Post Gotcha Day 3: Full of JOY!

Today was a fantastic day full of great progress! Jesiah is a great kid and is full of potential. His smiles really are contagious. Today we went to Shamian Island where most of the adoptive families in China generally stay (until recently when the hotel on the island most often used shut down). It's a SUPER cool island and I really wish we were staying on it (Richard and Stacey- I'm so jealous you get to!!).

The medical exam went well and Jesiah screamed like a champ. I'm pretty certain that they tip off the kids as to what is going to happen when you walk in and they are all wearing hospital garb. You'd think, for the sake of the kids (and the parents :), that they'd put on some fun scrubs or something a little more light hearted. Nonetheless, we made it through it. Jesiah is a whooping 33 lbs. and 27 inches. He doesn't look big but he certainly is heavy after carrying him all day. We are VERY thankful to Johnna for letting us borrow the Ergo (my arms and legs thank you a thousand times over).

Over the last few days...we have learned the joys of having an Asian son meltdown in public and have a thousand Asians stare at you. It feels so much more awkward than I imagined. I'm pretty sure they were wondering what I had done to make him scream, kick and cry. Ahhh..... it takes me back to Kaylee and days of meltdowns. :) Great memories..!!! I  figure "this too shall pass" and I think that he was pretty spoiled by his foster parents. He definitely can convey what he wants and generally he needs it prior to telling me so by the time he tells us, he's mad. Strong willed children are great, we just need to keep with him and remember that if we focus all that determination in the right direction, it will work out amazingly well. (sigh :).

I don't mean to paint a terrible picture. He really is amazing. He definitely tells us what he wants very clearly, including when he needs to go to the bathroom (Chinese potty training of a boy before three? WOW! I need that secret!). The language barrier hasn't been the problem we thought it might be and he is already picking up on quite a bit of English. Thankfully, we are starting to learn some Cantonese sayings and are beginning to decipher what he is saying. He speaks so well and it helps when we understand what he wants/needs at points. My Chinese is definitely something I'm sure he (and other Chinese people) laugh at, but we are trying. It's the thought that counts, right?! One thing we have noticed is that he will not use his English skills with other Chinese people. I'm not sure if he is afraid or just knows they won't understand. The minute he sees a caucasian person, he uses his English.

Jesiah is a master when it comes to chopsticks. No really, he is. He is better than me and although that isn't really saying much, I am amazed. :) 

Let's see.. I digressed. Sorry. I tend to blog in a "stream of conscious" fashion. It helps my thoughts flow easier and besides, most of you that talk to me often understand this is just like having a conversation with me. I jump around from topic to topic. Keeps everyone on their toes. Back to the island :). Such a cool island. We meet a Christian shopkeeper whose name was Jordan and we had a great time getting to know him. Anyone visiting Shamian Island needs to go visit him. His store was one of the only ones that I was given some breathing room as I shopped. I don't do well when I have someone breathing down my neck, trying to push me to buy things. We found some awesome things and I probably enjoyed shopping (especially for Kaylee and my beautiful niece Madison a little too much :). We spent the day with Susan, Erik, Gabriel, and their new beautiful daughter Liana. Such a blessing that God has provided us with good friends on this trip. I'm ever so thankful for their support and understanding.




Adoption is amazing but it's not easy. It is definitely a journey and a choice to love and be open to learning, as parenthood is in general. I'm learning more every day to allow God to show me Jesiah through His eyes. It's a lesson in loving and opening my heart up beyond what I thought was essential. It's definitely not something I can explain unless you have experienced adoption. To all my friends and family that have adopted, I understand. I now understand the labor of love that it takes and know that I will continue to understand. Such a blessing, even through the trials and tears.

He is definitely his own little man. So big :). 

