7 Years Of Tru Love!

It was 7 years ago today that we held Tru for the first time. Time has flown and he has grown! We love you Tru-Tru!!!



Lin-Ley Is 12!

 





Happy Birthday and XOX to our big girl!!

Now, we enter the Year of the Unicorn - Part II.

Look out LA cousins - here we come! We will see you poolside.

Hello Summer!

We are all jumping for joy. Last day of 2nd grade and 6th grade. We are ready for summer!!

Lin-Ley was jumping so fast her limbs seem to be disappearing....

Dad Is A Grad

Dallas had completed his Associate's Degree in Criminal Justice prior to entering the Army. Now, after his retirement and many hours of classes, he has reached the next milestone. He has his Bachelor's Degree. Way to go Dad!!! We are very proud of you!!! Happy Father's Day too!

Happy 13th Birthday Crosse

Last night, just as we were leaving for American Sign Language class, we received an email from our adoption agency. What a wonderful surprise! They provided an updated report, a video of Crosse playing basketball with his friends, and several new photos. Here is one of my favorites. This is our 13 year old typical teenage boy.

We arranged to have a birthday cake and package delivered to him. We hope to received more photos soon. Happy Birthday Crosse!! xox

Happy Easter 2014

Happy Easter from our family to yours. He is Alive!!

The Easter Bunny made a visit as usual. It is interesting to watch the kids get older. I noticed at Christmas that things were changing. They were happy to see Santa from a distance and never asked to see him up close. They walk right by the Disney store without asking to go in. (I sometimes drag them in anyway.) Again, last week, they were happy to see the Easter Bunny (in the mall) from a distance.

However, it does a mom and dad's heart good to see that their babies are still ready and willing to hunt Easter eggs.

Happy Snow Patrick's Day

Surely, as Spring is only three days away, this is our last snow day. However, we LOVE Snow Mondays!

The Leprechauns left us icicles as well as several inches of fresh snow.

Taking a dive.

Tru remembered to wear his green.

And he takes his snow duties very seriously.

Good Bye Winter! Seriously... GOOD BYE!

11 Years Of Loving Lin-Ley

Take a look at this beauty! This is the first photo we received of Lin-Ley. It was 11 years ago yesterday that we first held her on Gotcha Day.

Yesterday, on her special day, she was just where she wanted to be. She and Five-O were snuggled up in front of a fire with a stack of books. Waiting on the snow. AGAIN.

Today, in celebration of adoption day, our plans were altered from our traditional dinner out to shoveling snow. AGAIN. We stayed home on our eighth snow day this school year and took it easy.

We love our baby girl!! XOX

Meet Crosse!

Meet Crosse! 

Crosse is soon to be the newest member of our family. 
Surprise! 
We are adopting again! 


(Let this be a reminder to us all: Never say never!) 



Crosse is currently living in an orphanage in China and he is 12 years old. It became official today that China pre-approved us to become his forever family. 

This decision all happened rather quickly in that we first saw his photograph only two weeks ago today. Dallas happened upon a website containing photos and bios of children waiting to be adopted. He called me over to take a look at some of the photos and I instantly wanted to adopt again. Within two days of discussions, we were all onboard. This was a true family decision and Lin-Ley and Tru are very excited about having a big brother. 

Crosse is deaf. That means our whole family will be learning a new language. American Sign Language. We know we can provide the best for him as the state school for the deaf is within 15 miles of our home. There is a well respected university for the deaf within 1 ½ hours. We have fantastic medical care. Above all, we have love to spare. Why not share all that we have?? 

As Tru said just yesterday, “God sure has given us a lot of blessings Mom.” So true. Now we have one more huge blessing coming our way.

Sneaux The Man

More Snow! Wet snow. Time to break out our Snow Man Kit.

Thanks again to Aunt Donna, Uncle Tom and Tori!

Work in progress.

And there's Sneaux The Man.

So, how does Sneaux taste?

The verdict is still out.

Snow Days

SNOW DAYS!!! Today is our second day off from school. Tomorrow it will be back to reality. Until then, it was time to play. The first day was more ice than snow.

More snow today.

Too bad it will all melt tomorrow!

Color Run 2013

Today was the Baltimore Color Run. I thought it would be fun to run (or walk!) as a family. Everyone was on board except Tru. He was a little disturbed when he learned that people "throw" color at you as you run. He said he did not want anyone throwing things at him. Eventually I took him out on the deck and threw some flour at him. Then he got the idea. We mentioned the run to Tru's prosthetists and they decided to form a team. We were happy to be a part of Team Dankmeyer today!

Here we are in our nice clean, white shirts.

There were three amputees on our team. Here are Tru, his friend Eric and Mr. Steve. We just met Mr. Steve today. He has only had his prosthetic leg for two months and braved the Color Run with us today. He finished strong and we were honored to cross the finish line with him. Way to go Mr. Steve!!

And..... After!

This is Mrs. Angie who takes great care of Tru! Thank you Mrs. Angie for running/walking with us the whole time!!

This little guy shocked me with how much running he did. He would announce, "Running!" And off we went. Dallas and Lin-Ley ran the entire route and met us at the finish line.

These two are ready, willing and planning to run again next year!

Happy 8th Birthday Tru!

Tru turned the big 8 today. Happy Birthday Tru-Tru!! XOX

6th Grade & 2nd Grade

This photo says it all. Lin-Ley was nervous this morning about her first day of middle school. I (Jody) will admit to getting misty eyed when she rode away on the bus to uncharted territory.

Tru was nervous / excited.

Lin-Ley only had positive reports after school. She said her favorite subject, so far, is Chinese. She is feeling pretty confident.

No problems!