3 Months Home

Sorry it has taken so long to update this blog. Life with two toddlers has proven to be quite an adventure. When we first returned home, Grace was not convinced that having a brother was the best thing for her. It took about a month to work through those issues and we seem to have siblings that enjoy playing together and teasing each other all at the same time. I am constantly reminded of my interactions with my brother and sister growing up. I hope Gracie and Peter are as blessed as I am to have a lifelong friendship like I have experienced with my sister and brother. I guess the teasing just helped us learn to appreciate each other more as we grew older. (You know what I'm talking about Merge and Ju) :)

Gracie has been busy being a princess with her dress-ups and pure cuteness. She is proving to be a wonderful big sister. She is a bit bossy but she is equally loving and loyal. She really loves to have a full time playmate.

Peter is amazing us with how quickly he learns new things. He copies almost everything Gracie does. He LOVES his big sister. He has learned quite a few words in English and is learning to communicate what he wants without words. I will love it as more English comes though because that will probably mean less whining. I look forward to that day. :) Peter had surgery this past week to correct his hypospadius. The surgery went well and he started acting as if it never happened 2 days after. It is amazing how resilient kids are. He is an amazing loving little boy. He likes to cuddle and play with mommy and daddy. It is also amazing to watch him grow and learn. He is an amazing little boy and we are truly so blessed to have him as part of our family. God is so good!

I know I will not get on again before the holidays so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I will try to update after the beginning of the year.

Two Weeks Home

WOW! it has been more than two weeks since we got home. I can't believe it! We had these wonderful family photos taken at Sears. They did a fabulous job!
Let's see, what has happened these past 2 weeks. The first week home was a blur because we were all stuggling to get acclimated to this time zone again. We were so grateful to have my parents in town to help. They cooked and cleaned and watched the kids so we cold get some much needed rest. Thanks, Ma and Pa, you are the best! Peter seemed to get into the swing of things much more quickly than the rest of us. Grace took the longest figuring out when night and morning were. We are all back on a regular schedule now.
Peter is so darn cute and seems to be happy 90% of the time. He smiles and laughs as he plays, eats, and plays some more. He is becoming a very affectionate little boy, too. He loves hugs and kisses. He seems to be understanding more every day and he likes to repeat some English words as he hears them. Hopefully he will start communicating soon because that will help his sister a bit. Gracie is still not so sure of the brother thing. She is coming around more and more each day. You should see the two of them holding hands and dancing around the house. Cute as can be!!!
My sister had a birthday!! Happy birthday, Merge! We went out to dinner with her family. That was a lot of fun.
Dave has returned to work and we have started our daily routine. It is nice to be back on a regular schedule.
We have photos of our return, Peter at home and some pictures at the Gibson's in North Carolina. When we get those posted, we will post a link to them. It may be a couple more days since nap time is my only free time.
We are hoping to keep you all updated on Peter through the blog. Hope you all are well.
Wendy

We're home!

We arrived at Dulles on Friday morning at 6:45 a.m. The kids were great on both of our flights and during our layovers. Wendy slept some too, but I was awake for most of the trip. Our family was at the airport to meet us with balloons and signs. Shayla even wore a traditional Chinese silk dress. What a welcome sight and a great welcoming to the U.S. for Peter! We went to Mom and Dad Major's house for breakfast. Peter had fun playing with Grace and his cousins, Victoria and Emmy in the backyard. He got to experience his first swinging and wagon ride. He also met our dog, Bailey, and quickly warmed to her. He's really starting to fit in.

We tried to stay awake and get adjusted to the 12-hour time difference but Peter had other ideas and was awake at 2:45 a.m. Hopefully, he'll be used to his new time zone in the next few days.

We'll post again soon. Right now, we're trying to get back to our normal life in the U.S. and help Peter and Grace with the physical and emotional changes that they're experiencing. Mom and Dad Gibson are here with us and are a wonderful help.

Thanks for your prayerful support. It continues to make more of a difference than you may ever realize.

"For this boy I prayed, and the LORD has given me my petition which I asked of Him."
1 Samuel 1:27

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

Today is Mom & Dad Major's 42nd anniversary. Hope you have a great day!

