Jiana meets Team Orange
Topic: Now that we're home.
Hello we're home!

I can't tell you how happy I am that we are finally home. I had such an amazing time in Kazakhstan, but it was such a long journey-- both the trip and the whole adoption, and it is just so great to be back at home and be able to go on with my life. I am so grateful that everything worked out so well (I guess all my worrying paid off), and that I have been blessed with such a wonderful daughter who I adore more and more everyday. I am certainly that my dear grandparents (may they rest in peace) must have served as my guardian angels.

Jiana is playing in her exersaucer and I was thrilled to be able to go to the bathroom without asking permission or having to carry her on my lap. And I could still watch her from the toilet... what could be better? And I'm so thrilled to be able to sit here and write a blog entry while she entertains herself.

Jiana, Jupiter and Sunkissed seem to be getting on well so far. There's a lot of curiosity and smelling, but no cries of hissing... thank goodness. It would just be so tragic after all we've been through to have to find Jiana a new home in case she had conflicts with Team Orange. I was strategic about dressing her in her "i heart my kitty" pj's as a good will gesture. I think as long as Jiana stays away from the scratching post, everyone should get along well.

So far, I've adjusted well to being a mom. I haven't found it to be nearly as tiring or as stressful as people made it out to be. On some levels, it's not so different from being a cat mom. Certain parts are

To the contrary, I am really more relaxed since becoming a mother than I have been in a long time. I think the main reason is that I am busy enough to not have too much time to spend in my head.

So here's how Jiana and the catz stack up.
Both wake me up out of full REM sleep to meet various needs and demands, and are equally as persistent and persuasive. Both will gently hit me to get their points across.
Both Jiana and catz cry when they want to eat.
Both hate to take baths. Although, bathing my cats is slightly less traumatic than bathing Jiana.
The cats are much neater diners. Jiana's table manners are more similar to our sometimes visiting Raccoons.
Jiana is actually easier and lighter to carry. Jupiter in particular must weight at least 2 pounds more than her.
Feeding medication is equally as difficult with child and cats.
Both have low tolerance for boredom and demand my full attention for playtime. And it is equally difficult to type with cat or baby on my lap. No multitasking allowed on either front.
Jupiter and Sunkissed are much harder to get in the car and are a bit more cranky on driving trips.

This morning I had my first experience of feeding Jiana, while Jupiter cried for food. Later, while I was feeding Jiana a bottle, Jupiter was demanding my attention for a round of cat dancer. I tried to hold the bottle while also navigating the cat dancer. But, somehow Jupiter wasn't too convinced of my enthusiasm. This should be interesting.

Overall, I've had such incredible great fortune throughout my adoption trip. My daughter is beautiful, charming and amazing. She is such a joy and my legal process went so unbelievably smooth. I met a woman at the airport who adopted a little girl around Jiana's age from the exact same orphanage and her adoption included a 3 week first visit when she traveled to the orphanage everyday for 2 hours, then they went home for 2 weeks and came back again to Kazakhstan for 10 days.

It was also so great to have both Delilah and Nanci and Rahila and Abdul Amani along for the ride. I would have gone nuts without them. It was wonderful to be able to get a lay of the land in Almaty with Delilah as she spoke and read enough Russian to get along quite well. And Nanci was such a calming influence for me. She was so supportive with caring for Jiana and was such a good sport as we schlep and schlep and schlep that stroller through the snow, slush and icy streets and up and down more stairs that I care to remember. She also was a great Cyrillic and Russian quick study. With all I had going on, I was quite pathetic, but Nanci learned to read signs and ask directions and was much more brave and adventurous than I would have ever imagined she would be. To confess, I was a bit nervous about her willingness to venture out, but she was just amazing. But, most importantly, Nanci offered me such great coaching along the way and really helped me to stay out of my head and be a really relaxed mother. And both Delilah and Nanci pen a mean blog.

We all really loved our limited travels in Kazakhstan. Almaty is such a great city... a real hidden gem. It was so interesting.

I was met at SFO by my mom and her partner Will. They came bearing bialis, chicken cacciatore, Mandelbrot and various cakes and candies. So much for my weight. They drove up from LA and ended up beating me by two days due to my flight delay. Aside from filling my refrigerator with assorted goodies, helping straighten up, my mother also took on the task of reorganizing my my disorganized closets (which I'm all good with) and redecorating my house (which I was less enthusiastic about). As I unpack, I am also in the process of redecorating things back to their original origin.

Gotta run. Jupiter calls.

Call, come by to meet the baby, we are ready for visitors.

Jiana, Sunkissed and Jupiter's mom
who is typing while playing cat dancer