We made it home! We arrived in LAX airport around 5:15 Thursday evening to a wonderful welcoming home party! What a site it was to see the Masyrs and the Lennards holding banners and balloons and cheering as we arrived. They whisked us out of the airport and took us for pizza and even had a cake made for us. It was so much fun to spend time with them again! It made the previous 20 hours of flying seem like nothing! It was great seeing all the kids together again and meeting Colton and Carson for the first time. I couldn't believe how much Cheyenne and Faith had grown! Oh how I wish we all lived closer together.

Elizabeth and Ri both did wonderful on the plane rides home. The other 4 kids amazed me. They were right there filling in to help Mark and I out any time we needed them! It was so great having them along. They were incredible!!! Elizabeth only had a small meltdown on one plane ride... it only lasted about 5 minutes (intense) and then about 10 minutes of whimpering. She was such a big girl. We finally arrived home at 7:07. Our plane in LAX was delayed an hour and a half, so we arrived later then expected. We arrived home with Mamaw, Papaw, and Uncle Paul ready to embrace us all. Aunt Susan came as we were getting our luggage. How wonderful it was to see them. We discovered that they had been hard at work while we were gone. They mowed our yard, shampood our carpets in our house and our vehicles, washed and waxed both vehicles, filled up our gas tanks, power washed our garage and our porch and the front of our home, and filled our refrigerator with food. We were blown away. They constantly amaze me at their generosity and their love!

Ri was reserved, but not completely afraid. When we got home, Mark took him for a walk around the house. When he got inside, he ran around and giggled and smiled all morning. He and Elizabeth have played a lot. He seems to love it here, though he is terrified of our dog and our cat. Today, he seemed to get a little brave with the cat and even walked up to it and played near her. Mark took him for a walk in the woods. It is something Mark loves to do with the kids. But as soon as they got into the woods, Ri became terrified. It was the first time Mark had really seen fear in him. It made us wonder why. But today, Mark was able to take him for a walk and Ri seemed to enjoy it. As we were walking outside this evening, we heard an owl. Ri kept pointing in the direction of the owl as if he wanted to go search it out. That is one of Mark and Elizabeth's favorite things to do.

As for Elizabeth, she is still wonderful with Ri. But... she is exhausted and out of her mind. She has had more meltdowns since we got home then she has in the past 2-3 months! The meltdowns are very intense and she literally is "out of her mind". They last a good 1/2 hour to an hour with no break in her intensity. She is just plain exhausted. Please pray for her as she tried to adjust... again... to the 12 hour time change.

We are so thankful for our friends and our family. We are blessed beyond words!