HOME SWEET HOME!

We are happy to say that all went well and we arrived home safely at 330 pm CST!!! We were able to get the baby bassinet both legs of our journey, even though KLM couldn't tell us that for some reason, but it was great!! I'll be posting pictures later on today(hopefully-guess who's camera battery died again)so check later for updates to this post:)They're here:)

I'm up at 3 am CST because my little boy woke screaming at about 1245 am and proceeded to wake up Phoebe who decided she wanted to stay up for a bit. John got up and gave her a bottle, I comforted Mikey who went back to sleep, and then brought Phoebe downstairs. The boys are snoozing:) at the right time schedule. I was able to get her to go back to sleep in the bassinet downstairs and proceeded to get on the computer. Now I'm the only one up...

Anyway, we sat next to a Kazakhstan adoptive family and they were bringing home Lincoln who is 11 1/2 months. They were in Kazakhstan 62 days!!! Yikes!!! Although they did say the region they were in was much cheaper and better to breath in than Almaty. The poor little guy developed the "runs" 3 times they ran to the bathroom as it was coming out his pants, onto his legs, onto their clothes, it was tough going for them....they were running out of clean clothes, diapers, and still had an 8 hour flight left to Boston after a 7 hour layover in Amsterdam. Phoebe was great, her bowels are the peanut butter consistency, the healthy formula kind!!! We loved the enfamil formula, it set our kids right!! The great thing is that Amsterdam Schipshol airport has a wonderful Baby Lounge!! It's free and one of the formula companies sponsored it. It had these wonderful circular cubbies that had curtains around them, soft lighting, and a baby crib to boot!! It was really comfortable and nonsmoky, and Phoebe got to play and roll around & crawl in the safe crib while I had a Big Mac and John had a cappaccino. It was really comforting to us. The other family was also able to regroup, clean up their mess, and found diapers for sale at the drugstore!! Love the Dutch people. I'll have to say that they were the most gracious about our babies, there had to be 8 babies on that flight and not once did they put up a fuss for us, they loved our children and were sooo willing to help. It is huge contrast to Northwest airlines where we felt very unwelcome and a bother to the flight attendants. Sorry Jo, we know you are not that way but unfortunately the coworkers we ran into were...we were appalled and saddened by their unfriendliness!
KLM Bassinet
Dutch Flight Attendant
Amsterdam Baby Lounge Crib
Relaxing in the baby lounge
NWA Bassinet, a cardboard box!
Are we there yet?
We cleared US customs without a hitch, with a bit of a mystery. The official there told us that Phoebe was a new American citizen, which we understood was not the case because we only did one trip, and certainly Michael was not upon landing. However, we weren't going to argue so we'll see what happens in the next 6 weeks! Hopefully they changed the law in 2008?
We said goodbye to our travelling buddies the Hallaways, and hugged them all goodbye... made me sad... but then we were pleasantly surprised by a waiting friend, Tim, dad of Anara from Hilary's Blog! Tim does work based in Mpls and he was flying home, it was sooo wonderful to see him and we were sooo greatful! Phoebe had to greet him with a Hello and I need to touch your face:) He got to fly home with the Hallaways:)
My sister and 3 of her kids picked us up at the airport, they were so cute, the youngest daugther Emma said, I get to be a big sister!! And her older sister of course corrected her with "we get to be Big Cousins" It was sooo sweet. They loved our little Peanut and kept staring at her. They drove us to the Honda dealer where we picked up our new van, what a fun deal!
Oooh, Aaaah!
We got home to a quiet, clean, home complete with flood free basement(we were worried because they got 5-6 inches of snow on Monday and it melted within 24 hours-our water table is really high and we are built in clay soil)!!! Thanks to Melany our housesitter who took care of it for us!! A crockpot meal was cooking and good welcome home notes!! The Stahl's called while I was in the shower and said they were at the Dundas Exit(1 1/2 away from home)- I flew out of the shower to go greet my little boy and pups!! I had tears running down my eyes as I went to hug him-reaction was one I was prepared for, he looked at Terry and started to fuss. John came and he smiled a big smile for his Daddy!!! It was so wonderful. The dogs were happy clams. Michael is a little mad at me for leaving him for so long, do I blame him? But it still hurts a little. He warmed up to me during our shared meal. When it came time to leave, he fussed a little at Terry leaving but stayed within my arms and I kissed him into a big smile. He went to bed without a fuss and I went to bed with him at 8 pm.

Brother and Sister!

First Family photo minus furbabies
So now I'm up doing our Kyrgyzstan registration thing-copying the needed documents while I write! All done, just need to pop it in the post today. I am so thankful to God for the gift of our baby girl Phoebe, taking care of our son during our time away, all of our friends who prayed for us and read our blog during our travels, it meant so much to us!! Thanks again to our wonderful agency who took care of us in country, getting our daughter to us in 4 1/2 months from time of referral, that is simply amazing, you guys are the best!!! We will miss our travelling friends, it is such a great experience to go in a group!
Getting to know you...

I'll keep posting on the at home antics of having 2 under 2!! It's going to be crazy for awhile.
Don't tell me what to do:)