10 Years Of Loving Lin-Ley

There she is! That chubby cheeked baby-girl we first saw in this photograph in January, 2003. Two months later we would hold her in our arms for the first time on March 2, 2003. Gotcha Day!










10 years later! Hard to believe!! Lin-Ley still proudly revels in her special day and we still pick her up and tell her "Gotcha!!"





















March 3rd is adoption day. We were officially a family on 3/3/03. This morning Lin-Ley gladly smiled for the camera and her other special day.

We love you big girl. So hard to believe it has been 10 years already!

 

 

 

 

Tru is 7 !

Happy Birthday
Tru-Tru!!

Our Future Olympians

In February, Tru was invited to participate in an adaptive ski program. He was unfamiliar with the sport. However, we want him to experience everything he can.  So, we took off to the slopes with the intention of spending one day there. While Tru prepared for his lesson, Dallas and Lin-Ley went snow tubing. The volunteers decked out Tru with one ski boot, one ski, a helmet and two outriggers (poles with skis on them). The object of Tru's adaptive skiing is that he would ski with his good leg and either take off his prosthetic leg (he would never agree to that!) or simply keep his prosthetic leg off of the snow.

Tru loved skiing from the moment we arrived! He did not always keep his prosthetic leg up as he was instructed. He informed us that he needed to keep it down so that he had brakes if he started going too fast.

Love this picture! Getting a little pep talk.

Photo op!

Once he got the hang of things, Tru could not contain his smiles!

And that was a wrap with a snow angel finale.

When we told Tru we were heading home he began to cry. The director of the adaptive ski clinic offered to give Tru additional lessons the next day if we could stay.

So....

Day 2.

They also gave Lin-Ley a private lesson. So, she gladly got into the action.

Tru donned his gear and was back on the slopes. Smiles and all.

After a few minutes on the beginners' slope, one ride up the magic carpet, and no problems skiing back down....

Tru was on the big slope for a practice run.

Then, before I knew it, he was waving good-bye from the ski lift.

One happy (and sweaty) guy!

We were told Lin-Ley was a natural.

The dude of the hour and his crew.

Two happy kids!

Time to go home.
Tru sobbed the whole afternoon we left.   He wanted to sell our house and move closer to the ski slopes.

Dallas and I had already agreed that if the kids loved skiing that much that we would bring them skiing more often.  Unfortunately, God had other plans.  Most of the snow melted the two days we were there and He did not send any more for the remainder of the winter....

Guess we know where we will be returning this winter!

A special thank you to everyone at Two Top Mountain Adaptive Sports Foundation!

Like A Good Neighbor

One month after the big storm, State Farm has still not sent out an adjuster to assess our damage.  Unfortunately, our shed was the tree's victim and that included the destruction of ALL of our lawn equipment.  I called our State Farm agent yesterday to ask for his assistance in getting the claim processed as our grass was getting out of control.  He certainly came through!  The adjuster will be at our home on Friday.  And...

He showed up at our house last night with his son and a friend and mowed our yard!!  A total surprise!

Thanks Mr. Jones!

5 Years Of Tru Love

Five years ago our family became complete. We love you Tru-Tru!!

Power Saws Needed

Our community was hit hard by the big storm Friday night. There are trees down everywhere!

Including inside our shed!

We (almost) slept last night to the hum of generators.

Dear Lord, Thank You for sparing our home!

P.S. We are hearing that we may not have power for several days....

Lin-Ley is 10 !!

Today was Lin-Ley's 10th birthday!  (Hard to believe!!)

It was her choice:

Lunch - Golden Corral
(complete with cotton candy)
Surprise Gift - During dessert we gave Lin-Ley her opal necklace.

Entertainment - Brave






















(complete with Skittles and cinnamon pretzel sticks)

Good day!  Now, after bath, a birthday spanking and a pinch to grow an inch, it is time for Book Club:



























Our first selection:

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

 (P.S. The blog is back....)

Feliz Navidad

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Tru's 6th Birthday

Tru turned 6 today! He was so excited that it was finally his birthday!!

Tru chose Don Pablo's for his birthday lunch.  We tried to tell him that he looked very handsome in the sombrero but he wanted no part of it.










The crew sang Happy Birthday.  He was half excited and half scared!

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

4th Grade & Kindergarten

FINALLY, after a two day delay (thanks to Hurricane Irene), the kids started school today.

Here are our 4th Grader and Kindergartner waiting for the school bus.

How wonderful to finally have them both at the same school!

Our Big Girl!

Our Big Boy!

The Kindergarten parents were allowed to visit the classroom for a while. Of course there were lots of children very curious about Tru's "robot" leg. Tru's teacher allowed me to give all of the children a brief kid-friendly talk about Tru's leg, why he has it and why they should not touch it.
(We would not want them to have their hands on his leg and then get their fingers pinched if Tru were to bend his knee.) (Ouch! We know this from personal experience!!)

Tru was just fine when Mom left and wanted to know why many of the other children were crying.

I could not resist sneaking by Lin-Ley's classroom too. She was much too busy to mind my visit. She was so excited to finally get back to school!




A special Thank You to Auntie Gabby. I forgot my camera this morning and my only other option, so that I would not miss the First Day of School photos, was to use the camera on my phone. I do not have a "fancy" phone and had no way to get the photos from my phone so I texted them to Gabby, she emailed them to me, I downloaded them to my computer and then uploaded them to the post. Thanks Gabby! You saved the day!

4 Years Of Tru Love

July 29, 2007. 
China. 
Our first night together.
All frowns. 
No eye contact.

July 30, 2007
China.
Our second day together.
All frowns.
Piercing Eyes.

July 31, 2007.
China.
Our third day together.
There is that smile!

July 29, 2008
One year later.

July 30, 2009
Two years later.

July 29, 2010
Three years later.

July 31, 2007
China.
This is the pink cup that finally made Tru smile.

July 30, 2011
Four years later.
We still have the pink cup. It is a family treasure!

Love You Tru-Tru!!