soaking in the splendid

we've been doing a whole lot of nothing for the past 2 days, which in turn, is actually something really awesome. if i'm being honest, we've had an incredibly calm and delightful transition home. i can't even believe it myself! there has been very little crying and jing liu has actually slept straight through the night for 2 nights in a row! seriously? girl, you rock! clint and i haven't fared so well with sleep, but hey, who cares about us...if she's happy, we're happy!!  she's been very calm and chill. i can tell she is still soaking it all in, and hasn't yet shown us her silliness like we saw in china, but it will come.  i'm on day 2 of hanging floor side, with emery on my lap, watching the boy's many shenanigans. oh how i love their shenanigan ways, and so does little miss liu-liu. i've been MIA from the internet, from my phone, from my camera, from everything but these 3 kids. i feel so blessed to be their mom.
jing liu is so fascinated with her brothers, and has been fully entertained for two entire days. they grew up so much since we were gone. i'm not sure how, but they feel like they gained 15 lbs a piece and sound so grown up. i missed out on stories and adventures, and all kinds of stuff. the bits and pieces i get from them are funny to hear because of the adorable details they remember. the china gift boxes were a HUGE hit! i wrapped 17 gifts for each boy  because i didn't know how long we would be gone, so they have a few more days of gifts. today it was "toot slime" from the $1 store. seriously, the best invention ever. they must have laughed 75 times joking about which one of them smelled like a toot. they are going to need serious detox from getting to open a gift every morning...i need to get creative and think of some fun things for us to do next week. they are already asking me what will happen when the presents are gone. real life, boys, real life.

since things are going so well, i'm feeling more and more like i want to keep hiding away for a bit. i love that she is attaching so well, but there are still a lot of people going in and out, and i really want her to feel settled in our family before i throw her into the craziness that is a playdate.


when we started all of this a few years ago, i knew we loved her. i knew it would change our lives in an amazing way, but i never could have imagined how much joy one little girl could bring, not just to me and clint, but to foster and rowan. they are crazy crazy in love with her. they don't look at her, they gaze. foster told me so many times today "oh mom, she's just soooo adorable! i think she's the most adorable girl i've ever seen!"  he is constantly looking after her, and keeps asking me if he can babysit. "mom, i'll watch her and take care of her. can you go get some stuff done?"  in the car today, he said "mom, i can't really even see her cleft lip anymore. it kind of looks like it's blending in. i don't even notice it."  funny, that's what i think too! oh, he's a quick one. he doesn't miss a thing and he is so sensitive to his sister's needs already.

he loves to sit behind her and catch her when she falls over.

actually, he adores it when she falls on him, and giggles hysterically. i have to keep reminding him not to pull her backwards on purpose :)

he was also overly concerned about her getting to hot, and insisted she be covered in shade.

rowie has given her a million drive by kisses and rubs her head and face gently. he brings her toys and talks sweetly to her. he's also fascinated by her cleft bottle and really really wants to try it out for himself :)

but i think he missed clint and i so much, he really needs some time to soak up with us. i've been doing some extra snuggles, and hugs and talks with him. i spent a long time tonight telling them stories at bedtime, and i snuggled rowie while he fell asleep. oh, his little precious hands on my shoulder. he's such a tender soul, and at the same time, such a wild man! he did a face plant into our tennis net and split his lip open this morning. even a mouth full of blood didn't stop him from eating a cookie :)

we spent the afternoon on a blanket, letting jing liu touch and feel the grass, watch rowie shoot incredible hoops, and listen to foster cantor on in the shade about their chinese umbrellas and how they are the perfect size to protect sister from the sun. oh those chinese umbrellas. best 3 for $3 i've ever spent :)

i'm bursting with love and exhaustion. if there has even been a time in my life that i am in love with, it's right now. i know there may be hard times ahead. i'm not trying to pretend like it will always feel this easy...but geeze louise...day 1 and day 2 have been oh so splendid. i'm beaming.

ok, time for bed. as i type, i keep finding myself completely asleep in mid sentence and random keys pressed down from my exhausted fingertips. so if this post is rambling, at least you know it was written in a partially asleep state :)