Rollercoaster

Bringing Peter home has been a roller coaster. That's the way change always is. It hasn't been horrible but there have been some hard times. But there have also been some great times! Saturday was a good day. We let Peter sleep as long as he wanted and he slept until 10:30! I think he really needed that. Aunt Brandy, Uncle Tommy, Zack, and Jaxon joined us for lunch and visiting. It took a while for Peter to warm up but once he did, he and Jaxon became fast friends. They are a lot alike. According to Memaw Pat, Jaxon came home and exclaimed that Peter was the Chinese version of him. ;-) I went and ran a few errands and the kids had a nerf war! Ariana surprised Abi and came over for the afternoon. She was so excited because she really needed some girl time. The Sutton's came over for small group and we enjoyed catching up. We made sure to prepare Peter that daddy and Andrew would not be there when he got up because Eric was opening the church and Andrew was helping him. I guess he forgot and the next morning he woke up and quickly found me to ask where Andrew was. :-) I reminded him and he was ok with it. We made it to church (on time!) and Peter wanted attend class with Abi. He loved it so much he decided to go to the 4-5-6 service with her. Abi said he looked a bit bored but he can't understand what they are saying so that is understandable. All of the teachers said he acted very good so we were very happy about that. We met Chelsea at Luby's for lunch then came home to wait for the Super Bowl. I'm not sure if Peter was ok with eating out. He looked a little down that we weren't coming home. Hmm...For the last oh, maybe 7 years, we've had a Super Bowl party. It was very strange not to have a house full of people but we enjoyed our family party. Abi did a great job preparing snacks. We had homemade tortilla chips, chocolate chip cookies, carrots, fruit, salsa and m&m's. Peter was not super impressed with the Super Bowl and we all lost interest before the halftime show which we did not watch. UGH! So icky. We switched to America's Funniest Home Video's. Andrew and I stayed up to watch the game while everyone else went to bed. I so enjoyed this time with him. He's had a lot of changes through this adoption; sharing a room, losing his only spot as the boy in the family, etc. He was talking a lot and it was great! Then Monday....we had decided to let Peter wake up on his own. We've had so many morning problems we thought sleeping in and waking up on his own was the best way. Not so sure about that.....Peter woke up and have a vendetta against Abi. I have mentioned that he is not always nice to her but he really had it out for her that morning. I finally made him face the wall in a chair and sat with him. I wanted him to know he was in trouble but that I wasn't going to leave him. I also called Eric for some suggestions. This is where it gets interesting. From what we know, Peter came to the orphanage at a very early age. So he's never really had a family unit. But he still knew that mommy calling daddy was not a good thing. He begged me not to call. I did and Eric suggested that we take his DS for a short time but give a warning. I took him to his room and talked with him. I asked him if he could be nice to Abi. He said no. I used the translator thinking he didn't understand and he still said no. I asked him if he wanted to lose his DS. He was fine with that. This floored me. At this point, Eric drove up. Peter saw him through the window and started saying no daddy! He really does not like to disappoint Eric. Eric came in and we worked together as a team. He finally understood he needs to be nice to Abi because she has done nothing to him. He cannot make his "hmmph" noise at her anymore. We stayed on top of him the rest of the day, including when he glared at her during dinner. We handled it nicely and didn't force Abi on him (quiet the opposite) and he kept seeking her out. We prayed about it at bedtime even though he doesn't understand and prayed with Abi also. She was so hurt. She is so nice to him, always playing with him, giving up her time, buying him gifts, etc. Eric and I talked and decided that if continued we would contact a Chinese woman at our church who is a mom to help us talk with him about it. Onto the next day...Peter woke up on his own at 7:15 and with a smile on his face! He was so pleasant and enjoyable! We started school (drat! I just remembered we never did Bible!!!) and while it was exhausting at times, he did pretty well. He and Abi got along very well today and we had only one problem. He tried to say he hit her 'by accident' but his daddy quickly caught onto that. ;-) Memaw Pat joined us for dinner and he was great the entire time. So Tuesday was a good day! Life is a journey and it can only be taken day by day. Tomorrow may be different but that's ok. Peter came from such a different background and we aren't giving up. Sometimes I want to crawl in a fetal position and cry but the sun will rise tomorrow and most importantly, my God is still God. He is still here and always offers His peace. He loves each member of our family and wants the best for us. That's what keeps me going. He brought Peter into our family and I am so thankful. That good outweighs the bad, even on the bad days!

Peter with his new things in his room.

Enjoying outside

Peter made me this heart on Monday!

Peter has seen pictures of Eric and Andrew with spiky hair and really wanted to try it. Isn't it adorable?!

School...I think the pictures say it all! ;-)