Hong Kong Disneyland

Today we flew into Hong Kong for the night. We will be starting our 24 hour journey home tomorrow evening. Soooo... in the meantime we will enjoy a little Disney magic. We didn't get to do too much with naps and the heat of the day, but we did manage to have some fun. Peter, Dave and Gracie rode the "horsies" as Gracie likes to call the carousel and the Dumbo ride (I sat these out because round and round rides make me sick). We all rode the Pooh ride and it was fun. We saw a show and it was very interesting since the spoken part was in Mandarin or Cantonese and the music was all in English. We squeezed in some eating and fireworks, too. It was a fun day. If you would like to see a few pictures, you can click here.

Our U.S. Consulate Appointment

After this morning's breakfast, we got together as a group to take some photos. We ended up with two group shots since we had nineteen families. One group included all of the families that went to Hunan and the other, the families that went to many different provinces.

Next, we celebrated Ella's third birthday with her new family. She had a cake and it was great that she could share this celebration with all of us.

We got together with the Clark family (our hotel next door neighbors) and visited a beautiful park across the street. We got a bunch of attention from the locals, primarily because of the double stroller. Many people thought that Grace and Peter were twins. We were at the park for about an hour and that was plenty of time since it was very hot and humid.

The kids got a quick nap and we left for our appointment at the U.S. Consulate. We took an oath and got Peter's visa. We also have all of the paperwork that he'll need to become a U.S. citizen when we land on Thursday in San Francisco. It was an exciting time since this marks the end of our business in China.

We celebrated with dinner with several of our new friends at one of the hotel restaurants. The food was very good but took a loooooong time to arrive at the table. We were glad that we did have some entertainment, though! There was a band that roamed that restaurant that can only be described as a kind of Chinese Mariachi group that played such standards as "You are My Sunshine", "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "Puff, the Magic Dragon".

Well, we've packed and we'll be heading out to the airport at 5:45 tomorrow morning. We're going to Hong Kong for one night and we'll be visiting Hong Kong Disneyland. We'll be arriving back home at Dulles on Friday morning around 6:45. I don't have our itinerary in front of me but I know that's pretty close to the time if I'm not right on it.

Thanks for continuing to keep us in your prayers especially as we travel.

Our photo page for today is here.

Shamian Island

Today we had a free morning while our guides took our paperwork to the consulate for the visas. We had to stay in the room to receive a call in case there were any problems. We had early naps because we were going to Shamian Island to go shopping. Shamian Island is an area near where the US Consulate used to be so there are a lot of shops set up to sell to American tourists. The people in the shops speak English and tell us how beautiful our babies are. We were asked MANY times today if we had twins. :) We were able to get most of the shopping done that we had on our list. I still can't believe the prices of a lot of what we bought. I have a bit of a cold and was so focussed on our shopping list that I did not take one picture (believe it or not). Luckily, Dave took 4 so we have a few. There will be no link to a photo album today though because we have no pictures. We have our consulate appointments tomorrow and then we start packing. I am so looking forward to coming home.

We will have some photos tomorrow because we are taking group pictures in the garden. There are no photos of the consulate appointment because cameras are not allowed in. Maybe I can have Dave draw you all a picture. ;)
Talk with you soon!

Peter's First Blog Post

Today was a day that we just took it easy. I'm having lots of fun getting to know Mom, Dad and my crazy big sister. We just finished having a bunch of my new friends over to our room for a pizza party and I'm tired.

My mom made a webpage of today's touring and I'm going to bed.

Love,
Peter

Peter's Physical Exam

Ni hao from Guangzhou! Peter's physical exam was this morning at a clinic on Sha Mian Island. He had three separate exams but none of them was very thorough. We did find out that he weighs 12.6 kg and he's 91 cm long. He was definitely not a fan of the doctors but the entire ordeal didn't last long.

Next, we headed off to Carrefour to do a little grocery shopping and then back to the hotel for lunch. We had some delicious pineapple pies from McDonald's for dessert. The kids went down for a nap and Dave went to do paperwork for Peter's visa. On his way back to the room, he could hear the sound of giggling coming down the hallway. It was Gracie and Peter having a blast playing together, running around and being silly. They're really enjoying each other more and more each day.