I did forget a VERY important milestone today. This one is one for the books. Today, Jesiah Paul Bao Sherer tasted his VERY first McDonald's. He is a HUGE fan of french fries and showed Nathan that it is not okay to take them from him, under any circumstances. We are glad he has officially tasted and now loves real American food :). As a side note (for Christina Sinclair)- in his Happy Meal he got a toy and it happened to be my favorite character (rolling eyes) Sponge Bob Squarepants. You will be happy to know that when I asked him who it was, he proudly told me "Bob". We have our work cut out for us! :) 

Post Gotcha Days-1 & 2 (Tuesday and Wednesday)

Last night was a pretty long night. Jesiah started out in his pack n play asleep and ended up two and a half hours later in our bed. Sleeping with him beside us was kind of like having a rolling pin go horizontally up and down the bed. Needless to say, he may have slept but we didn't. The life of a parent continues. Regardless, we feel blessed! 

 Before Bed.... 

 After a long night for mama and baba... :) 

Today our adoption was finalized! We visited the Office of Civil Affairs and visited a few officials, got an official photo, and things are done! Now, we wait the rest of the time to get his passport and visa. Those take the longest to complete and the visa won't actually be done until next Thursday, the day we leave for Hong Kong. After our apt. at the CA office, we had a great lunch, attempted (and failed) to get Jesiah to nap, and finished out the day walking about an hour to one of the most beautiful parks I have ever seen. It was amazing that inside this extremely crowded and smoggy city, there was a jewel of a park. We walked past areas where men and women were playing badmitten, hacky sac, and ping pong. A litte different from the scene we have in the states. I will post some pictures below. It was well worth the walk! Jesiah is definitely adjusting well. He has, from time to time, showed signs of grieving and night time was a hard time for him. He was in a foster family which made it great for him as far and knowing and understanding the love of a family. It makes it difficult, for us, at the same time because he is grieving for them. Really, he seems to be bonding well and having fun. We are spending a lot of time playing. He is ALL boy :)! He loves playing outside, loves running, loves playing balls, loves climbing, and really has a bright outlook on life. I praise God that he is so joyful, even after so much strife in his young life. We appreciate all the continued prayers as well strengthen the bond between us. God's got it all under control :). I will leave you with some pictures and say goodnight for now!

 Jesiah's first "face to face" with K and E :). It melted my heart. 

 When is upset or tired, he plays with my hair. Many of you know that's my FAVORITE thing :). 

 He is ours officially!

 Our trip to the local grocery store. 

 Not a great picture of me but cute of everyone else :). 

 He is sooooo tickleish!!! We love it!! 

 On our way to lunch. 

 Lake Park in Guangzhou.

Nathan and Jesiah have a very special bond forming. It's awesome to watch. 

He's Ours!!

What an fantastically exhausting day. We have Jesiah and he is a dream. I'm not gonna lie.. when we met him he cried and looked at me with such sad eyes that it absolutely broke my heart. I was ready for a tough go and we will, I'm sure, have our struggles and adjustments ahead, however for tonight my heart is joyful and we have so much to be thankful for. So many prayers have been offered up for him and I know God honored those prayers and blessed us beyond our wildest dreams. He is a beautiful and very charming boy with such a contagious smile and hilarious laugh. He is so ticklish and so energetic. His eyes are vibrant and so full of excitement towards to simplest things. We are absolutely in love. He went from being afraid when we first met him (pulling away and crying.. not wanting ANYTHING to do with me. That made me cry, however much I'd prepared for that reaction). Cheerios.. make that honey nut Cheerios came to our rescue. If anyone is reading this and adopting, that's some of the best advice I can give you. Giving those to him has been the way straight to his heart and he has smiled ever since. He ate almost entire sandwich bag full of them and I'm okay with that. :)

We would love continued prayers. He has a pretty persistent cough and runny nose. Not a huge deal but he seems to be feeling a little under par. After getting paperwork squared away, we headed back to the hotel to just spend some good quality time. We have played football, read books, watched tv (he loves tv- that's #3 Sherer kiddo that loves tv so he will fit in quite nicely!) He is a trooper and again, I can't imagine how overwhelmed he must feel. My prayer earlier was that he would be able to understand that we love him and are here to be his forever family and I know we are on the right path to that. He may still grieve some in his own ways and we would appreciate continued prayers for all of our transitions- especially when we get home and transition into a family of five.

