First days home

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. 

God gave me a great ability to sleep anywhere, and so I slept enough to be coherent and as helpful as I could be to Dave and the girls. Dave slept less being on full duty of making sure Evelyn was held secure or wouldn’t roll off the seat. As I said on Instagram on Saturday, there is nothing that will make you want to break out in a chorus of “God Bless America” like landing in Chicago after 15 hours on a plane. Ironically, the 58-minute flight after that from Chicago to Minneapolis had fully functioning in-seat entertainment, whereas the devices on the long flight were non-functional. We landed in Minneapolis met by our parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, all ready to welcome the sleepy travelers and meet Evelyn briefly before we went home to cocoon and connect. 

We are feeling less jet lagged today and slept more normal hours last night, as opposed to Evelyn’s 4 am wake up on Sunday morning. We were playing patty cake by 4:30 and had the coffee brewing before 5. The first night was unsettled as either from exhaustion or motion sickness, or both, Evelyn was kind of spitting up and heaving all through the night and Kira was talking in her sleep and having a bad dream. We’re feeling much more human today. 

Evelyn loves the swing, the slide, and the steps. And if she has a bowl and spoon she is content to play cook for quite a while. Our house is already strewn with toys, which is a little overwhelming since we haven’t managed to unpack the suitcases yet. I know it will take some time to get everything unpacked and settled, and also know that toys strewn around at a two-year-old’s attention span is just going to be life again for a while. 

In the short time we’ve been home we’ve seen a few small steps with Evelyn. She let me pick her up and hold her a few times and at lunch today I fed her a huge quantity of dal tadka. We are still figuring out what Evelyn likes to eat and so far only bananas are the consistent winner. She really liked dal (a lentil dish served over rice) in India and in a desperate effort to make sure my child ate something filling today, I found a recipe and cooked some up for lunch. She ate probably three cups worth, so although I’m sure it would not impress any Indian grandmother, the flavor must have been close enough for comfort. I rocked Evelyn to sleep at nap and she fell asleep in my arms before I laid her down in the crib. Thank you for praying for her attachment and connection to me, and please continue to do so. We are seeing progress. 

The coming days and weeks will be just a lot of time at home figuring each other out and teaching Evelyn she can trust us to take care of her. We are excited to share her with you soon! Thank you for praying us home and for supporting us in the coming days!