For dinner, we went with our travel group to a Japanese steakhouse for a delicious meal. Peter is enjoying all of the new foods that he's getting to try. We doubt he'll be leaving many dirty plates any time soon.

Of course, we have more pictures.

Nanjing City Wall

Today, we visited the Nanjing City Wall which stretches over 30 km. and is the longest city wall in the world. It was constructed over 600 years ago when Nanjing was the capital of China. It is truly amazing! Enough bricks could not be made in Nanjing so other provinces made bricks and sent them for the wall. To protect the wall from poor brick construction, the city required each brick manufacturer to write their name, city and other information on each brick. The wall has many names on it.

From the wall, we went to visit an artist who paints inside spherical crystals with a very tiny brush. Wonderful artwork! We purchased a small painted crystal for one of Peter's "Gotcha Day" gifts and the artist wrote Peter's Chinese name inside and signed it.

We headed back to the hotel to eat lunch, pack and go to the airport. We said goodbye to John, our wonderful guide. We would not have been able to do anything this week without his help. Our flight to Guangzhou was delayed but we arrived safely and met our guide, Lineker. Lineker and Amy will be our guides in Guangzhou. They're great! They guided us when we adopted Grace and we can't imagine being here without them.

Well, we've gotten the kids to sleep after serving Peter his first Happy Meal from the McDonald's next door to the hotel. He loved it! We're seeing him smile more and it warms our hearts!

Today's photo page with photos of the Nanjing City Wall and more is here.

Nanjing Touring

We've finished all of Peter's paperwork here in Nanjing but we don't leave for Guangzhou until Friday afternoon. So, John took us out for some touring of Nanjing. First, we went to a museum that featured jade and jade carving (stone is an important product in Jiangsu Province). We learned about different types of jade and how to tell good quality jade from poor. We also saw some amazing treasures including a burial suit made of small rectangles of jade sewn together with silver thread. The suit took over ten years to make since each of the four holes in each jade rectangle were carved using bamboo. Here is a picture of a burial suit from an article online. If this is not the same one we saw, it is very similar.

We caught a taxi from the museum to a nearby park that showcased wonderful gardens, the Ming Tomb and stone sculptures of various creatures along the sacred avenue. We didn't spend too much time here since the day was very hot and humid. What we did see, though, was beautiful.

The rest of the day was spent with the kids napping and playing at the hotel.

Our pictures of today's sightseeing are here.

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

As we are starting our day, it is the 23rd but it is still the 22nd at home in the U.S. We forgot to wish our nephew/cousin, Caleb, a very happy birthday on the 22nd.

Happy, happy 1st birthday, Caleb!

We'll be home soon with your new cousin. We love you, little guy!

Love,
Uncle Dave, Aunt Wendy, Grace & Peter

Our Visit to Peter's Orphanage

We met our guide, John, this morning for a full day of visiting the spot where Peter was found and his orphanage. The finding spot is approximately an hour and a half drive from Nanjing and the orphanage is about an hour further. Peter was found outside of a Civil Affairs office. This means that his parents took a great risk to make sure that he would be found by someone who would be able to help him. John explained to us that Peter's parents could probably not afford the costs of his health care and knew that his medical needs would be paid by the government if he was abandoned. This part of the Jiangsu province appeared to be a "suburb" of Nanjing with nice, new residential areas, businesses, factories and universities.

Peter and Grace both fell asleep and had good naps as we drove to Peter's Social Welfare Institute (orphanage). The director met us and treated us to a lunch of traditional Chinese food. Dave even tried the eel! Grace and Peter enjoyed the noodles. The director is very nice woman who seemed to take a special interest in Peter. He liked her as well and was content to be with her. After lunch, we went to Peter's wing of the campus and met his three nannies and the children that he lived with. One nanny in particular was very fond of him. It was naptime so some of the children were sleeping. Others enjoyed seeing us and playing with Peter. We brought Dum-Dums for the kids but we gave them to the nannies to distribute after naptime. When the time came for us to leave, Peter was very distressed and cried. It broke our hearts but he settled down shortly after we started the drive back to Nanjing.

