Introducing....

 

Benjamin QiuPeng-Harris Hubers

 

Today was a day equal in awe to the days Timothy, Jude and Annie were born. We were prepared for the worst, but hoping for the best and here we are not even 24 hours in and we are completely head over heels for this little guy.

And his new name will be Ben! We have so many wonderful people in our life with this name, so it has only good associations. It sounded so much like Peng to begin with that we thought it would be a good transition. It's always been on our list of options ever since we were pregnant with Timmy, so it seemed like now was the time. So far, we're having a hard time pronouncing his Chinese name. It hasn't really been "Pong", as we've heard his caregivers say it. It's more like "Pung", but with a down and up inflection. So, we've been trying versions of that with different inflections to see if we can get him to respond to us. Every once in a while we seem to nail it and he looks. Otherwise, for the most part he is a BUSY little guy!

We arrived at Civil Affairs and they said the buses with the kids would be 30-40 minutes late because of the rain. Two children were coming from Wuxi and three were coming from Yangzhou. A few of us stepped out to use the bathroom. I was last. When I came back the two kids from Wuxi were already there meeting their parents!

Well, then the rest of us were on pins and needles waiting for the Yangzhou van. After 15 minutes or so, it pulled in. We have video of Peng getting out of the van with his caregivers. It was a surreal experience.

After they walked in, without a second thought, they marched the kids in right past us to go straight to the bathroom. We all laughed as we thought that was a marvelous idea!

Peng's caregiver brought him to us, set him on our lap and told him to give each of us a kiss. They gave us his picture book, the audio book we had recorded and the disposable camera we'd sent. After that we spent about an hour getting to know him and filling out paperwork. A lot was a blur, but the overwhelming impression of the experience was....amazing.  He is a beautiful child and we cannot believe he is ours to raise.  What an honor.

He was pretty reserved at first, but as the day progressed, he started showing more and more personality. At dinner he was a stitch, in a very subtle way. He reminded me so much of Kevin in the first video we saw him last May and I can still see it now.

He has spoken some Chinese phrases, but the kid seems already aware that we don't understand, so there is a lot of grunting and pointing. He's already tried to say "watermelon", "more" and "where's baba?" Incredible. He has engaged with some back and forth games - like switching a sticker from Kevin's nose to my nose, back to Kevin's, back to mine and we've played lightsaber sword fights with our chopsticks. He LOVES my sunglasses and wears them or is putting them on top of his head. It's the most adorable thing ever. Then he puts them in our backpack and goes to the backpack to get them periodically (for all my adoption friends out there....object permanence!) He loves buttons. He has switched the lights off/on abundant times and if he could sit with the remote changing channels on the TV, he'd be set for the day. He was a bit upset when we decided it was time to wrap up that game. But he's pretty easily distractible at this point.

As I type this, he still sleeping in our bed - head at the bottom, as he's squirmed his way into various positions all through the night, but has slept through them all. Rough days will come, but this first day has been a sweet gift.

Thank you for all your love and support and for joining us in the journey.

It's a miraculous experience to be a part of.