We're home.

We landed at 8:25 a.m.  The six remaining families of our group were met with balloons, flowers, hugs and tears. Thanks to the folks, including Cindy's mom, who came out to welcome Kaylee.

After 38 hours with little more than a catnap, after 24 hours in airports and airplanes, we were giddy and smelly and exhausted. And never happier.

Cindy and I have spent 18 months with a strategy: Check off one job at a time.  The next document, the next check to write, the next wait to survive, the next Chinese city, the next airport.  We would call each other with whatever task we did that day, and one of us would say: "Check." It was the only way to believe something so big was possible.

Today, we're done checking things.  Cindy is asleep upstairs and Kaylee is a frog splattered spread-eagle on a crib that has been waiting for her.  (I'm still new enough at this to peek in every 10 minutes and hold my breath until her tiny chest moves.)

We are just tired enough to marvel at it all. A child who needs parents finds on the other side of the world a couple who needs a child.  We are so grateful to all the forces, known or unseen, that pulled us together.

We have a lot to learn from each other.  I can see how, even after 30,000 miles, the adventure is just beginning.