We're home

---

Just a quick coda to our our travel blogs to let friends and family know we are safely back home now. Our trip was amazing on many, many levels. In the hour before we headed to the airport Sunday night, we got to meet Jessie's foster family. They had been out of town for the weekend and got back just before we left, and came straight over to our hotel. One of the young staffers at the hotel served as translator so we could express to the family how deeply grateful we are for the care and love they shared with Jessie in her first few months. (As this was going on, we were trying to check out of the hotel only to discover that our credit card had been temporarily shut down due to unusual activity - next time we'll call our friends at Visa BEFORE we travel!). Travel home was smooth and yesterday (Tuesday) was spent getting the house re-stocked and doing countless loads of laundry. Everyone was in bed by 8:00 last night...and awake before 5:00 this morning (I came downstairs a little before 5:30 to find all three kids sitting in front of the woodstove playing Monopoly!). Clearly it will take us a few days to get back into the swing of things. It was great to hear from so many friends while we were on the road, and wonderful to have this thing called a travel blog that allowed us to share some of our stories with you! Colleen.

---