"Arriving"

Today my sister's new family of four is on the long haul home.  They land sometime around seven and will be greeted by what I'm sure will be a rather large crowd of family and friends.  After exchanging many hugs, responding to many variations of "You guys must be exhausted," telling snippets of stories (I personally can't wait to hear about the Taipei 101 meltdown), and gathering their luggage, they will buckle the kids into their new car seats and head home.

Home.

To their own space, their own kitchen, their own yard, their own beds.

Home.

Where they will figure out what it looks like to be a family of four.  There will likely be fits and tears shed.  (Maybe a few by the adults as well.)  But more importantly, there will be hugs and kisses.  And I imagine that the words "Wo ai ni" (Mandarin for I love you) will echo throughout the walls.

Slowly the jet lag will wear off, the combination of Mandarin, English, sign language and pantomime will become easier, introducing new "American foods" will become less of a frustration, rules for the house will be learned, and suddenly life will be normal.  Different, as of course it has to be with new members in the house, but normal.

We're pretty close to that now ourselves.  It seems hard to believe that Thursday will mark four weeks for us since our arrival back in NC.  (Gracious me I need to get Thank You notes written!)

We've had our share of fits and tears.  We've shared hugs and kisses.  Jet lag is gone.  We've found some American classics that Darcy will devour.  She understands many of the household guidelines, and her siblings are learning to share their prized possessions with her.  Our form of mixed languages works for us.  And slowly but surely, "wo ai ni" is being replaced with "I love you Mommy."

Darcy now voluntarily takes her place at the window to wave to Ian as he leaves for work in the mornings and runs to the door yelling, "Ba ba!" when he gets home.  She now seeks me out from time to time during play time with her siblings to initiate an Eskimo kiss or a long snuggle.  She plants kisses on her sister's cheek and gives hugs to her brother and joins in their imaginative play.  Just Wednesday night she shook her head no when I started to take her to my room to go to bed and pointed to her bed in "the girls' room" instead.  (She's slept through the night in her own bed each night since then).  She giggles when Maya comes into the room and sits down on the floor to pet her dog.  It just feels like we've all been together here in our cozy little home so much longer than 3 1/2 weeks.  

I'm not sure that I'd say we've "arrived" just yet.  Darcy still pushes away from Ian or her siblings from time to time.  Kylie still asks EVERY time before we leave the house if Darcy is going to be going with us.  And sweet Caleb still asks to pray that "Darcy come home soon" every few nights at bedtime (guess it got engrained in his mind over the nine months he knew about her before we traveled).

But we are close to "arriving" as a family of five.  

Really, really close.

Praise God for His ability to knit families together across race, language, and political boundaries!