We will sign off for now and leave you with several pictures of our "Gotcha Day". Thank you to all who gave of their precious time, amazing love and prayers, and selflessly sacrificed to make this happen. We can never thank you enough. God is good and he has blessed us more than we can even imagine. Jesiah, welcome to our family :)!

 Our first glance. He was obviously not hurrying to get to us. The room was full of over 30 families so, as you can imagine, it was pretty chaotic. 

His tears made my heart break. They were definitely understandable. 

 He loves his "baba". At first, he wouldn't even look at me and only wanted Nathan. 

 Here he was still avoiding any type of eye contact with me. 

 Bribery is my middle name. YAY for Cheerios!!! 

 When we got back to the hotel, he started to warm up to me. I wasn't complaining! :) 

 So snuggly. 

Lovin' his USA bear from Aunt Dy!!! :) 

This is the smile he is capable of and it completely has us wrapped around his finger already!

 He had a wardrobe change after deciding to give himself a bath with his cup of water (and our bed...). 

 Of course he LOVES balls and wanted his "ball" pjs. He is Eli's big brother! :) 

His first bit of a granola bar. He liked it but I think his belly was too full from Cheerios. 

More pictures to follow tomorrow!! Love you all, goodnight! 

We are in Guangzhou!

We made it safely to Guangzhou! We are settling in our hotel and will be meeting the other four families for dinner. We plan on crashing (or trying to) tonight so we can get some sleep. We are feeling excited, nervous, overwhelmed, a bit unsure of what's to come, and all sorts of other feelings. PLEASE pray for our "gotcha day" tomorrow as we know Jesiah will be making a huge transition. Sometime in the past few weeks he left his foster family to return back to the orphanage and now he will be disrupted again to come to us. We know God is in control and have been very prayerful for months about his arrival into our family so we know eventually it will be okay. We would like prayers that we will understand his needs, he will understand he is safe and come to trust us, and that we will be able to earn his love and trust. We would also like prayers that Jesiah feels a peace and that he will understand that we love him and that we will do whatever we need to take care of him because he is our son. I can't imagine how overwhelming all of this is on the kiddos being adopted. We will meet Jesiah about 2:30 am Monday morning for you. I will blog as soon as I can with lots of pictures!!!

We go into tomorrow remembering my favorite scripture verse.

Phil. 4:13- I can do ALL THINGS through Christ which strengthens me. 

Day Three: Beijing

We had a VERY full day yesterday and I conked last night. I'm so thankful, for the first night since we got here, that we actually sleep about seven hours. It's amazing what sleep deprivation can do you to you. However, I do want to say that as tired as I was yesterday... I did amazingly well with chopsticks. I'm not a master yet but I was able to manage getting my food in my mouth without having to resort to my technique titled the "grab and stab". Hey.. it worked :).

Yesterday, we had a two hour orientation where we met with all of the other Holt families that came to Beijing and were briefed on what the next process with geting our kiddos and all the massive amounts of paperwork following will look like. It was so helpful to hear other stories, especially from families that were back to adopt a second time. We also received an substantial update on Jesiah and got new pictures. My heart is absolutely yearning to get him. He sounds like he is an even more amazing kiddo than what we originally thought. I know we have challenges ahead and he will probably experience some grieving period. Who wouldn't? He will be leaving everything he knows and we are going to rely on God in this time, knowing that He led us this far and will continue to bless us. Patience, I suppose is the key (and lots of bribery :0).

After orientation, we had a great group lunch and continued on to TiAnmen Square. TiAnmen Square is where certain government officials used to work. It also is where the famous massacre occured in 1989. It was pretty impressive.

One of my paparazzi moments. 

After TiAnmen Square, we went to the Forbidden Palace which was just across the street. The Forbidden Palace was built in the 14th Century for the Emperors. It was massive and very impressive. Lots of gold. I told Nathan it's the type of house he will need to build me once we are done with our house "situation" :).

