Gotcha Day for the Jennings!!!

Hey there! It's Keith writing this time around. As I type this, it is 9:30 p.m. in Guangzhou and Tracy is snuggling in the bed with her scared little daughter who is trying soooo hard NOT to fall asleep.

I could write a book, but I want. At least not tonight! I do, however, want to share THE BIG DAY with you with some photos and narrative.

As we began our day, I don't think any of us anticipated how nervous we would be today. Everyone had butterflies. We knew we had one thing going in our favor - 8 is the luckiest number in Chinese culture, and today is March 8th.

Okay, so let me start with the obvious. She is BEAUTIFUL!!!

We arrived before she did and had to wait. Numerous families are in a large room in the Guangzhou Civil Affairs office, receiving their child one-by-one. The best way to paint the scene is this: lots of excited talking making an indistinguishable roar, LOTS of screaming babies and a few hyper siblings dashing across the room from time to time. It's sensory overload, but wonderful.

Here's what she looked like coming out to meet us.



This is when she sees us.



Here she is meeting us and checking us out.





Our first photo as a new family...



And then...

She started crying. And grieving. And she cried for the rest of the time we were there. And most of the way home.





And then...

She started checking out her new toys.







We ordered her conjee for dinner, since that's what she's been eating.

She hated it! And wouldn't open her mouth to eat it.

But she gobbled down two bowls of spaghetti!



We peeled five, yes five, layers of clothes off her. She had endured a three hour drive to meet us today and was in a soaked diaper by the time we got her home.

We didn't change her right away in order to give her space and let her warm up and begin to trust us. But she sure looked cute once we got some girly clothes on her.



Here's her spaghetti face...



As you would imagine, Mia has two VERY proud brothers.





As you know, we have kept her Chinese name, Fu Jia, as her middle name. We're spelling it Fujia, as is common when using Pinyin spelling. However, we have been pronouncing it using Mandarin tones: "foo-jyah." We learned today that using the Cantonese tones, her name is not pronounced "foo-jyah." It's pronounced kind of like "fuh-guy."

Mia has attached to Tracy in a big way. It will take a while for her to learn to trust me, but it doesn't bother me at all. This is what we expected and is a VERY healthy response. As hard as it is to watch her heart break and see how scared she is, she is proving to be a very strong girl with a great capacity to love. At this point, she just needs time.

And we've got plenty of time to give.

In case you are wondering, we have great Internet and email access. So we've been reading your blog comments and email messages, and really appreciate the support, encouragement and prayers you've given us. Keep 'um coming!

Stay tuned for more updates. We are here for the next two weeks. We have more paperwork, medical appointments, etc. ahead.

It's Almost Time!

It is so hard to believe, but tomorrow is The Day. Yep, Gotcha Day. I have spent the past year or so following other families, watching Gotcha Day videos, reading their stories. Tomorrow is our turn. And we are ready.

The past couple of days are quickly becoming a blur. Saturday we had an orientation hosted by our adoption agency. We met some really great couples and got to swap stories about our journeys. We also received updated pictures of Mia! She has changed so much. Growing up fast and we haven't even met yet! Her hair is a little longer with a little bow in a couple of the pics. Just too sweet. She is really beautiful (if I do say so myself). We also learned a little more about her. Having an eating and sleeping schedule along with other "likes and dislikes" will help with the transition.

After the orientation, we had a fantastic lunch with the other families and then toured the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Again, I won't go into lots of history detail, but the Forbidden City was just incredible. HUGE. I had no idea. I will also have to admit that it was freaking COLD and much of the time we were silently thinking, "it's cool, let's go." Keith said it could have been like the Clark Griswold moment at the Grand Canyon - "ok, there it is, yep that's it, let's go." Really, it was that cold. Anyway, Tiananmen Square was great to see too.

I hope it doesn't sound like it wasn't great, it has been an incredible trip. Our brains have just changed focus to the real reason we are here. Today we flew from Beijing to Guangzhou. Guess what? It's warm here. :) Should be in the mid 70's by the end of the week. After a little hotel room fiasco, we have settled in for the next couple of weeks. We had a great time this evening unpacking all of the "baby" stuff. The boys helped pack her "Gotcha Day bag" with a Minnie Mouse, some M&M's, Cheerios and a couple other toys. They also helped put out some other toys in our room. We had a great, long talk with them tonight about how the day will go tomorrow. We have talked about it before, but it is much different and more "real" to say - tomorrow.

