Day 1

Jet lag–gotta love it.

Not.

So the trip home was the usual trans-Pacific marathon (About 26 hours all told–going from Guangzhou to Shanghai to LA to Denver.  We had a van, a couple buses, three planes, an airport shuttle, three security lines, two customs/immigration checks, and finally, at the end, another van).  The normal exhaustion was complicated by a security gentleman in LA deciding Ben’s bag needed to be gone through with a fine tooth comb (the search found nothing, but resulted in a missed flight and the need to tramp to another terminal to catch our back-up).  We also had a couple of bouts of “You go on; I’m tired and want to stay here.” Fortunately the “You go” bits didn’t last too long, and each time, after a few minutes of rest (and sometimes some food), everybody was willing to move on together.  We were very glad we didn’t have to force anyone onto any airplanes.

When we got in last night (I suppose technically it was this morning), the children who had been dragging their feet through the last two airports suddenly had boundless energy.  Who could sleep?  Didn’t I know it felt like morning?

But, hey, we were home.  Even J smiled a bit.

Now we’re on to the challenge of trying to show all our kids that we love them, even if they’re tired and grumpy, and even if we’re barely keeping our eyes open (and somewhat grumpy ourselves).

Besides the jet-lag, screen time and food have been the major challenges so far.

With screen time, it’s a matter of J feeling like he shouldn’t have any limits at all, and us feeling that some limits are essential to family relationships and everybody’s health and safety.  So far, the only rule we’ve insisted on is “internet-connected devices only get used in public spaces.”  When I enforced this one, I got mutterings about how I’m not an OK person.  I suspect today is not the last time I’ll hear that.

With food, the trouble was not having much in the house when we got in, and then realizing that many of our usual foods are things J doesn’t like to eat.  We did have some instant noodles to tide people over to the morning, and we picked up some fruit and other things that served us fairly well today.  We’ll have to keep going by trial and error until we can figure out what works for all of us.  At least we know that most fruits are welcome.  I also foresee more Ramen and other noodles in our future than we’ve been used to.

We had jiaozi for supper, and B dragged himself up from a nap to eat a few before returning directly to bed.  (I love that King Soopers has tolerable Chinese dumplings in their freezer section.)

So day one as a family in our own home is nearing a close.  Thanks to all of you who’ve been thinking of us and praying for us along our journey.  I know it has helped immensely.