Where, O Where, Could that Article 5 Be?

Well, it seems as though we are still waiting on our Article 5. We can't proceed to the Travel Approval stage until our Article 5 is issued. Please pray that we will receive this soon. We were so excited that our LOA arrived in record time and really thought we might already have travel dates and be traveling, but we seemed to have hit a slow point for unknown reasons and are now hoping to be able to travel before the Chinese New Year holiday during the middle of February. From the way it looks, we might not be bringing Jax home until Spring Break in March when we will be celebrating his 5th Birthday. Oh, how I hope it will be before then! We just want to hold him and love him! Will keep you posted and still holding out hope for the Article 5 this week!

New Photos of Jax!

LOA Baby!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we received our LOA or Letter of Approval from China last Wednesday and we are just on "cloud nine" and also freaking out a little bit at the reality that in the next two months we are going to be a family of seven! No, we really are so excited to bring Jax into our family and are looking forward to traveling to China again!

So, we quickly signed our LOA and sent it back to our agency to send back to China. The name of the game in international adoption is being quick because there is always another waiting phase. However, sometimes even being quick on paperwork doesn't guarantee a shorter waiting phase. If you've never had the opportunity to experience the agonizing wait as an expectant adoptive parent, I will liken it to the labor pains of birth--it is almost as painful!!

We quickly gathered the paperwork necessary for our I800 form for immigration, the next step in the process, and express mailed this to Texas on Friday with a requested delivery date of today and well guess what, like I have experienced before with USPS Express mail--they don't usually look at the request and so delivered our package on Saturday when the Immigration office isn't open--UGH!! So who knows now when Immigration will actually receive our package and get it processed. We are running into the Veteran's Day holiday as well so that will slow things down. There are a few steps after this and then we will finally receive our Travel Approval from China and be on our way!

We are hoping to be leaving for China in early to mid-January, if things went a little faster than average we could be leaving as soon as a few days after Christmas, but that is probably unlikely. I guess we should start our packing as that always takes awhile and not something I want to be doing at the last minute.

Thanks for sharing in our joy and excitement! Everyone is doing great here and the kids are getting ready to welcome their new brother into the family! We did get an update on Jax and a few new pictures of him, so I will post those next for you to see how he is doing--he looks great!

Jax's 4th Birthday Celebration!

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Slowly, slowly...Step By Step

Well, I know it has been a long time since our last post, but in the adoption world there is a lot of paperwork and even more...waiting! In our wait we try to remain patient and remind ourselves that God is in control of everything...even His perfect timing, but it still doesn't make it any easier for sure! Everyday that passes, Jax gets a little bit older and we just want to have him here in our arms so he doesn't get another day older without the love of his forever family!

We did want to update you all to let you know that things ARE moving along with our adoption of Jax. We have had a couple of timeline setbacks with a couple of paperwork items, but nothing out of the ordinary. We are just waiting for our paperwork to finish up the authentication process at the Chinese consulate here in the U.S. and then we will finally be DTC, which stands for Dossier to China. At this point, everything is done on our end and the rest is a waiting game for China to send us our Approval letter that we can adopt Jax and then of course some more waiting after that for some more official paperwork jargon and then we will get our Travel Approval and then travel a couple of months after that. So, we were initially hoping that we might travel around Christmas, but it looks more like it will be after the first of the year and even into February or March. Much the same time frame that we traveled for Jaida, unless we hit some better averages this time around in our waiting process! We can always hope!

We did receive some updated measurements for Jax a few weeks ago and from what I can tell we are not only going to have virtual twins based on age, but it looks like Jaida and Jax are currently about the same size with regards to height, weight, chest size, head size, and foot size. Actually, Jaida may be slightly bigger than Jax right now as she is getting really good nutrition over here and he is not. So, we will have some fattening of Jax to do when we get him home.

Well, the summer has been a whirlwind for us and it is hard to believe that the kids start back to school in two days, but I think they are as ready to head back to school and their friends as I am to have them go back to school! We have had a fun summer with wrestling camps, running club, golf leagues, church camps, mission trip to Beaumont, TX, vacations to Omaha, the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, the lake, grandparents, and Trish's 20-year high school reunion in Montevideo, MN! We have truly not had a spare moment, but at least the kids can't go back to school and say they had a BORING summer!!

