Ni Hao, Daddy!

Wade is finally home from China! Hallelujah!

Wade was in China on a business trip from August 13th - August 25th. I have to tell you, it was the longest 13 days of my life! I missed him like crazy! I spent the better part of the past two weeks in full-on survival mode. My goal each day was to feed, diaper, clothe, and bathe my children - nothing more. If I accomplished those things, then it was a successful day. :) I am so used to having Wade's help, that it was hard taking care of the house and kids by myself day in and day out. I really don't know how single mothers and military wives do it! My hat is off to them, for sure.

We somehow managed to survive for 13 days without our Daddy, though. Several of my sweet pals were kind to call and check on us often. Leah planned several fun activities to make the time pass quickly, and Abbey brought me a piece of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and some bubble bath on one of the particularly tough days. Thanks, friends!

By day 8, my Mommy mojo was running really low. So... it was time to call for reinforcements. :) We went to East Texas to spend the weekend with my parents-in-law. They cooked for us and kept us all entertained. It was so nice to have two more sets of hands! I don't know that we would have made it through the last few days without them. Thanks Grammie & Papaw!

Wade was so smart to set up a few other measures to help make the trip a little easier on all of us. He installed Skype on my computer and taught me how to use it. What a miracle of modern technology that is! You can "talk" via video conference to others for free. It was awesome! It made it feel like Daddy wasn't so far away. Clayton would say, "Mommy, can we Skype Daddy?" whenever he wanted to talk. As soon as Wade answered the call, Clayton would say, "Ni Hao, Daddy!" Drew even waved for the first time to his Daddy on Skype. :)

Wade also bought a small present for Clayton to open each day (and several for Drew also). Clayton would wake up and immediately run to open his little "happy." It gave him something to look forward to and the bags were numbered so we could countdown the days until Wade got back home.

A picture from Wade's camera of him Skype-ing us from China

Our view from Texas :)

Wade talking to Drew on Skype - apparently fake sneezes are just as funny even from halfway around the world. ;)

Daddy was being goofy with his webcam applications and made himself look like a superhero. Clayton thought that was totally amazing.

Clayton opening his bag on day 1.

Drew with his book from Day 1

The last bag - the day before Wade came home

When Wade walked through the door on Tuesday night, I literally heard the Hallelujah Chorus playing in the background! I was soooo happy to see my hubs! (Sydney and the boys were glad to see Wade too.)

Drew was so cute - he kept touching Wade's mouth. It was like he just had to make sure that it was really his Daddy.

Wade brought home a huge duffle bag full of souvenirs that he had bought in China. I teased that we were having Chinese Christmas. :)

He brought both of the boys wooden snakes.

Drew preferred to chew on his. :)

Clayton got a cool mask....

and a little dog that walks around and barks.

I was surprised by a gorgeous set of pearls! I can't wait to wear them!

Wade had a great trip business-wise. He had some productive meetings and made some new contacts. He also got to spend a weekend with his Aunt Kim & Uncle Joe who are living in China right now. He had so much fun with them and got to experience some really cool stuff. I am trying to get him to do a blog post about his time in China. However, he came back from his trip sick. Poor thing looks and feels horrible! I guess that I'll give him a few days to recover before I tell him that his post is overdue. :)