The Last 48 hours

Well...we did not fall off the face of the earth, but the China plague got us after all! Jay and I have had pretty mild cases of congestion and sore throat, but Kai has been very sick. Poor little guy!

Here is a run down of our home coming:

We arrived in Memphis, on time, at 0700 on Friday morning. Cam and Cael were absolutely smitten with Kai, and Kai ate up every bit of the attention! After stopping off and filling up on biscuits and gravy at Cracker Barrel, we made our way home to see our four-legged baby, Rhett. This meeting was NOT love at first site...at least not for Kai. I think Rhett was happy to have us home, but Kai was extremely afraid of the dog, as we expected. We decided to let them have their own spaces and spend the rest of the day trying to stay awake! We went for a walk to the park, watched TV in English, and snacked on foods we had missed the last couple of weeks. By evening, Kai had started to run a low grade temp and by midnight, he had spiked a high fever with a seriously croupy cough. All this equals no sleep for Mom! By morning, his fever and cough remained and the poor guy wanted to sleep ALL day...which we let him do, with the exception of trying force fluids in him, every chance we got. In between sleeps, we tried to catch up on laundry and grocery shopping, etc...but Kai really just wanted to be held all day...and that was just fine by me! While Saturday night was rough, too, this morning, his fever started to break and we began to see glimpses of the Kai that we came to know in China, re-appear.

Unfortunately, our plans to introduce him to everyone at church this morning, were not going to come to fruition. Therefore, we laid low and were thankful for signs of continued recovery. By this afternoon, after a walk to the park, Kai had made peace with Rhett and even tried to give him a hug and a kiss. The pictures are of the first smiles we have seen since first arriving home and they were a welcome site! (Please don't judge me in my physical state! I have had a total of 23 minutes of sleep in the last 48 hours:-)

As I was typing this post, Kai was taking a bath and had asked to get out to go to the bathroom. OK. Check. Kai goes back in the tub while the older boys were watching and playing with the bath toys and keeping him entertained. Then IT happened. Yes. The big "it". Cam runs over to me yelling that Kai has pooped in the bathtub. I immediately deny it. How could this be? He just went! I was there! But sure enough...there it was...the evidence...and not a male in sight to assist with the clean-up (except for Kai who looked as shocked as the rest of us). Bleach and scrubbies to the rescue, to include a thorough cleaning of all 476 bath toys that had been also floating in the tub. I re-filled the tub with fresh water and bubbles so that Kai could get another thorough cleaning and then I allowed him to splash around and enjoy his brothers who, after some coaxing, agreed to come back to entertain him some more. After about 15 minutes, they call me to tell me that Kai is ready to get out of the tub. I look over to see that he has one leg draped over the side of the tub. Yes...you know what is coming next. In slow motion, as I am telling him to wait for me, he slips and bumps his head on the faucet. That well-deserved scream session lasted a solid 10 minutes with me trying to hold ice to the bump behind his ear. Poor guy...what a miserable two days!

So as I type this post, I realize that it is official! In the last 48 hours, I have now cleaned up just about every possible body fluid from just about every orifice of my new son's little body. And you know what? I would not change a single minute of it (except maybe the part where he slipped and bumped his head). These are the three kids that we have spent the last 15 years praying for and God has GREATLY blessed us. Not even the sleepless, croupy, jet-lagged nights of fretting would change my mind or my heart that each of our kids were fearfully and wonderfully made...just for me and my patient husband.

I hope to be able to provide you all with some better homecoming pictures in the next few days...as soon as we can find our camera!

Love to all!