We're Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hallelujah!!
Praise the Lord!!!
We're HOME!!!!!

We left Guangzhou at 5:30am Wed. morning (China time, which would be 5:30pm Eastern). Got to the Hong Kong airport at 9:25am after a 40 minute flight.
THEN!! we got to spend from 9:25am to 5:20pm at the airport!! WHEE!!! Seriously though, it wasn't that bad. If you have to be trapped at an airport for 8 hours I'd recommend Hong Kong. It was like a gigantic shopping mall that never ended. The prices were WAY more than we were used to in China, but comparable to the US---reasonable for an airport. The most exciting thing was that they had a Krispy Kreme there. I could've died. It was SOOOO good!
Our flight from Hong Kong to Chicago was from 5:20pm (5:20am US) to 8:05pm (US). LONG flight. Lili slept restlessly for most of the flight. She did very well. The pressure change bothered her ears, but she just put her hands to her ears, no screaming, no crying.
Our descent was terrible, lots of screaming kids and gasping adults. It really was horrible. Poor Lili barfed up her orange juice. As we left the plane, we realized she wasn't the only one! She felt better as soon as we landed.
Immigration/customs was a breeze!! It was kind of anti-climactic. One of the officers did congratulate us and Lili clapped and yelled "yay!".
My parents came to the airport and rode the shuttle bus back to our car with us.
Lili was amazing!!!! We were all a little worried about how she'd react to them as well as the change of scenery and the after affects of over 24 hours of travel.
Well, let me just say, she did a somersault right in the middle of the ground transportation waiting area. Yep, she's one heck of a kid.
She was smiling and laughing and flirting and funny and charming and dancing and singing....everything we could've hoped. She even called my parents "Meemaw" and "Peepaw". They sounded like authentic Chinese words when she said them!
We got home around 1:30am. When we got there she ran around our house, stomped after all the cats and dogs, stopped in front of the first full-length mirror she saw (we had to drag her away!!) and ran up to her room and just sighed. She layed down in her bed and laughed.
We gave her a bath at 2:30 in the morning (yes, it was just a ludicrous as it sounds!!) and told her to go to bed. She layed down in bed, I checked on her at 3:00, she was still awake, but laying there. Next thing I know it's 9:30am and she's still asleep in her bed like a good girl.
We all got about 6 or 7 hours of sleep and now it feels like we never left!!
I can't express how it feels to see the actual living, breathing Lili in her room after all this time of imagining her there. It's an amazing sight.
I am so glad we're home and it's all over and we can start our lives.
Wow. Thank the Lord.