We're Home!

"Remember today, for it is the beginning of always. Today marks the start of a brave new future filled with all your dreams can hold"

Welome Home Owen!

After about 25 hours of traveling, we arrived home at about 8:45 to a very warm welcome from our friends and family, AKA the paparazzi! Cameras in hand, they all waited at the end of the driveway anxious to see the little boy they all heard so much about. Ella immediately jumped out of my mom's arms and into mine..something we were both longing for :) I then took her around to the other side of the car, followed by B and J, to finally meet "little brother". As soon as I opened the door Wen, like he knew just who Ella was, reached out his hand and took hers. Needless to say that brought a couple of us to tears! It was dark out, but the driveway was quite lite by all the camera flashes. I can't even imagine what was going through his little head! He was very happy to see B, and J as well and greeted each of them with a huge smile. Once again, we were blessed with magical moments. Four siblings who just met, yet seemed to have know each other for so long. How could that be? My heart is so grateful.

The kids were anxious to get Wen inside and show him his new house. He willingly went around the house holding one of their hands and went room to room. He amazingly seemed very comfortable with each of them, as well as with my mom and my sister. We all had a very late night that night finally settling in at about 12:30. Like clockwork, Wen was up at 6am!

Overall things are going very well. Wen absolutely LOVES Ella (and Ella loves him!), and is very happy when he sees B and J. We're still all getting used to the time change and I've been walking around a foggy and a bit overwhelmed by lack of sleep, the mess developing around my house, and the suitcases full of laundry that still need to be done. Also, my Ella who was so brave without her mom for two weeks, has come a bit undone! It's like every suppressed emotion is now coming out. She will not let me leave her side for more than a second and has been so overly emotional. That's mainly the reason this blog post has taken me so long. Ella basically won't let go of me, which makes it a little hard to type! And of course her needs have to take priority. So I now sit at my table with my laptop while the two little ones are eating lunch, trying to get it done!

Here's few pictures from Wen's big welcome home! In the next couple of days I'll hopefully get a chance to post some pictures of our "new family".

My mom had this beautiful banner made to welcome Wen home. (She also made sure the house was clean, the fridge was filled with food, and all the laundry at home was all done--how wonderful is that!!)

Michelle, Joanne, and Lisa came earlier in the day and decorate the house with balloons
Wen's new friends
Ella, Meg, and Mia are anxiously waiting!
We finally make it home to the large crowd gathered in front of our house
I'm greeted by our other children

Wen's first glance at the paparazzi awaitin his arrival!

Brianna, happy to finally meet Wen

The smiles on their faces...priceless

Ella, so happy to have "little brother" home at last!

No words for this one :)

A new family