Home.

It's been a week since we left China for home. Time really passes quickly when you're not living in a hotel room!

We were welcomed back at the DC airport with Campbell's first snow. She thought it was too cold to play in, but she did get a big handful at least! We finally made it back to Raleigh on Thanksgiving Day at 10am, and we had a wonderful reunion with our boys and our extended family. Thanks so much to Cayce Wagoner Photography for putting this together for us. This slideshow captures so much emotion!

Click HERE to view slideshow

Marty's Mom and Grandma really pulled double duty as they stayed with our boys at our house while we were gone. They also had full Thanksgiving lunch spread ready for us when we returned home from the airport. We can't thank them enough!

Since that day our extended family members have slowly returned home after good visits and lots of hugs. We have tried to settle into a new groove as a family of five. It has mostly gone well. Jet-lag is a bear, y'all, especially with a toddler. She keeps waking up ready to start the day at 3 or 4 am. Campbell is getting used to so many new things at once, so we're trying to keep things simple for now. Establishing routines as much as we can, etc.

Introducing her to playing with her big brothers has been rocky at times, however. Brennan and Asher have been so amazing, though. They are REALLY loving and surprisingly gentle to their new little sister, but she is not always open to playing with them. Or even looking at them for that matter. Again, it's to be expected that the bonding would take time, but we so want our boys to be rewarded for their super-big-brotherness with a smile, or a giggle, or even eye contact. They ADORE her and it is so sweet to watch. They want to smother her with hugs and kisses and show her all the fun toys they have. Asher insists on sitting next to her at every meal. He keeps moving his chair to sit as close as possible to her. We're trying some new things lately (like the adventure of letting B & A feed Campbell at dinner haha), but we just keep preaching that consistent love over time is the formula we all have to subscribe to here.

We head to the doctor in a couple of days for her first check-up on U.S. soil. We have also already been referred to an ophthalmologist for her eyes. We haven't really talked about that much, but her poor little eyes are pretty severely crossed at times. It has definitely gotten better since those first few days, though! We are a little anxious about her health for some reason, even though we don't have any "glaring" reasons to be. Just pray that we would give that over to the Lord and trust Him for her health even though there are so many unknowns from the first 2 years of her life.

Please pray for:

• Us as God fills us with his love that we can pour that love back out in its purest form.
• Campbell to grow to trust us and to be open to our love as well as love from our boys.
• Our boys not to feel rejected when Campbell refuses their love and attention.
• Patience and wisdom as we parent all our children.
• Us to have strength and energy even though we're really tired. Still getting up with Cam most nights in the middle of the night, much like having a newborn. She was sleeping thru the night with us in China, but time change has thrown her off.
• On that note, pray that we would all get on some sort of "normal" sleep patterns ASAP.
• Medically- please pray for her eyes to be strengthened and for doctors to give us a clear course of treatment to correct the weakness that is causing the crossed eyes. Pray that it is correctable without surgery.
• Pray that the verbal part of her brain to soak in all the words she hears and for it to develop and grow. For now she is completely nonverbal. She is only making a few cooing sounds.