Please check out some pictures from today on this page.

Civil Affairs Appointment

Yesterday was a tough day. Emotions ran high and there were a bunch of tears, especially from one very scared little boy.

Peter slept well and only woke a few times in the night with crying. He is scared, confused and grieving. By morning, he was doing well enough that we left the room and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. He watched Grace very closely and wanted to do whatever she did so he had a good breakfast of noodles, eggs, Cheerios, raisins and goldfish crackers.

After breakfast, we met our guide, John, and went back to the Civil Affairs office. We completed more paperwork and Peter officially became a part of our family! We also started the process to get his Chinese passport.

The director of the orphanage was at the office and Peter was excited to see her again. He stayed close to her and with her encouragement, he looked at Wendy and said, "Mama". Dave played ball with Peter and Grace while Wendy talked with the director and John translated. She was able to answer many of our questions and gave us a copy of Peter's "finding ad". We also scheduled a visit to the orphanage for this week.

After we left our appointment, we took a wild taxi ride through Nanjing to go to an embroidery museum. We traveled through the high tech corridor and saw many computer and software stores. It was interesting to see vendors openly selling copies of Windows on the street and software stores that advertised that they also sold Viagra.

We arrived at the museum and learned about the amazing loom work. It requires two people to operate for the creation of exquisite and intricate embroidered fabric.

The museum was under renovation so we had to walk through a block of rubble and mud to hail a cab back to the hotel. This was a bit of a feat with two two-year olds in tow.

We arrived at the hotel, finished some more paperwork with John, ate lunch and settled down for naps.

Tonight, we had pizza for dinner and the kids ate macaroni. It was new to Peter but he liked it and ate well. We headed back to our room for baths and some playtime. We played with a beach ball and some balloons. Peter and Grace had a blast! It was a answer to prayer to see Peter become engaged with us and enjoy himself. He laughed, spoke, and even smiled! What a joy! We are so grateful for your prayers. Yesterday, we were so worried about him and how scared he was. Tonight, we have hope that he will allow us to love on him. He is making eye contact with us. He's enjoying playtime with Grace and he even called Dave, "baba" (Mandarin for "daddy").

Thank you for all of your encouraging words and prayers.

Our pictures are here.

Gotcha Day

Sorry it took so long to get this posted. It has been a very long and hard day. We left our room at 5:40 am and headed to the airport. Our flight was delayed as we sat on the runway for a half an hour. We arrived in Nanjing after our appointment time so we hit the road running. It was a challenge to keep it all together today. We were unable to prepare for the big moment because we were running around to get everywhere before the civil affairs office closed for lunch. Needless to say, no touching video yet. As a matter of fact, we have very few photos as well. Peter had a very hard time warming up to us and it wasn't until dinner time that we finally got some movement out of him. It is going to take some time with him.

We met the director and a nanny from the orphanage but were unable to really talk with them. We are hoping to get our questions answered when we see them again tomorrow. It was such a runaround today that it is going to take this evening to really let the day's events sink in. We have our son. Amazing. We have photos that you can see here.

Please, please keep praying. We need the prayers as much as Peter (Dave, Gracie and mostly Wendy).

Beijing Day 2

We started the day with a visit to Beijing International Christian Fellowship (BICF) and participated in their Sunday worship service. The message was about the Great Commission - very appropriate and challenging when you're visiting a foreign city, especially Beijing.

Next, we headed off to the jade factory. Wendy finally got her "dream jade bangle" that we didn't get the last time we were here. All of the employees were enamored with Grace and the store's manager gave her a beaded bracelet. She loves it! The "cuteness of Grace" probably contributed to the good discount that we got on Wendy's bracelet.

