Home One Week!

Well, we have officially been home for one week and I wanted to post to let you all know that we are alive and all is going as good as we could have ever hoped for!  The one great difference that is making all the difference between Jax's coming home and Jaida's coming home, is that HE SLEEPS!  And I am talking he sleeps for about 12 hours a night and we were able to quickly get him adjusted to our time zone and SLEEP makes all the difference in the world.  We can operate on a daily basis and not feel like zombies in the morning due to a screaming child every two hours at night.  We have gotten him moved from the air matress in our room to his room to getting him moved into the bottom bunk of his bed and Jaida moved to the top bunk in their bed.  Everyone is sleeping perfectly and all is good in that regards and that is so important.  We are actually quite shocked as to how well this transition went for him and for Jaida.

Of course, other transitions are going to take time and patience on everyone's part but all in all we couldn't ask for anything more.  Mikayla, Ty and Josh are being awesome big siblings and are beginning to adjust to our "new normal."  Shon and I are beginning to have flashbacks of raising twins, although we are much older and we think "wiser" this time around.  I feel bad for Mikayla and Ty being the oldest because they unfortunately were raised by the "trial and error" parents.  Over the course of the past 16 years we have learned what works and what doesn't work in the world of parenting--isn't that the way it always works?!

Jax is adjusting well in the Gerber household.  We, of course, have challenges with the language barrier and his many dislikes of American food but all of this will be overcome with time.  He is quickly beginning to understand what we are saying and is starting to express some English words on his own.  He is affectionate to all of his siblings and enjoys their company.  He is also enjoying playing with the next door neighbor kids.  He loves to play soccer and is a great kicker!  We are also beginning to witness more frustration in the form of meltdowns and we are glad for this.  We want him to express himself and not leave it in.  This is an expected expression of all he has been through in the past three weeks and the more he begins to understand our language, the fewer these will become.  We would actually be worried if he was quiet, held in his frustration, or withdrew from us during these times so we are glad the his early silent tears have become more outspoken. 

Our little Jaida, on the other hand, is having quite the time with this new adjustment of not being the center of attention all the time and feelings of being replaced, much like Josh felt when we brought Jaida home.  We know over time she will come to love her brother and they will be the best of friends, but in the meantime we are giving her lots of extra love and understanding.  She feels that she is in a competition with him in all things, so whatever Jax does, she tries to "make it bigger and better" than he did.  Her behavior has reverted a little bit which we expected and with time all things will heal.

We are glad to be home together as a complete family and can't tell you all how much we appreciate all your caring words and prayers throughout our entire year on this...our final adoption journey.  Your prayers were felt and we knew God was in control the entire time.  Xia Xia Ni!  Thank you very much!  Enjoy a few photos of our first week home!  Gotta love the last picture with Babba (Daddy) and all his kiddos!

New Blogger Adress

Hey All,

 

As you know, we have been having trouble posting to our blog from here, so now that we only have 3 days left of our trip I have found another journaling site that I can access.  I have entered our first blog to update you on our sweet boy Jax and a couple of photos of him for you to enjoy.  Please go to this link to visit our new blog and let us know that you are able to access it.  Thank you again for keeping us in your thoughts.  Many of your email addresses have been bouncing, so you may not have received an email from us in the past couple of weeks!  We do apologize for that!  Check us out here:

http://www.journeytome.com/journal_view.cfm?journalid=2740&entry=50723

 

Take care,

Shon and Trish

 

 

Attention Everyone!

Hello,

 

Well as you can see the blog hasn’t been updated recently. Well I thought that I would just inform you that we seem to be having some minor difficulties, in the posting of the new blog updates. Not to worry we’ll keep you updated on the most recent news as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. Have a wonderful day and God bless!

 

Her Daughter,

Mikayla

 

Grandma's Flowers

Pictures of Grandma’s Flowers Comin up!

