Kathy: Back Home Again in Indiana

We arrived back home on Tuesday afternoon after a grueling round of flights and incredible immigration hassles in Guam. Both kids slept pretty well on the planes but started to get rambunctious and noisy on the flight to Houston. Once again, David had to sit separately from us on all the flights except for Manila to Guam, leaving me alone to wrestle with two kids for 15 hours. Thanks Continental. If I didn't know better, I'd think that David and the airline had an arrangement!

It's been a rough few days for Leah May. She's been crying a lot and really missing her Ate Rose. She also hasn't been sleeping nearly as well as she did in the hotels in the Philippines; she wakes up crying several times each night and finally peters out between 4 and 6 a.m., then sleeps like a log until late in the morning when we finally drag her out of bed. Obviously jetlag is hitting her hard, so we're working to get her on the correct sleep schedule. Rene, ever the terrific sleeper, immediately got back on his usual sleep schedule and hasn't looked back!

Our house is still in chaos two days after arriving home. My brother Chris, who is visiting from Maryland, is graciously putting the finishing touches on the closet in Leah May's room since her bed and furniture will be delivered tomorrow. Rene has graciously given up his mattress to Leah May, who is sleeping on it on our bedroom floor. Top it off with our basement that flooded from the heavy rains last week, smelling up the house, and we have a lot of work to do!


In the meantime, we're also working with Leah May on some bad orphanage behaviors like bossiness, grabbing, and randomly smacking Rene in the head with toys! Rene did a lot of these things too, so we know that with time and correction, these too shall pass.

Below is the last picture I took in the Philippines before my camera battery died. Leah May was less than thrilled, but Rene was so excited to eat at Jollibee one last time before heading home.