Happy Birthday Brielle!!

Brielle Update:
Happy Birthday Brielle Laymon! Today our sweet Brielle is turning 7! We were so bummed out about not sending a care package to her. We were able to send Adam a cake and presents, but we are not far along enough in her adoption to be able to do this. We still had a mini celebration here at home. We will do like we did with Adam's gifts and hold onto them until she is home. Tomorrow we have our fingerprint appointment and hopefully things will begin to move along more quickly after that. It definitely seems like things are moving along much slower this time around; however, we are more familiar with the process so we are a little more at peace with everything.

Adam Update:
Adam has had a fantastic summer. I actually taught some summer school so John was in charge of the little man during the day. He had four weeks of tennis and swimming lessons and he did awesome. He is so much better in the pool this year than last. We also have Fiesta Texas passes and Sea World passes so we have been visiting the parks here and there. We have slowed down a bit the last few weeks because of a family emergency, but we are slowly getting back into a routine. We will have to make a beach trip before the month is over or else we will all face the wrath of Adam. I am going to post some random pictures below of our summer, Father's Day (which was a blessing) and some pictures from Brielle's birthday bash. I will try to post some more next week.

Brielle's Birthday Bash!











Jordyn and Adam Making Baba breakfast for Father's Day!




Hanging out at the Gristmill in New Braunfels!





Fun in Gruene, Texas!






Tennis and Swimming!









Adam reading to his sisters.

1st grade field trip

Longji's school took a field trip to the Magik Theatre and then took a trip to the park for lunch.









Still waiting on Brielle's homestudy...ugh!

Forever Family!

This is the day Adam Longji became a part of our family forever, though he was already living in our hearts. We celebrated the evening with an authentic Chinese dinner and Longji's favorite American dessert, ice cream. When we got to the Chinese restaurant, the waitress gave us chopsticks and Longji got out of his seat, went over to her and asked for a fork for John and I. Who is the parent here? This is so Longji and you can't even imagine how extraordinarily big his heart is.
It was an intimate and blessed evening. I tried to post a video of a mini-movie I put together, but the computer is not cooperating. I hope to share it with all of you one day.

Happy Mother's Day!

I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day than today...breakfast in bed, flowers, cake, presents, hugs and kisses, family, food, Happy Mother's Day text messages...many, many blessings. God is amazing!

This is the cake Longji ordered and decorated at school for me on Friday.






Telling secrets to Grandma...he is a stinker!


Arm wrestling with Uncle Jeff!

Daughters of the King Banquet and Chinese School Graduation

Boy did we have a busy weekend last weekend. On Saturday, we (the girls) attended a mother-daughter banquet at Grandma's(nai nai)church. It is very rare that we have the opportunity to spend time together like this, without the boys. We had a really good time together and the food was fantastic. Below are some pictures of the event. One is actually a picture of a picture so it looks a little funny. The message was great and the time of fellowship alone was priceless. Next year we will need an extra seat at the table for Brielle!

On Sunday Longji had his "graduation" ceremony for Chinese School. I tried to attach a video of his 1st grade class program, but this computer is not cooperating. He was very nervous and trying to act too cool at the same time. It was a nice ceremony, but I am happy for the break until next year.