 

Mikayla

 

Our China Itinerary

February 26th--Arrive in Hong Kong and tour Hong Kong for the next two days.  Shon and I will enjoy some sightseeing together as we acclimate to the time change.  We are hoping to see a lot of history and are taking a harbour dinner cruise on Saturday
February 28th--Fly to Guangzhou and get settled into our hotel where we will be for the next 11 nights
March 1st--We will receive Jax at the Civil Affairs Office in the afternoon
March 2nd--Adoption registration and notarization.  Jax will be officially OURS!
March 3rd--Medical exam and passport application for Jax
March 4th--Guangzhou Folk Art Museum and Six Banyan Temple Tour.  We may choose not to do these activities as we would rather have a full day to visit True Children's Home in Dongguan where we will meet Jax's foster parents who raised him and loved him for 2.5 years of his life.  We will also have the opportunity to meet the surgeon and visit the hospital where Jax had both of his cleft surgeries.
March 5th--Guangzhou Zoo
March 6th--Free Day
March 7th--Prepare the U.S. Consulate documents
March 8th--Visa appointment at 9AM
March 9th--Go to the U.S. Consulate to take oath at 2:15PM
March 10th--Go to the U.S. Consulate to pick up Jax's visa at 2:15PM
March 11th--Fly from Guangzhou to Shanghai, to Chicago, to HOME!!  Yeah!

Off We Go....

Well here we are...off to China!!  As we left Wichita for Chicago early this morning, we had a mix of emotions and were sad to be leaving our precious four children behind, but our eyes are set on the plan that was placed in our hearts just over one year ago.  In some sense, it is hard to believe that we are on this journey again nearly two years after bringing Jaida home.  It seems as though our journey to Jax has been long and arduous and on the other hand it is hard to believe that we will be meeting our new son in just four short days!  I can't begin to imagine what is going through his little mind at this point and what he will be feeling when he sees us for the very first time.  My prayer is that his nannies have been preparing him for this big change and that God has prepared his heart in advance to accept us as his new family.  His world is about to be turned upside down and we will be the culprits.  We know our faith in God is big enough to overcome all obstacles and He will be with us through it all.  Thank you so much for all of your prayers, well wishes, and warm thoughts we have been receiving over the past week--it has been comforting to know that so many are with us on our journey of the heart...again!

We have landed safely in Chicago and will be boarding our flight to Hong Kong in about three hours.  I will be posting our itinerary in my next post, so you will all know what each day of our trip holds for activities.  On Monday, March 1st in the afternoon we will have Jax in our arms forever!  Stay tuned for daily updates!   

Thankful Thursday!

Many of my blogging friends have a catchy theme for each day of the week that they post on and since yesterday was Thankful Thursday, it only seemed fitting as we countdown our days to Jax AiZhe…to post on what I am thankful for:

• That one week from today, we will be leaving on a plane from Wichita to Guangzhou, China
• For our many friends and church family who have been praying for us and with us throughout this journey over the past year
• For my Mom who listened to me with an unbiased heart and mind when I told her I thought we were being called to adopt AGAIN, a specific little boy from China, when I myself was thinking I must be “crazy” and quite frankly was expecting the same response from her, but didn’t get it—Thanks Mom!
• For family who have never questioned our decision to go back to China for our fifth child and second adoption
• For a sister who is lovingly providing Jax with a wardrobe of amazing clothes
• For Love Without Boundaries for blessing me and so many precious children
• For True Children’s Home who lovingly cared for Jax and provided for two of his cleft surgeries
• For Jenny Smith who is truly one of God’s angels doing His work
• For my three AMAZING “older” kids…Mikayla, Ty, and Josh who have been our biggest cheerleaders during both of our adoption journeys to add a sister and a brother to our family
• For “Nacho” who has advocated for her new older brother Jax since the very first time she saw his picture in our referral packet
• For Jax’s Foster Parents who loved him and cared for him for 2 ½ years of his life and showed him what a family is and what unconditional love is
• For the Orphanage Staff who are preparing Jax to meet his new Mommy and Daddy and who are getting ready to let him go nearly 5 years after his arrival
• For a God who planted the seed of adoption in our hearts three years ago and has been with us through both of our journeys
• For how God has stretched Shon and I in so many ways that we never thought possible
• For a husband who loves me with all his heart despite all my flaws
• For Gma & Gpa Gerber and Gma & Gpa Cunningham who will be taking care of our precious four children for us—We are blessed indeed
• For new couples that we will soon share this adoption story with in China
• For God who literally opened the doors of Bethany Christian Services of Kansas the month we found Jax on their adoption list so we could adopt him
• For a little boy named Jax who will soon know the love of a forever family
• For Shon’s willingness to travel this journey of the heart with me with complete faith…again!

