around 2AM.
Our week has pretty much repeated this cycle with middle of the night awakenings and no desire on Lilah's part to return to sleep. Luckily, the past two nights have seen slight improvements over the last 5. Hopefully, we are back on track. It is so great to be home! Our trip to China was an experience of a lifetime and we feel so fortunate to have been matched with such a special little girl. Although we have only known Lilah for less than three weeks, I feel like we have known her for much longer. I have not felt this sleep-deprived in a long, long time, yet I have not felt this fulfilled. Every passing day unfolds another layer of her personality: she LOVES music of any kind and will get her groove on while riding in her car seat with the radio on. This has amused Quinn tremendously over the past few days during the to and from school trips; she loves broth of any kind and will go cross-eyed if being fed with an asian spoon; loves activity: walks, stroller rides, car rides, swinging on the baby swing at the playground, is very entertained by are dog, Chaz and is especially enthralled by his food bowls. On the Quinn front, he is re-adjusting to school life, soccer, etc and especially to his new role as a big brother. I have been asked, on more than a few occasions this week, "Mom, who do you like better, me or Lilah?" Such a loaded question! I am still working on the correct response to that. Any feedback would be appreciated.
I feel such joy to finally be a family of four, but at the same time, feel such sorrow for Lilah's biological parents to be faced with such a heart-wrenching decision. I can only hope that they know in their hearts that she is now in a family who will love and cherish her forever. We are oh so very fortunate.
