First days home

**Warning, this post may be a bit scattered. My eyes won't stop crossing and the world is spinning.**

Thank you everyone for the kind messages and checking in on us. Kira and Malachi finally stopped moving long enough to watch an episode (or two) of DORA, so I'm going to get out as many posts as possible now. (Hopefully you caught the pictures in the previous post!)

So here's a little update:

I couldn't have imagined our first moments home to be any better than they were. After the long, annoying flight delays .... we finally arrived at DIA around 10pm on Monday. We were greeted by the 5 most beautiful people I know. What a sight. Lots of hugs, lots of giggles, and everyone trying to talk Kira's ears off. She would just laugh - probably because this foreign language sounds a little ridiculous coming from 4 little mouths all at once. In fact, just about every time Malachi talks to her in his sweet little voice - she laughs. So cute.

We got home and the feeling that came over me was that it was RIGHT. All of us in one place, under one roof, about to sleep in our own beds. Aaron had done an amazing job getting the house cleaned up, and some friends hired a cleaner for the deep cleaning. Clean sheets and everything! Oh, my husband and friends love me! It was so peaceful to walk into MY HOME all clean and lovely! After introducing Kira to our house, her new room (which she LOVES the Zebra bedding) and the dog... it was off to bed for everyone.

The dog. Oh the dog. She wasn't super excited at first about him. We'd talked a lot about him, and I had been warning her that he would try to lick her. He did. I'm not sure she could fathom the size of his head or tongue in all our talks, so it was a bit much. She would run away from Gunther, in which he of course thought she was playing a game and would chase her. A short 24 hours later though, and she goes in search of him. She loves to pet him and play the game of chase now. This morning she ran into our room at 7 am asking where Gunther was. So thankful that went as smooth as it did. We have heard horror stories of families bringing kids home from Africa who just can't ever get used to the inside dog thing. I think Gunther even likes his new pack member.

Yesterday we heard the forecast of snow. WHAT?!?!? I only saw those red leaves for one day, and really? Snow. So off we went to stock up on hats, gloves and boots for our new little African Sweetie. Eden stayed home from school to spend some much needed time with mom, and her new sister. The giggles and the wonder went on all day. I could barely keep up. Correction, I couldn't keep up.

The cold weather has been interesting, to say the least. Yesterday afternoon as the storm was thinking about moving in, the kids were outside playing. Kirabo had on 3 coats .... but refused to put on her new warm shoes and kept the flip flops on. She wears her hat inside. Poor thing can't stop being cold!

Between 8 loads of laundry (nothing says welcome home like that much laundry), unpacking, chasing after Kira and the others as we introduced her to her new Village (aka - the park up the street), and jet lag - I began to shut down fast. By 7 pm, it was all I could do to stand up. I took a hot bath, fell asleep in the bath (shh, don't tell Aaron - it's his biggest fear) and headed to bed by 9 pm fighting a fever and some kind of cold/flu thing that I'm sure I picked up on one of our 45 plane trips. Or maybe just exhaustion. (Does that cause a fever though?) (No Mom - I don't have malaria.)

On to day 2. We will stare out the window and stay warm inside. There is more laundry to do. And I'm feeling a little better - but not much. So I'm thinking that laying around and watching the wonder of my two little African babies sounds like it will make for a fantastic day!