The next time I write, we will have our daughter. Our sister. Our Mia. I want to thank you all so much for your kind words and most importantly your prayers. I ask you to pray the next day specifically for Mia. Tomorrow so much for her will change. It will not be easy and we fully expect her to be scared, and sad. Please pray that we are able to comfort her and that the boys will also have an easy transition. Mia will not be the only one grieving tomorrow. From the pictures we can tell that she has been loved, very well taken care of. Her nannies have to say goodbye also. My heart is heavy for them. I know they are happy for her, but they have raised her for two years. It can't be easy to let her go. Please pray for them also.

I leave you with a few pics from our last day in Beijing. I will see you tomorrow with a few pics of our little girl! :)



The North entrance to the Forbidden City



Family pic inside the Forbidden City



the boys at Tiananmen Square



Pretty neat place to stand!


The boys are rock stars! They have been asked quite often to take a picture
with a Chinese family. It is so funny. The families have always been so sweet
when requesting the pictures with the boys and are so excited to get the pics!

Pictures

The boys at the Great Wall


The Summer Palace - dragon boats


Our lock on the Great Wall


Tate at the Great Wall & some warriors


Tucker & Keith after their climb


Part of the Summer Palace gardens

The Summer Palace and That Great Big Wall

Wow. I don't even know where to begin. The past couple of days have been amazing. Beijing is incredible and the history here is just unbelievable. It is a lot to take in - too much in the short time we have really. I will first say that the Chinese people have been so welcoming. So very, very kind. They are very proud of their country and are very excited to show it to us and to teach us about their home.

Yesterday, we visited The Summer Palace. I won't bore you with my rendering of the history, but it was really beautiful. Even in the cold weather it just had a peaceful beauty. You could just imagine how incredible it would be with all of the flowers and trees in bloom. Our country is so new compared to China. It is hard to believe the things we are seeing are so old. Hundreds to thousands of years old.

Today we went to "That Great Big Wall". This is what Tate calls it. It was SO cold. Freezing. But amazing. Tate and I walked up about as far as his little legs would go. It is VERY steep so I am actually surprised he made it as far as he did. Tucker was a champ and went up 3 towers with Keith. It was a long way. It was a great memory made. :)

We were also able to do a rickshaw tour through a Hutong. The Hutong is what we would call a neighborhood where the middle class live. It was great to be able to see how many Chinese in Beijing live. We toured a family's home and spoke with the mother who told us about her family and their daily life. She was very sweet and served us tea.

Tomorrow we have an orientation with other families from our adoption agency. I am hoping we get updates and new pics of Mia! After the orientation, we will tour Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. We are also going to try the Peking Duck for dinner. Hard to believe we have just one more day here - we have an early flight on Sunday to Guangzhou and then Mia day on Monday!

I am having a hard time getting the pictures to upload tonight. I will try again in the morning and I will upload all of our pics to Shutterfly in the next day or so. My mom really is here. :) Somehow we have managed to take most pictures of her with her camera so I don't have many in my computer. We will try to remedy that too!

It's sleepy time now. :)

Greetings from Beijing!

We are here! We arrived at about 3:00pm on Wednesday the 3rd (your 2:00am Tuesday) and pretty much just settled down for the night. The boys were so good with the traveling! They thought the t.v screens at each seat on the plane were just too cool! Mommy thought so too -made the trip nice and easy. :)

We head out in a few hours to see the Summer Palace and do a little shopping today. We have an acrobatics show scheduled tonight. I think the boys will love it - if they can stay awake. :)

One of the best moments so far - landing in Beijing and telling Tate we are on Mia's time. We have been talking for over a year about how when it is our morning, it is her night etc.. You should have seen the look on his face when I said, "we are the same time as Mia now." Priceless.

A little about our little Mia

We are getting so close! I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you a little bit about our sweet girl before we leave.