Now, as we head back into the fall, Mikayla and Ty will be sophomores in high school this year, Josh in the 3rd grade, and Jaida will continue at her preschool programs and speech therapy. Josh has decided to play football this year, so practice has begun for that. Shon is the assistant coach for his team, so Josh loves that! Mikayla is going out for the Girls' Golf Team again and will start practice on Tuesday and Ty will have some free time until Wrestling season starts later towards the winter. He will be busy with his Debate class and Chess Club. Of course, we are also venturing into teaching our twins how to drive this fall as they get their driving permits and take driver's education. Wow, I never thought I would be at this point in my life where we are dealing with driving, dating, and all of those "wonderful" teenage issues, but here we are in the midst of it all and there is no turning back now! My one-pound preemies are now taller than me and I wonder where the time went!

Hope you enjoy our family update and I hope to have more frequent posts as our adoption journey moves along. We hope this finds each of you well and know that you are thought about often!

Here We GROW Again!

Wondering about the "catchy" title aren't you?!! Well, our family is growing once again. Ever since I was a little girl, my lucky number has always been "seven." Never did I imagine that "seven" would be a way in which I would someday describe the number of members in our family, but that day has come!! We are excited to announce that we will be traveling back to China one more time to bring home our fifth and final child, a precious son who will complete our family.

You may be thinking to yourself...I remember a day, not too long ago, when Shon and Trish said that Jaida was their last and that she completed their family. Some have said, "You've got the "perfect" family with 2 girls and 2 boys, why would you want an odd number of children? Still others are thinking deep down inside, "Are you absolutely and totally out of your mind? Have you taken some crazy pills? Aren't four kids enough? How are you going to have enough money, time, love, and energy for one more child?" Don't worry about thinking these thoughts, we have already pondered every possible question that anyone could have and the only answer we have is, "When God calls, He will provide!" Once again, God has found a way to open our hearts and change our "man-made" plans to accomplish His will! I won't go into the whole story right now of how we were led to adopt this little boy. I will save that for a later post. But, I will tell you that it is without a doubt, God's calling in our life at this appointed time, and he did it in a totally different manner than how he called us to adopt Jaida. He is definitely very wise, as THAT WAY, would not have worked AT ALL this time around!

Now, you are probably wondering, who is this little boy named "JAX?" Well, Mao Ai Zhe, otherwise known as, Jax AiZhe Gerber, is our final son who is waiting for us in Maoming, China. On February 19th, Ai Zhe found a way into our hearts and literally became, our son! Ai Zhe was born on March 24, 2005 and just celebrated his "4th" birthday this past Tuesday! He is from Maoming, China, which is located in the most southern portion of the Guangdong Province. He was born with the exact same "special" need as Jaida, in addition to one more. He has a repaired cleft lip and repaired cleft palate. He is also missing part of his palm and all of the fingers on his right hand. As we can see from pictures and from some video we have of him, all of these needs are a "non-issue" for him and for us, as he operates just like any two-handed person. To us, he is perfect in every way and we can't wait to hold him, love him, and raise him as our own!

We hope you will enjoy following us along on our journey BACK to China to bring home our Jax! You can find our new blog at this address: www.allheavensent.blogspot.com A great new feature is that you can subscribe to our posts, and it will let you know when I have posted new information, so it is easier to stay up-to-date with our family who is "In Seventh Heaven!" Hope you are as excited for us as we are about this new chapter in our lives!

If you are inclined to pray, please pray that the paperwork process would go smoothly and quickly, so we can bring Jax home very soon! We are hoping he may be with us by Christmas this year...what a blessing that would be!

Photos of Jax!

Jax at the cake store picking out his birthday cake!

Jax enjoying his birthday celebration as his friends sing to him!

Jax and Katrina riding to his birthday lunch!

Jax concentrating on painting his red cup!