A traditional Chinese lunch with our new friends was delicious. Then, we were off in the heat of the day to visit the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square. We started at the back of the Forbidden City (forbidden for commoners to enter and forbidden for the emperor to leave) and walked through to the front. Because of all of the steps and stone walkways, we left the stroller behind. Grace did very well at the beginning but needed a nap about halfway through the two-hour walk. She gradually got heavier and wetter on Wendy's shoulder as the heat of the day took its toll. It's a good thing that she's a peanut! The Forbidden City is still being renovated in places as Beijing gets it ready for the world with the 2008 Olympics. Scaffolding was up on a few of the buildings but with 9,999.5 rooms, there was still plenty to see. The architecture, craftsmanship, colors and attention to detail are amazing! It's hard to believe that it was built in only fourteen years but will take forty-six years to restore.

We walked out the entrance of the Forbidden City to Tian'anmen Square through large crowds of people, vendors and beggars. We had a photo of our group taken here in the center of the Chinese government and then, went to a Chinese dinner. Grace enjoyed watching the fish, octopus and snails in the restaurant's tanks but we didn't tell her that they were part of dinner.

We catch a flight to Nanjing in Jiangsu Province very early tomorrow morning to get our little boy. Please be praying since we are the only family traveling to this province. Also pray that Peter will know the love of the Lord and his new family tomorrow.

Click here for today's pictures.

Beijing Day 1

We had no problem meeting our guides at 8:00 this morning since we are still on our 12-hour different time zone. We were up and ready to go hours before we needed to join the group!

This weekend is an interesting time to be in Beijing since many things are closed or have limited availability. The government has cancelled some flights at the airport and only cars with odd license plates may drive on odd-numbered days, even on even days. All of the changes are being tested this weekend as Beijing prepares for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Because of these changes, the section of The Great Wall that we visited when we were here for Grace's adoption is unavailable. We drove to the Mutianyu section outside of Beijing today and it was great! This time we got to take a cable car part of the way and both the view and the Wall were incredible!

After our Great Wall visit, we had a traditional Chinese meal for lunch. Yummy! Grace is always content if rice or watermelon is on the menu. She lucked out today and got both!

Next, we visited the government-run pearl factory. Our guide, Sherry, gave a gift to Grace of a beautiful pearl bracelet. She loved it and couldn't stop admiring it or telling everyone how beautiful she is. Cute girl!

After shopping for pearls, we visited the Summer Palace. Last time that we were here, a special event had closed the lake. Today, we were excited to see boats on the water and we even took a dragon boat ride!

We left the Summer Palace and headed to the government-run silk factory. We had lots of fun shopping and checking out the beautiful silk comforters, shirts, dresses, pajamas, etc.

A Peking Duck dinner hit the spot as we finished up the day! We're getting to know the other families traveling with us and they are a fun group. On Monday, we will all be splitting up as we go to our different provinces to meet our sons and daughters. We are the only family going to Jiangsu and then, we will meet up with everyone again in Guangzhou! It was a full day and we definitely won't have a hard time sleeping tonight - we're beat!

As we were talking with our folks tonight (Skype is amazing!), we were realizing that our Saturday is coming to an end and we only have one more day until we get Peter. It's hard to believe that the day is almost here!

Check out pictures of today's sightseeing here.

Good night.

We've Arrived

We have made it to Beijing. It is 5:00 pm our time and 5:00am your time. We are still on am side of the timing and we are pooped. Gracie had a few 2 to 2 and a half hour naps. Dave grabbed a cat nap or two and Wendy knit a lot (no sleep was coming her way). Gracie was great, she played and ate.
Tomorrow we will visit the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, a silk factory and a pearl factory. We are also going to have a Peking Duck dinner. It is a packed day. I hope Gracie takes a nap on the bus.
Well, we are off to bed already. We are beat. We will post again soon.

Leaving Soon!!