Please know you have each played a part in our journey and we are blessed by each of you! We are busy getting ready and very excited to meet our son and brother, Jax, in just 10 days!

Sunday Snapshot

Every Sunday, I am going to try to post a "Sunday Snapshot" where I focus on just one of our kids, so you can all get a glimpse of them and what they are doing in their life at that time.  I thought this would be a great way to be sure that each child has a day just for them--since we have so many children these days!  I know it is Tuesday and not Sunday, but to say that things have been a little busy would be a HUGE understatement!  When I logged into our blog today and looked at our "ticker" on the side and read that it said "9 days Until We Leave For China!" I was just completely shocked!  I can't believe it is almost time to go get our Jax!  We really should start packing don't you think?!

So, back to our Sunday Snapshot!  This past Sunday I wanted to highlight our oldest daughter Mikayla, who I can't believe will be Sweet Sixteen in May!!  It is so hard to believe...that "I" could be that old :)  Mikayla is a wonderful daughter, sister, and friend to all who know her and don't know her!  She is kind, giving, patient, funny, intelligent, beautiful, and just an all around great kid!  Who would have thought that this premature, 1 pound 12 ounce baby, who once looked like an alien baby with ears that didn't fit her body, would grow up to be the "woman" I have described above!  We are so very proud of her! 

I wanted to focus on her this week, as she underwent her cataract surgery yesterday and she is doing very well.  Thank you to everyone who lifted her up in prayer--God is so good and she is recovering nicely.  We have an amazing doctor who operated on Ty's cataract a year ago and he has had awesome results!  We are hoping for the same for Mikayla.  Enjoy her fun snapshots!

   

Fabulous Friday!

As you can see from the billboard, we are now less than a month from boarding our plane to China and only 30 days until we meet our precious new son for the very first time--that definitely makes it a Fabulous Friday!  The kids also think it is a fabulous day because they woke up very late this morning for school to hear the great news that it was a SNOW DAY!  Gotta love it!

Check out our blog over the next couple of weeks as I begin posting about our trip, itinerary, facts about the areas we will be staying and visiting while in China, facts about Jax's early beginnings, and our story of how God literally placed an email in our Inbox that has forever changed our lives!  Stay tuned!

Build-A-Bear Outing for Jax!

Today after church, the six of us decided to go to Build-A-Bear Workshop to build Jax a stuffed animal for Shon and I to take with us to China.  I got this idea from a friend of mine who is in China right now adopting two children!  I thought this was a fun idea and it proved to be a great bonding excursion for our entire family.  The kids all worked together to find just the right animal to stuff and the winning animal was the PANDA BEAR-which is kind of ironic, since the Panda is native to China!  He is very cute indeed!  Pictures will follow this post.

After choosing the bear, filling him with stuffing, placing a heart with our love inside, and sewing his back closed...we went to choose an outfit for him.  We wanted him to show his American patriotism and with the winter olympics this year, the kids chose a hoody with USA and the olympic rings on the front and a pair of jeans to match.  It is so cute--the hoody has two holes for his ears and the shorts have a hole for his tail!  They thought of everything! 

Now, it is time for a name.  We couldn't think of anything in the store of course, but after getting to the car, Shon thought of the perfect name.  Jax's new panda bear is named "Mao."  So, the bear is technically named after Jax's last name in Chinese, which is Mao.  Every child in Jax's orphanage is given the last name Mao because they are from Maoming, China.  Ironically, after getting home we looked up how to say panda in chinese and it is "xiong mao" meaning "bear cat," so his panda is actually named somewhat correctly! 