We finished up the night with a trip to the silk factory (sadly we didn't take any pictures.. I don't know how that happened.), a nice dinner with a few of our friends and a trip to the night market. The night market was... interesting :). I didn't have an appetite for what they were selling. Ugh. I suppose to each his own! Hope everyone has a good day. We leave on a plane for Guangzhou at 11:30 am (9:30 pm Misosuri time) and will meet Jesiah tomorrow. I will post again later tonight (tomorrow morning for you). Love you and please keep the prayers coming. Lots of emotions are filling us as we look to tomorrow!

Don't ask what they sold there unless you have a solid stomach. :)

Happy Birthday Mr. E!!!

A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our dear son Eli, who turns two today. We are sad not to be with him but knows he is having fun! We love you so much Eli and will talk to you soon!

What a day! We have received blessings so abundantly in the short time we have been here and while we are still exhausted, we are seeing God's hand in a mighty way and it's so amazing! Today we were able to visit the Great Wall and climbed to the top. What a priceless experience it was. Not only did we climb the Great Wall, but we did it during Beijing's first snow of the year!! Talk about slippery- eek! It was very cold and kind of scary at times but we made it up and back (with five minutes to spare before our bus left!). At the bottom, we were "attacked" by the Chinese paparazzi (that's right Gilmores, we were popular with the Chinese folk too!! They must have known we were friends since they seemed to like you guys too :). It was hilarious. I don't know how many pictures we were dragged into but they loved us. It was a nice ego booster, although I hope Nathan doesn't let it go to his head.

After the Great Wall, we had a nice lunch with out entire travel group from Holt and visited the jade museum. There are about 20 families with us and five families will continue on with us to Guangzhou on Sunday. We have already made some amazing friends are so thankful God has blessed us with such supportive and loving friends at home and here in China. It makes a world of difference.

After lunch, we continued on to the historic downtown in Beijing called Hutong Lane. We rode in rickshaws which were basically carts pulled by bikes. It was QUITE an adventure. The streets here are very narrow and weren't designed for cars (at least the ones that are more like alleys in Hutong). We had some close calls with anxious cars but our very overzealous driver made sure we received the right away. It reminded me of driving in a car with a certain Adele Hall :). (Love you, Adele)

Hutong Lane was really neat, but very eye opening. We are so blessed to live in a country where we have the freedoms to work and live nicely. It's amazing how much we take for granted. Tonight, we are so thankful to live with the physical blessings God has provided.



After the tour, we came back to the hotel and crashed. The sleep loss finally hit me and I barely made it to dinner. We went to a local dumpling place behind our hotel and ate an amazing dinner for seven dollars. YUM-O!

We just finished off the night with our friends, Susan, Erik and Gabriel. We celebrated Eli's birthday where we had a "cake" for him and celebrated China style. We ended the evening with prayer for their daughter Liana and Jesiah. What an amazing day. Soooo tired... I'm headed to bed here shortly. Tomorrow we will see the Forbidden Palace, TinAmen Square and we leave for Guangzhou Sunday morning. We meet Jesiah Monday. Please continue to pray that Jesiah makes a smooth transition and we are able to handle his transition into our family with ease and peace. I know God has blessed us this far and won't let us go. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELI!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Whew! We Made It!

We are here in Beijing after twenty hours of flights! We flew from Kansas City to Minneapolis,

Minneaoplis to Seattle, and Seattle onto Beijing. We had about a forty minute van ride with another family (that is also adopting through Holt) to get to our hotel, the Novotel Peace Hotel. Because we were the last ones checked in, we got a free upgrade. It's a sweet room! Although I'm still on Missouri time, I think I will be able to sleep "tonight". We have an early morning tomorrow! We get to skype with K and E, then visit the Great Wall and Hutong Lane. Thank you for all your prayers for safety. We know God has been with us and will continue too. We have already met some great families and are excited to get to know them and support one another in the days ahead. My pictures are taking quite awhile to load so I will add them tomorrow. Love you all. Please continue to pray for Jesiah. We will meet him on Monday (Sunday late night or early morning Monday for you).  My thoughts will be a little clearer tomorrow and I will share some fun stories from the trip. We already look like Americans :)....