We have a lot to celebrate this week as Tuesday was Evelyn’s third birthday and Wednesday was the day we met her one year ago! Evelyn has grown significantly in so many ways. To give praise for one year together, these are some of the things we’ve seen:[...]

We’ve been home with Evelyn for two months already! We are still working hard getting to know each other and establish trust among us all. Our days are pretty simple and consistent, and it seems like Evelyn in catching on and contributing quickly to the culture of our family. [...]

I remember learning once that it’s new experiences that make time feel longer and routine that makes time fly by. This is why childhood summers felt like they lasted forever and five years in a job feels so short. It’s this principle that must be why we have to keep reminding ourselves that we’ve only been home for two weeks and not two months. We have new skills to hone, new relationships to foster, and new routines to install. [...]

It’s Saturday today, at least I think so. I haven’t quite been aware of the day of the week for a while. Kira informed me that today is also July, a fact I was totally unaware of. But all those facts means we’ve been home for one week! We’ve made some huge progress in the last week. Least of all eliminating the suitcases from the ground cover of our home. The suitcase clutter has been replaced by toys that Evelyn insists be on the floor. I appreciate her value of clear, clean surfaces, but I also look forward to the day she learns how to pick things up. [...]

We are in the middle of our second day at home and it feels like about three weeks has passed since we left India. Travel was long, but went as good as one could hope. Kira has joined the ranks of travelers everywhere declaring her dislike for security lines and was so relieved when we let her know we had passed the very last security check. Even in Delhi when we thought we were home free and could settle in at our gate with our sleepy children, they cleared the area, which was surrounded by glass walls and made everyone exit who had gathered inside the walls at the gate and line up again and pass our bags through another scanner and get waved with a metal detection wand again. We finally boarded the plane in Delhi and set off for 15 hours of flying. [...]

We’ve been in New Delhi for five days now and we have our sights set on HOME. On Wednesday we went to the U.S. Embassy for the visa interview for Evelyn. There are no electronics allowed in the Embassy. Not even a watch. No backpacks either, so we entered with a carefully packed purse and our all-important file of papers. [...]

Since I last wrote, we travelled to New Delhi and had Evelyn’s visa medical appointment. We asked you to pray that Evelyn would not have to have the three-day test and the doctor approved of doing just the one-day regular medical exam!! That means we do not have to take Evelyn to the doctor three days in a row and she doesn’t have to fast every morning until the test!! We will work with the U of M Adoption Medicine Clinic when we return home to confirm all her needs, but we are so grateful to not have to make her go through the tests while we are still such a fresh family. Thank you for praying!! [...]

We have been together as a family for three days now. Day one was full of shock and sadness from little Evelyn, and mom and dad therefore took our turns in tears. We know family is better than institutional care, but it’s hard to convince a two-year-old that different is ever better. Evelyn has thankfully been easy to sleep at nap and night, helping us avoid further tears of exhaustion. [...]

Dave and I have been awake for periods of the night the last two nights and so our morning felt like it started early, although it was just to meet our driver at 8:30 am. We were picked up and first travelled to the orphanage to pick up Evelyn and an orphanage worker. From there we travelled to the passport office. [...]

We made it safely to India without too many problems, except for maybe a renewed dislike for Newark airport. We were exhausted from 26 hours of flights (more like 30 hours of travel if you start counting from when we went to the airport to when we got to the hotel!) and plopped into our hotel bed around 11 pm. We all slept until 8:45 am and are feeling much better after a good night’s sleep, a good breakfast, and a cappuccino. [...]