We had a lot of fun making this for Jax and we just hope he enjoys it and that it brings him some comfort during his first few days with us that may be so very difficult for him!  Enjoy the photos!

 

Testing...Testing...123

Just checking to see if this post will work via email, which is how we will have to post when we are in China as the blog sites are usually blocked.  Here we go!  I have attached a photo of the most recent care package we sent to Jax!  It includes a traditional Chinese outfit for him to wear on Chinese New Year, candy for him and his friends, a toy car, and a letter from us letting him know when we are coming for him and how excited we are that he is going to be a part of our family! 

We are now at “T minus” 36 days until we leave for China and are getting more excited by the day!

Have Approval...Will Travel!!

Well, it is official--we are going to China to bring Jax home!!  We received "THE CALL" yesterday from our agency informing us we had travel approval and our Consulate appointment in Guangzhou, China for Jax's Visa is scheduled for Monday, March 8th at  9:00am!  So, what does all of this mean you ask??? 

It means our travel dates will be the following...We will leave Wichita on Thursday, February 25th and will return home from China on Friday, March 12th.  Our "Gotcha" Day for Jax should be Monday, March 1st or Tuesday, March 2nd!!  We are getting closer to holding that little boy of ours--oh, that is if he wants to be held by his new strange parents!  We pray that Jax will adjust easily to us, but we are prepared for a longer adjustment period than with Jaida because he is so much older than she is and we are also expecting that he might grieve quite a bit while we are in China.  Can you imagine being almost 5 years old and just one day being handed over to complete strangers with all you've ever known just completely stripped from you--oh his precious soul--I have prayed many times that God will prepare his heart for his acceptance of us as his new family! 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it has been a long 11 months since we first saw Jax's sweet face, and we never knew if this day would ever come and even though there were many times of impatience on my part, it is amazing how PERFECT God's timing is once again!  Even though we would have loved to have been traveling sooner to get Jax, these dates that were chosen for us are perfect as they work out for those who will be watching over our four precious children while we are gone, it allows for the kids' sport activities to come to an end, and it allows us to be here for our daughter Mikayla's cataract surgery and to have that completed before we leave.  God is GOOD!  We have a lot of packing and preparation to do now, so will help the days to move by a little quicker and before we know it, we will be on that dreaded long flight to China!  Thanks for following along on our journey and we will keep you posted as time goes along.  We look forward to posting to you all from China!

Trish

It's My Blog and I Can Cry if I Want To....

Or yell, scream, have a temper tantrum, or eat too much chocolate....you've probably guessed from Jaida's expression (exactly how I feel) what happened today--that's right--No Travel Approval yesterday or today!  Some other agencies did receive their Travel Approvals yesterday, so many of those adoptive families will be leaving for China in less than 10 days.  Oh, how I wish that were us!  The unfortunate thing is that I can't even find out from our agency if they received any TAs, so I can at least know that they just haven't received any yet this week and that there is still hope for some to come later this week.  Or did our agency receive a batch of TAs and ours just didn't happen to be with those and it will be another week or more???  That is the question of the week that is going to drive me to the edge :)  I love roller coasters, but this is not my idea of a fun RIDE!  I want off the roller coaster and on the plane......to Maoming, China!  Thanks for hanging in there with us!

Blessings,

Trish   

No TA today, but Monday's a Coming!

Well, it is Saturday morning and I am up before all the hub bub begins. It is so quiet and still, which is quite unusual for our home and I am going to enjoy that for a few minutes while I write this update.  As you can tell by our fortune above, we didn't receive our Travel Approval last week so in order for us to travel before Chinese New Year, we will have to receive our TA by Wednesday of next week and I am trying to remain hopeful!  In the adoption community, we live for a weekday because we know that China is at work and hopefully getting all those TAs ready to be sent out.  It is so hard when another week passes without some type of word from our agency and then we pray for the weekend to go by fast so we can get to Sunday night because we know that Sunday night is actually Monday morning in China and they are back to work again working on all of those approvals--crazy how us adoptive Moms think isn't it?!