Well, It is after midnight and I am up writing a blog entry. Everyone is asleep except me. I cannot sleep. I am so tired but I cannot stop my mind from racing. We are leaving in the morning to drop off our dog and be dropped off at the airport. We are on our way to pick up our son. WOOOHOOOO!!! Now, if we can just be in China without that long flight, it would be so much greater. Oh well, we just have to tough it out! I hope Gracie will enjoy the flight. When we flew back from China with her, she stayed awake the entire 27 hour journey. We got 3 cat naps out of her and that was it. Needless to say, if she was up, so were we. Dave and I were exhausted but she put on a show for everyone at the airport. I am hoping we get a few hours of sleep out of her this trip. She is so excited that I have a feeling she is going to be wide awake the entire time again. Thank goodness for mini DVD players. :) We will post again once we get into Beijing. I added a picture of Gracie for those that have not seen her in a while. She is growing up so fast. She has fun saying that she is going to be a "big sister". It is going to be so neat to see the two kids together. The excitement builds. :)

One Week

I woke up today realizing that one week from right now, I will be watching Peter sleep and you all will be finding out about him and looking at pictures. It was so neat to know that friends and family were getting to wake up to meet Gracie as we were putting her down to sleep on the day that we got her. Now we get to experience that again. Our little boy will be winding down as you are starting your day. He will have had a very hard day being passed off to people he doesn't even know. He will be confused and scared but he will be one of the most loved people on this planet. His new mommy, daddy, and sister will have spent the day trying to help him feel how loved and special he is and how excited they are to have this new addition to the family. That is what we will be doing one week from today and I can't believe it is almost here. God is so good to us!

Our itinerary for China

Our trip has us traveling to Beijing, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. If you'd like to see where we will be on a map, click here.

Our itinerary will be:

•Thursday, August 16 - Depart for Beijing
•Friday, August 17 - Arrive in Beijing
•Monday, August 20 - Morning Flight to Nanjing - Afternoon - Meet Peter!
•Friday, August 24 - Afternoon flight to Guangzhou
•Wednesday, Aug 29 - Depart from Guangzhou to Hong Kong
•Thursday, August 30 - Depart from Hong Kong to home!
•Friday, August 31 - We're home with Peter!

Travel Meeting

Yesterday we had our travel meeting with AWAA. We met our group through a phone conference and got all the details for our trip. There are 19 families in the group. We will not be the only ones traveling to Jiangsu, there is one other family going with us. Wendy is really excited that someone else will be joining us. We were told that the weather in China is hot and hotter as you travel south. So... we are going to be a bit warm while there.
It is hard to believe that a week from today we will be leaving for China. One week from Monday we will be holding our son. We are so excited and nervous at the same time. Please pray that we can get done all that needs to get done before we go and that our hearts will be at peace.

We are going!!!

We have a definite date and our travel times. We are leaving Aug 16 at 12:32 pm from Dulles and will get back on the 31st @ (get this) 6:32 am. We were able to save thousands and I do mean thousands of dollars doing this. And guess what else :)!!!!! We have to spend a night in HongKong so guess where we decided to stay. :) You got it... Hong Kong Disneyland. We can't believe that God has worked out every single detail of this trip and also included this amazing little present for us. We are VERY BLESSED!!

We've received our TA!

Yesterday afternoon, we received the call from AWAA that we've been waiting to hear. We have our travel approval (TA) for China and we'll be leaving on August 16th! We'll soon be on our way to get Peter!

Now that we're getting closer to the trip, we'll be updating the blog much more regularly. So make sure to bookmark this page!

Beginning the Journey

As most of you know, we are currently in the process of adopting a special needs boy from China. We are thrilled to let you know that we received our referral on February 12, 2007 and our pre-approval from China on May 1, 2007. Now that we have our pre-approval, we are telling all of our friends and family about our son!

We have decided to name our son Peter David after Wendy's uncle who passed away a few years ago and include XiCheng from the name he was given in China. His full name will be Peter David XiCheng Major.

Peter has already had surgery for a congenital heart defect. He will also need surgery for a minor genital defect. He is a beautiful, healthy boy!

We are anticipating that we will travel to China as early as July, 2007. Grace will be coming with us. She is excited about being a big sister even though she is only six months older than Peter.

Our adoption journey is one of faith and we need prayer to continue to walk in faith. Continual prayer for the rest of our journey is greatly appreciated.

We will continue to post here on the "Journey to Peter" blog as our journey progresses both here in the U.S. and as we travel to China. We love you all and are glad that you are able to share this journey with us.

As a side note, if you would like to follow our old "Grace from China" online journal about our daughter Grace's adoption, click here.