Wonder twin power, activate!

Sunday, 10:30pm

Home sweet home! I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be home. As soon as we arrived at SFO we felt the difference. As we waited in a long line to go through our first stop in the airport, someone bumped me ever so slightly with her bag. Immediately she apologized. I looked at her with what I am sure was a completely perplexed expression as I tried to comprehend what just happened. Wait, you just apologized for bumping into me? And you assumed I spoke English? What I said was, "Oh, no problem at all." What was coursing through my veins was "God Bless America, Land that I love!!!"

The two flights went extremely well. We did have a good amount of time to kill at the Beijing airport, but Kara decided that she really enjoyed pushing the cart that had our carry-ons so we let her. We walked all over the airport hoping to wear her out for the 11 hour plane ride home. Praise God from whom all blessing flow, she slept for 6 hours! We were amazed and wished we could have slept that much. She had her own seat so we laid her down with her head on me and her feet on James. It was hard to move around, but she was sleeping so all was well with the world.

Judy met us with the three older kids at the airport while Micah was home with my folks. Wow, was it super to see them all. They of course looked like the grew by leaps and bounds, and Micah's new nickname is "pounds." Kara went to the older ones immediately, no doubt thinking the empress now had even more servants. She divides her time evenly between them to grace them with her presence.

Micah liked Kara immediately and might have been thinking, "Ha, ha I now have a minion." He'd point to her and laugh with a kind of "Ho ho ho" laugh. At one point he got behind her, put those marshmallow arms around her and put his head down to give her a hug. She pretty much ignored him. At one point Micah was sitting on my lap and Kara was trying to get between us. Micah looked at me with a very concerned look and said. "Oh!" (as in "Oh my, what does she think she is doing? I could crush her.").

The good old supply and demand principle works to my advantage. There is one mama, so when that one mama is busy she becomes important. At one point I had a kid on each hip which is no easy task. My back may never forgive me. Kara has called me "Mama," but I know that does not have real meaning yet. It probably means "Mama caregiver who gives me food."

Sorry to those who never watched "Superfriends" as you haven't been getting my Wondertwins references. The characters are a brother and sister who say "Wonder twin power, activate! And then they can become different animals or beings. Well our Wondertwins (WTs) have activated and become beings that have superspeed and invisibility (though a particular odor will often give away their positions). At one point I opened the refrigerator to get something and one of the WTs was instantly at the door taking out salad dressings. I extricated the bottles from the hands and moved that WT. I turn around and the other WT is climbing into the fridge getting something else. By the time I moved that one, the salad dressing were being attacked again. I know you are all laughing with glee. Make that heartily laughing with glee.

We did discover that the tough one out of the two is Miss Empress. I wish I knew how to say, "Don't beat up on your big little brother" in Chinese. Micah is the softie. The first time Kara cried (when alas, she did not get what she wanted) Micah looked very distressed. He looked back and forth at Kara and me with his bottom lip protruding farther and farther out. Finally he moved over to her and patted her on the head. He got high praises for being so kind, and got a little too enthusiastic about the pats so we had to put an end to the sympathetic actions so Kara would not sustain brain trauma.

This is NOT to say that they do not do battle over things. Goodness gracious no, what a ridiculous thought. They have tug-of-wars and will each look at me with the "Aren't you going to do anything?" look. So if any of you have suggestions on effective ways to teach a one-year-old and a two-year-old who is developmentally a one-year-old who does not know English how to share, bring them on. Yes, yes, more hearty laughing.

Quick answers to some questions: No jet lag; she's sleeping well after the first night (cried on and off); she's sleeping in our room for now; haven't started school yet; she eats well still, but not as much.

Looking forward to you all meeting her, she met many the first day we were home. Our community group descended feeding us and supplying us with breakfast foods (between them, Judy, and my folks our fridge is stocked). At church today I lost track of the number of people who Kara shmoozed.

New motto in our household: Divide and conquer!