DAY 13 - December 20, 2006

We now only have one full day left and we're headed home! And just in case we have no time to update tomorrow - you know, with packing our lives up and preparing to take our new daughter on a flight 1/2 way around the earth and all - our flight is scheduled to arrive in Colorado Springs at 5:13pm Friday (the 22nd). Here's hoping the snow storm you guys just got will be history by Friday and another one will wait until Christmas Eve! We'd love for people to come meet us at the airport but we must warn you, Abby may not be a social butterfly and may be quite overwhelmed with it all. We don't think it will seriously damage her or anything but she may not be up for being held by everyone there. So, it's your call and we'll see you when we see you! Today was the first morning we didn't need to be anywhere and that was SO nice. Abby was still up and down for about the last 3 hours of sleep, but we could all sleep in until she was REALLY ready to be up. We had our first non-traumatic bath today and even enjoyed it so much she wanted to get back in after we got out. We got a call at noon telling us all of our paper work had been accepted by the US Consulate and we're all clear to take our oath tomorrow and to receive Abby's visa to travel to America as a US citizen!! Later we had a trip to the Pearl Market and we bought 2 beautiful strands of pearls of excellent quality that we watched them hand string and knot while we waited; one for Sara and one for Abby that we will give to her for her wedding day. The clasp on both read in Chinese Long Life and Good Fortune. We got back and finished up our shopping for gifts and stuff for Abby (how many pairs of Squeaky Shoes does a girl need?!), not to mention an extra suitcase for all of this loot, and headed back to the Thai restaurant with the Powells for dinner. It is probably the best dinner we've had on the entire trip and the best red curry we've ever eaten. The girls dinned on plain steamed rice noodles, mandarin oranges and Abby actually liked the Pad Thai we had. David is afraid we may have a vegetarian on our hands! After dinner we detoured to pick up our laundry (incredibly cheep here!) and then back to the hotel for chill time. We have decided that Abby may be a bit of a homebody because as soon as we hit the room she completely relaxes, her silly personality comes out and she gets totally cranked up! David calls her the human paint shaker, always moving in every direction like crazy! But with a mom like Sara she won't stay a homebody for long! But for now, it's probably a good sign that she's becoming more comfortable with us. That's all for tonight and again, we just may not have time to update tomorrow as we prepare to come home. So we ask for your prayers and good wishes for safe and "happy" flights for all 3 of us and we can't wait to get home and see or talk to you all!