Once a Marine! Always Marine!

Ooh Rah Soldier!
Oh girlfriend decided to nab Trey's Marine cover to borrow (since he is not home yet to wear it!!!!!!!) to head out to command the fort.... She certainly is sporting her own set of cami's today.... Yep! big girl panties.... Two days, no accidents, and diapers only for nap, and bedtime. Gosh! This would be great to have her done before we travel for Trey. Kinda stumbled into it... Tessa was constantly taking her diaper off. Bought a potty for the her and set it off in the kitchen to the side and she would go sit on it for the past month or so... but nothing... So Sat. I decided that was it... no more diapers... Stuck Dora panties and didn't look back... She kept saying about an hour or so later, I need a diaper. Nope... go to the potty. Sure enough she did.... her potty did the drum roll and all the bells and whistles went off.... We were so proud of her!!!!!!!!!! We have never used pull ups and will vow not to with her also.... She thinks her swim diapers are diapers... So she would still be wanting to use it as a diaper...
So she has continued without accidents thus far. But we are expecting that to be short lived.... Two days and going strong... No looking back now.... Congrats Tessa!!!! You are a big girl now!
love ya....

Jammie top and panties! The only attire needed to command post in.

Making my Daddy proud!!!!! Maybe she will grow up to be a Marine just like her Daddy!

The story behind this is:Tessa spilled water on the kitchen floor, Tatumn whiped out. Tessa gives Tatumn her a CLEAN pacifier and shares her blankey to comfort her.... She truly loves her sister and felt so sad that she had been hurt....This is what children are all about... LOVE

Tyler, We are so very proud of you!!!!!!! You are our Guniea Pig so make us Proud.... Tyler is on his 2nd year of college towards a degree in Criminal Justice and stepped off to take his Basic Law Enforcement Training class that has been 6 mos. He is almost finished..He said yesterday how sad he was going to be when class was over.... He will take the state exam on July 9th. He is in Raleigh as I type looking for a job as a police officer up there.... Scary... But he will be 21... Besides I might need his bedroom... Ha Ha..... We love you Ty.... Make us Proud!

Our 2nd Skype with Trey JingLai

What a sweetie!

He wanted to read us this story.

He just completed his spiderman puzzle for us and was so excited we all clapped for him.

All done with his puzzle. Great cheeser of a smile.

It all started out on the right day and the right time this time. Thank Goodness!!!!

Everyone one was home and waiting for 11pm. The call came through. We could hear them and our camera was up but no Trey. After about 10 mins of trying to fix it on their end they called back.... We answered the 2nd time and there was our sweetie.... smiling away... We asked if he was out of schoo. Yes. We asked if he knew his ABC's and fm answered a little. He wanted to give us all candy right away, which of course we pretend ate and he got the biggest kick out of all of us going um um um....We sent him a 24 piece puzzle of Spiderman he wanted to show us how he could put it together. And he did. When he was all done we clapped and told him good job... He loved that. meanwhile during this time I saw lots of candy... No wonder he can't sit still. He also showed us the Thomas the train we sent... The kids each took turns talking with Trey the best they could. He showed us how he could write his #'s 1-6. We clapped again... He really got a kick out of this. He read us a book. Just a calm as he could. Smiling at us throughout. Making sure we were watching. Bob stepped away to get Tessa who was sleeping for a change.. Ha Ha. She came down and sat on my lap and said Jing, Jing. He got real close to the camera to check her out..... like hey... she looks like me. We told him this was mei mei Tessa and she is from Taichung also. He leaned in close again and offered her a candy too. She pretended to eat it and he laughed.... She brought out his toys to show him and he was still just about to get into the web cam to get closer... it was priceless. He loved the vibrating lazer gun toy. More like a space gun. He also was interested in all his cars,and big airplanes. We said ABC'S with him and he repeated to P and then was done. All in all he did really great this time. But we ended about 15 mins early because he could not stay focused. A little overwhelming for us all. We will be forever thankful for these Skype sessions for him and us. Just a chance to help him get to know us before we whisk him away from the only life and foster family he has had since he was 13 mos. In all the hopes he will always be happy with the new life he will come to know and love.... We love him so much and don't even have our hands on him just yet...

But it will all be over soon. He will be ours. We love you Trey JingLai. We are coming soon!

Mom, Dad, Tyler, Travis, Tatumn, and Tessa.

Feeling the sadness that comes with the wait!

Today I write this post in sadness to share the long process that it has taken to bring our sweet Trey home from Taiwan. It has been a year and a a month now since we chose him to be our son. We did find out on the 12th of June that the court process is almost done and we are now waiting for the orphanage that over sees his adoption to give us our travel date. They usually give you 6 wks notice from notification of the 1st ruling which was the 12th. So we should expect to travel around the 23rd of July
or so......... Give or take. Oh how I wish this would all end. We have really held on to hope so great until the end. It is time...................
Mr. Fu confirmed that all of our documents are in place for our travel at the American Institute Taiwan. This is where we file all of the heeps of paperwork for Trey's visa to bring him home.
Tomorrow marks our 2nd Skype session with Trey and all the kids will be up and around to talk with him. I hope not to cry this time. It is oh so real and sooooo emotional to finally see the little face and hear the voice of you child you have come to love through photos, video and updates on his growth and behavior. We can hardly wait for tomorrow night.
Please say a prayer for us. For this part of the journey to end and to start our next journey to bringing Trey home into our lives.
It is time.................
we love you Trey JingLai.

Summer Days!

Cheese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Travis just a chillin

Sasha always finding the right place to park her furry hiney

First attempt at the monkey bars

Lovin my new park

Tyler giving some flexed muscles....

What is with the tongue.........

Peace to ya Momma...

Our sweet Tatumn. What a great big sister she is. Wait till Trey wrecks her room...................

Tessa thought she might squeak out the door to catch the bus with Tatumn, without any clothes........

I so love my Buddy, Travis.............

Just a few new things to do at our house

These are a few of the 22 pages I scrapbooked for our 2 yr post placement for Taiwan. These are 2 new things for our kiddos to play on... Won't Trey just love the new water slide and the new playscape. Tessa calls the playscape her Park. She lives outside. She will surely have many scars from Mesquitos this year. She is soooo allergic to their bites.