Karis's First week In the U.S.

Karis has thoroughly enjoyed her first week back in the States and it has included a lot of "firsts":

• Her first chance to play with cousins (well, at least since she was 2.5 months old). She got to spend the week with Diya (10) and Devan (3). Diya was wonderful with both younger kids and a great help while the younger two liked each other - most of the time! They were so cute together
• Her "first" haircut - consistent with Telegu culture her maternal uncle took the first three snips. I think technically this should have been my brother, Beau, but since Chintan is married to Mercy he is considered a maternal uncle so he performed the task! Then we took her to a salon and had a complete trim. She sat perfectly still in my lap the whole time! If we had known she would cooperate John could have done the whole thing himself
  
• Her first trip to the zoo. She loved feeding the baby goats but the playground was definately her favorite!
• Her first shopping trips! She slept through the mall excursion but enjoyed her playtime at Old Navy and Target... and the shoes and clothes her aunt bought her! We bought her some shoes to grow into but she keeps pulling them out of the boxes and putting them on.

Safe trip

After much fear and trepidation, our trip to the States went really well! Unfortunately, the customer service on our 18 hour Delta flight was virtually nonexistant but every other aspect of the trip went really well and Karis did great! She was not fussy at all and slept quite a lot on the long flight. Although it was a really, really long flight it actually did not seem as long as it could have and I (Sara) was less tired than usual upon arrival. Karis took a nap Friday afternoon in the airport in Lilongwe, slept in about 2 long stretches on the flight and then took a nap as we were landing in Atlanta about 7am U.S. time. Other than that she only slept for about 10 minutes in the car on the way home from the airport but was able to stay awak and pretty happy until 6:45 when she went to bed and then slept through the night as usual so she adjusted well! Our bags did not arrive in Atlanta with us but did arrive with all contents accounted for on Sunday so we were relieved! (one never knows what is going to happen to your belongings when they are "lost" in Johannesburg!!!) We will wait till after our return trip to pass final judgment on Delta and one long flight versus a layover in Europe!