Home sweet home!!

So it's official - we are HOME!! Above is our first family photo, taken at the airport after Gabe and I had been traveling for 30+ hours. We were greeted by Tyler and Brooke holding a sweet sign that said "Welcome home mommy and Gabe" and Matt and my parents were there too. It was so great to have everyone together after two LONG weeks of being apart!

Gabe was great - he had seen everyone so many times on Skype and in his photo book that he was off hugging people within a few minutes.  He would look back to make sure I was close, and even came to hold my hand a few times, but overall he was really enjoying his time with his new family.  We went home and he started exploring the house, LOVED the dog, and wasn't too upset with his new bed.   Although it was 10 am in China, Gabe and I had barely slept well during the trip, so he was more than willing to head off to bed within 20 minutes of being home, and I was thrilled to be in bed too - exhausted!!

Yesterday, our first full day at home, we played in the house for a while, exploring with the big kids (who he hangs with really well), we started to learn to ride a tricycle, took a walk to the pond to feed the fish, and later in the evening went to the neighborhood park while the big kids played a soccer game on the adjoining fields.  I am amazed at how much Gabe can do on his own and knows how to do already!  He loves to swing, to climb up the stairs to use the slide, etc.  He can really get around outside, and is going to be riding that trike independently in no time!

I know you probably can't tell from the photo above, but Gabe is  shorter than Aiden (even though he is estimated to be 6 months older).  I was already asked twice at the park last night if they were twins - that is going to be a life long question, I am sure!!

We were blessed by a visit from Aiden's school teachers, Mrs. Sarafin and Mrs. Conger, who will also be Gabe's teachers soon.  Mrs. Sarafin had made a beautiful photo book for Gabe - it had a number of photos of each of the kids, along with new photos off our blog from this trip.  The book is not only filled with amazing photos, but she went to great lengths to add wonderful quotes that really represent family and love so well.  Some of my favorites brought me to tears, such as "A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them" ~ Victor Hugo (with a photo of me & Gabe from our first day together), "The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even touched.  They must be felt within the heart" ~ Helen Keller and "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see" ~ Mark Twain (with a photo of Aiden from school over the past two weeks).  Not only were there family photos in the book, but also photos of hands signing "love", and "Kramer family" - it was beautiful and so thoughtful!  There is nothing greater than for my children to be blessed with such amazing teachers!! They also brought bubbles that were a huge HIT!  Gabe and Aiden were running around, knocking into each other, laughing and just having a blast.  Gabe took to both teachers very quickly and before long was hugging them both.  He is just beyond precious, and fits in with the rest of the kids so well!!

There haven't been any real jealousy issues from anyone yet.  Aiden has been a happy little hugging machine, and when I pick him up Gabe is very good, walking by my side; and vice versa - when I pick up Gabe, Aiden has been very good as well.  Brooke and Tyler are being a wonderful big brother and sister - both played with Gabe a lot today, are trying to remember to sign to him when they want to speak, and are being very loving.  Gabe is already bossing people around, he signs "potty" at Aiden when it's time for him to go, and when Gabe thought Aiden needed to be changed today he came over and tapped me on the leg, when he had my attention he signed "potty" and "stinky" and pointing to Aiden's bum.  I was cracking up...he's picking up sign so quickly, it is just amazing to me!

I'll say it again, God is SO GOOD and we are SO BLESSED!  

Now if I could just sleep longer than four hours at a time...darn jetlag! ;-)