It's a small world

We are finally (home, home), as Rachel would put it. It still feels quite unreal to think just 3 weeks ago we left CA travelled over 6000 miles to Beijing, then to Shanghai, Guangzhou, took a bus to Hong Kong, went to Disney and then back to CA again. I am still amazed that there is now another little mini in our lives, and we are forever changed and changing.

Our trip to Disney was fun, hot, with no lines, or princesses. That’s right, no princesses. Be forewarned, though this could be a good thing, but at Disney Hong Kong, (unlike Anaheim, CA) where everywhere we looked it seemed to be about you know who, we found none, except Alice in Wonderland in front on the tea cup rides. We did see Minnie & Mickey Mouse, Goofy (tallest one I’ve ever seen), Pluto and Pooh. The lines to see the characters were 5 to 10 minutes long (amazing) or no wait at all, which made even in the heat at Disney Hong Kong, “the happiest place on earth”. And of course, my favorite was “It’s a small world after all”. I can still hear and see the girls holding hands on the way out of the ride and singing, “It’s a small world”. SWEET! Sarah’s favorite ride was “Dumbo”.

The trip back was pretty uneventful, we went through customs, all bags arrived and Sarah became a U.S. citizen. YEAH! When the plane was touching down, Rachel told Sarah we were in America.and then gave each other the biggest hug. Sarah surprised us when we first met her by standing on the bed, with one arm raised up and the other arm on her hip. (we assume someone had told her about America by posing as the Statue of Liberty). So whenever she sees a flag she does her “America pose”. Too cute. Rachel and Sarah didn’t let go of each other hands all the way through the airport. Some things you would love to just store up and bottle and remind them of how special and sweet they are to each other, because it doesn’t last. So I remind myself to keep snapshots of the sweet precious moments during the moments when they are not sweet to one another. Aaahhh, sisterhood.

We had amazing curb service at San Francisco Airport which picked us up at the airport, helped us with the bags and drove us home safely. What a blessing! Thank you so much, John for all you did for us when we were gone.

It was very nice to be back home and in our own beds. Unfortunately, the girl’s body clocks were still on China time. Why I was under the illusion that flying over night and getting into CA time and keeping as much normalcy, going to bed around the normal night time would have them sleeping through the night is pretty funny to think about now but not so when I heard a knock on the door this morning and heard “Mama”. What a great sound, but not so great at 12:00 PM, 1:00 AM, 1:30 AM and finally at 2:00, Rachel was awake and said “but I’m not tired”. This brought back déjà vu moments from 2003 when we returned from China with 9 month old Rachel and Simon and I tagged teamed on staying up with her for way too many nights as he watched James Bond movies and I watched all my supply of “chick flick” movies so we could stay awake.

So after trying to convince the girls, it’s too early to get up we went downstairs with pillows, blankets, gave them each a bowl of cheerios and put a movie on for them to watch. Sarah has taken to Molly (our dog) right away. Not sure how many dogs she has actually been around but watching how sweet Molly is with her and how Sarah just sits and looks for Molly, watching Molly eat, watching Molly drink, and watching Molly sleep. She would probably feed Molly the whole box of dog treats, if we let her. I’m sure Molly wouldn’t mind it either. I’m not sure what Sarah said (due to the fact, it was all in Chinese), but I suspect from the intensity and tone of her voice that Molly greeted her in one of those ways that dogs do because Sarah was huffing something about Molly and she did a sniff to show me that Molly was greeting her in ways Sarah did not like much. Pretty hard to convince a 4 year old that’s how dogs greet people and dogs, they sniff. Too funny! I just think Molly was checking to make sure Sarah was one of the family and was ok to join the pack.

Simon went dog walking and since the girls were up anyway they joined him, when they got back we had breakfast. One of the reasons, Rachel said she was glad to be home was my bacon, egg and cheese on an English muffin, which she said she missed a lot when we were gone. We got dressed and got ready for church, were about to walk out the door and Sarah announced she’s tired and plops down on the couch and falls asleep. Simon went to church alone and the girls and I went back to bed for a very longgggg nap.

In the afternoon, we went to the pool with friends, ordered pizza. The girls played dress up (many times) and now they are in bed fast asleep and my hope is they stay that way until a normal CA waking up time. (7:00 PM would be nice).

Here are some pictures from our time in Hong Kong, Disney our trip back to CA and after we have been home.