Mia was born March 27th, 2008 and currently resides at the Heshan City SWI (social welfare institute) in Heshan, China. Heshan is in southeast China, outside of Guangzhou in the Guangdong province. Guangzhou is also known Canton (where Cantonese food comes from).

Her given name is He Fu Jia. He (pronounce "huh") is her surname and means "crane", named after He Shan, or crane mountain. Fu means "excellent" and Jia "good fortune". Jia is pronounced "jyah". We have been told that she is called Jia Jia as a nickname. We have given her the name Mia Fujia Jennings. We loved the name Mia, because it means "hoped for."

In the paperwork we received, it states that she is "active, has a ready smile, loves to play with toys in bright color and sound, is gregarious and full of curiosity. She has formed close bonds with her caretakers and will walk fast and reach for cuddle upon seeing them." :)

We have been very blessed to connect with a few other families that have adopted from Heshan. I look forward to meeting them all one day. Our children started their lives together. They were family before we were. One of the little girls, Kaylie, came home this time last year and she remembered Mia when her mom showed her pictures. She is excited that Mia is getting a forever family too. Isn't that sooo sweet! :)

We are officially on the countdown. Just one more day of school, two more night times, a few errands to run, and a Bachelor finale to watch! :)

Counting Down!

In all of the hustle and bustle the last couple of weeks, I forgot to post our travel dates. :) We are boarding the plane next Tuesday, March 2nd! We are so excited! It seems like yesterday that we received our travel approval. Every day has been filled with something. Booking tickets, hotel arrangements, sight seeing plans, setting up Skype and other ways to communicate back home. Oh, and some major nesting. I have redone the pantry, finished Mia's room, decorated the master, cleaned the playroom and started packing. Nuts, I know. :)

The boys are super excited. Last night I had them help me open and put Mia's toys out for her. Some of the things we have been looking at in boxes for over a year. They were so stinking cute! They kept saying, "Oh, look. She will love this one!" and "I want to play this with her." Just jumping up and down, running around everywhere. Too sweet!

Things have been a little nuts around here. Keith is swamped with work and we have just been go, go, go. I am really looking forward to getting on the plane and spending some quality time with the boys next week. I think we are going to have a blast. We leave Tuesday and land in Beijing Wednesday. It is about a 18 hour trip. Thursday is the Summer Palace and an acrobatics show. Friday we hit The Great Wall and Hutong village. Saturday is orientation, The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Sunday we fly to Guangzhou in the morning and have a day to rest and prepare for Mia.

Gotcha is Monday, March 8th!

Stay tuned - more coming in the next couple of days about Mia. I would love to tell you all about her now, but I do need to sleep a little. :)

Snow Much Fun!

Who knew 3 inches of snow could be so much fun! The snow began to fall a little after lunch on Friday and by 4:00 the ground was covered and we were ready to play! Thanks to the Richoux family for a very fast sledding hill!

On Saturday we spent 2 hours sledding in our backyard, building snowmen, and having snowball fights. Add a nap and the Winter Olympics and you have a perfect Saturday! Sunday we celebrated the 12th anniversary of our engagement and Chinese New Year!

Enjoy the pics!

We Are Going to China!

Yep! We got our Travel Approval today! We are so excited! We will have final travel plans by the end of the week! I can't believe I just wrote that. Really? We are finally here. It just doesn't seem real.

In a few short weeks, our sweet Mia will be in my arms. :)

Fun times

No new updates on travel to China. I just wanted to let you all know about some fun happenings in the Jennings' household the past couple of weeks.

Last Friday, Tate's class led chapel for the preschool children. It was precious. The program was about love and each child had a Bible verse to memorize and say in front of everyone. They did a great job! They had also drawn a picture of something they love and were able to tell everyone about it. Tate drew a picture that said, " I love my sister's birthday party" and he said very proudly,"I love Mia." So sweet.

Last Saturday, Tucker participated in his second Pine Wood Derby. He had a great time and had a fast car this year! He placed 3rd out of the entire pack. Very exciting considering our first showing last year wasn't so good. :) He was very proud of his Batmobile.