The kids love to play dress up! They even got me in on the action.

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Emma is doing great! Here she is a few days after we got home teaming up with her brothers to take down her “ye ye” (grandfather in Mandarin).

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Here are some comments that Nicole wrote on her blog…
“It is so great to be HOME! We are jet lagged and a wee bit tired but we are really enjoying our selves. Our first two days at home with Emma have gone well. I am amazed at how well she is adapting. I know there are so many new sights, people, smells, foods, and so much more for her. I can’t even imagine. But, she is handling it so well. She has had a few melt downs (usually when one of her brothers takes one of her toys from her or if she wakes up at night) but overall she has just done super. She and the boys have had a lot of fun together. They have played so hard and are all worn out by bedtime. Emma seems to really enjoy her room and all of her toys. A rabbit my mom gave her which she calls “Wawa” (baby doll) is her favorite along with a purse her Great Grandmother made for her. She loves to carry her purse, fix her dolls hair, and put on lip gloss–such a girly girl! She also loves playing outside–riding bikes, blowing bubbles, and going for walks. She has done super in the car and even did great today when we had to take Wilson to the dr. for an ear infection and then lunch at McDonald’s. I have to say the funniest thing so far is watching and listening to her and Wilson, our youngest son, communicate with each other when they play. She will say something to Wilson in Mandarin and Wilson will speak back to her in his own “Chinese” as he calls it. We keep telling him to speak to her as he would usually speak, he does for a few minutes but then it’s back to “Will-enese” as we have nicknamed it (half Will talk and half Will’s version of Mandarian). It really is so cute! Samuel is so taken with her. He is being a super big brother. He loves showing her new things. Their personalities really do mesh well together. I have taken lots of pictures of the kids playing and having fun but…I haven’t had time to upload them. WHEW! Having three little ones is keeping me busy. I felt like I really accomplished a lot today when I finally got the dishwasher unloaded. ha! I am so glad that our first week home is spring break—it has worked out really well to have the boys at home from school and have Eric home from work. It has given us a lot of time to spend together without the normal pace of life. I will keep you all posted. Continue to pray for Emma as she continues to make a huge transition from Taiwan to our home. Thank you for all of your love, prayers and support. We are so blessed.”

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After nearly 30 hours of traveling from Taiwan on Sunday, April 6th we made it home safely very late Sunday night. Emma was so ecstatic to get off the plane and meet her brothers. She was so cute..smiling from ear to ear. We didn’t know what to expect. Actually we thought she would be more hesitant but she was all for it. We could hardly wait to see them too. It was AWESOME to finally get to the baggage claim area and see our sons and our parents. They were so cute! They ran right up to her with hugs. She handled it beautifully. I again stood amazed. Here are a few pictures from our homecoming.
It’s GOOD to be HOME and to finally have our family all together.

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This picture explains it all! We had the longest flight EVER!
We began the morning of April 6th in Taipei around 7:00am to fly back to Georgia. Our flight from Taipei to LAX was long but everything went great. Customs in LAX was a breeze. THEN WE DEALT WITH DELTA!
They must be the most incompetant corporation that I know of. No wonder they have the financial problems they have. Anyway, I digress.
Our original flight was cancelled. So they attempted to put us on an earlier flight. That’s when the problems began. They could not comprehend that we had a daughter with a different last name on her passport then Nicole and I. They continually put us on different flights at different times. Finally, after hours of persuading (I mean arguing) with them they agreed to put us on stand-by for a flight 5 hours after our original flight.
They called our names (mine and Nicole’s) for stand-by. They didn’t have Emma’s name at the gate. They were not going to let us on the flight! As I was talking to them, a man walked up to the counter and asked to be put on a flight the next day. He was from LA and was feeling too sick to fly. He didn’t want compensation…just another flight. The two geniuses at the gate said they couldn’t do it b/c it doesn’t look good if someone “voluntarily” wants off the plane. Luckily I was there to provide them some leadership. I told them to bump him off the flight “involuntarily” and give Emma his seat. After a 10 minute discussion about whether they could do that or not, they FINALLY did it and we were off to Atlanta.
Did mention the boneheads at Delta lost one of our bags? They still haven’t found it!
I’m not seeing a Delta flight in my future.

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We had a couple of hours layover in Japan.

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Emma and Nicole are waiting to board our plane and head back to the states.

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We found a Buddist Temple inside a cave called the “Tunnel of the gods”. The story is that when the people were hungry the gods would provide food inside the temple. It sounded a lot like the Old Testament story of God providing manna for His people in the wilderness.

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