Truly, I know that God is good and faithful and everything will happen at the right time and in His timing, which is always perfect beyond measure.  Last night at dinner I have to wonder though if God were trying to give me another sign because as we were eating our Baked Ziti for dinner, I went to take a bite of my Ceaser Salad and happened to look down before I put it into my mouth and there was a ladybug on my lettuce.  Not quite sure how it got there, although it did appear to be dead.  I am quite sure that ladybugs cannot survive in subzero temperatures like we have been having all week, but nonetheless, it was in my salad.  We all had a good laugh about it!  Ladybugs happen to be a sign of "good luck" in the adoption community, so I am hoping that means our TA will be here on Monday or Tuesday as these are the days that our agency typically receives them from China. 

Well, enough of my rambling for today.  I hear some footsteps coming up the stairs so that means the day has begun.  Shon has guard drill and will be gone for the day; the twins will be meeting with some friends at the church to begin working on a leadership course; the house is clean from my major cleaning endeavors last night after taking down all of the Christmas decorations, so Josh, Jaida, and I will hang out together for the day doing anything we want!  Still too cold to really do anything that would require me to leave my warm car for more than a few seconds!  Have a wonderful weekend and we will keep you posted on any news this coming week.  If you are of the praying type, please lift a prayer up for us and our Travel Approval!

Trish

New Photos of Jax and Updated Information

More good news! As I was fretting about our Article 5, I decided it would be good to send Jax another care package and letter to remind him that we are still coming and to tell him when we will be there for him. This was yesterday...well, this morning what happened to appear in my Inbox from Ann at Red Thread China, but updated measurements and eight amazing photos of Jax!

Oh my goodness, my big little boy is growing up! He is so cute and has an amazing smile! His smile really reminds me of Jaida's in so many ways. We just can not wait to go get our son! I love his longer hair and I hope they don't cut it before we get him--he has definitely got some styling going on, don't you think?! So glad we will get to celebrate his 5th Birthday with him in March--no more birthdays for him without a forever family--yeah! Hope you enjoy the photos and we will keep you updated on our Travel Dates in the next few weeks.






Till then,

Trish

Lots of Good News!

We've had a little bit of good news this week and wanted to share it with everyone. In my last post, we were wondering when our Article 5 would be issued by the US Consulate in China and were worried that it was taking much longer than the "average," which there typically is no average when your dealing with international adoption, but nonetheless, I was starting to frett. Well, after making some phone calls to the Visa Center, sending some pleading emails to our agency, and emailing the Consulate we finally received an update from our agency yesterday and it is better than we had hoped. Our Article 5 was actually issued a few days before Christmas and sent to the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) in Beijing. So, what does this mean for us?

We are now just waiting for Travel Approval and then we can set up our flights, etc and will be on our way to bring Jax home...finally! And we are also already at least two weeks into our wait for Travel Approval and the average to receive this from Article 5 is anywhere from 2-4 weeks. We could be getting travel approval any day now! Oh my gosh, I really need to start packing. I have really done nothing in the way of preparing for our trip yet and I still need to get all of our Christmas decorations and tree taken down and put away.

I am trying not to get my hopes up too high because if we don't get our Travel Approval by next Friday, we will definitely have to wait until after the Chinese New Year to travel, which means we wouldn't be able to leave until the 20th of February or around there. I know I have likened the wait during adoption to the pains of actual labor and having done both more than once, I can definitely say that the adoption wait is so much worse and it is like "let's just give birth already!"

In all honesty, I am truly praising God for this news we received yesterday. I have praying since Monday that He would just give us a little sign that things are progressing, that He would give us just a little glimpse of HOPE. God is so faithful and He answers prayer! I'll be posting again for some more good news--check it out!

Trish