Carmen Leolani White: 2014-05-25

Monday, May 26, 2014

Travel Approval Arrived!!!!!! Jake Here we Come!!!

Our Travel Approval arrived on Friday. This is one of the last steps we were waiting for.

With the official Travel Approval we can now receive our appointment at the US Embassy in China to secure Jake's immigration approval to come home with us.

Once the appointment is established on Tuesday, everything backs up from there and we get our travel dates.

Our agency is diligently working on this appointment and establishing our travel itinerary.

At this point….we are expecting to be leaving for China around June 17-19 - but we do not have the official date yet.

So Exciting. We will see you soon Jake!!!!

The Shanghai Healing Home, where Jake is currently, sent us the most beautiful picture book. Below are images of Trevor seeing the book for the first time. He is very excited to be a big brother. Thank you SO MUCH Birgit and Charlene for keeping us connected with baby Jake!!

This is an incredible photo of Jake looking at our photo!!

May Day is Lei Day

For those of you who do not know, May 1st is Lei Day in Hawaii. It is a day that is celebrated all across Hawaii to commemorate the day that King David Kalakaua brought the Hawaiian culture back to the forefront with Hulu, Lei's and many other special traditions that had been frowned upon by the Missionaries of the late 19th century.

Most schools across the state take this opportunity to educate the children of these important traditions and customs, typically with a performance on May 1st.

Trevor's school put on an amazing day with the performance in the morning and a full school Luau in the evening.

Trevor did such a great job!!!!

A Lava Kid

The day before the Lava Man Triathlon there was a fun event - Lava Kids to get the whole family involved.

Trevor has been taking swimming lessons but he needed to be 7 before he could complete in the swim portion of the Lava Kids. He was only supposed to run the 1km run.

When we showed up in the morning for race, we were excited to see that Trevor's swim instructor was in charge of the swim portion of the race and she cleared him for the open ocean swim. Yikes!!!

Not too bad at 5. Open water ocean swim and run!!!

Such a brave little guy!! So proud of him.

Our brave little guy. And....brave Mommy as her little baby embarks on his first open water swim.

Post Race Massage...seriously!

Sophia, friend from school

T Bone; Newest Member of the Harlem Globetrotters

This is another one of those moments that almost seem like we made up.

When something like the Harlem Globetrotters comes to our island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean…. it is a big deal!!!! Then again…if Bozzo the Clown came to the island it would be a big deal.

The high school gym was packed with about 1,500 people to watch the fun event.

With roughly 5 minutes left in the game, the Globetrotters stopped for one of their many dancing, comedy and entertainment breaks. During the break, they put on some fun dance music and Heather said to Trevor……"get out there". Trevor does not need a lot of encouragement to put on a show and he was out in the middle of the court before we knew it.

As they were getting ready to return to the game, one of the players walked Trevor over to their bench on the far side of they gym from where we were sitting. We had no idea what was going to happen.

With about 2 minutes left in the game, the Globetrotters stopped play again and brought Trevor out onto the court for their last fun exhibition of the game.

Trevor definitely did not miss the opportunity to get the entire place laughing.

He played right along with their jokes and ended up with a signed, official Globetrotter jersey.

The whole experience was perfect and so beautifully random that it was hard not think that Trevor's big sister was once again looking out for him.

Trevor and Hi-Lite

Elle, Trevor and Jack

Sunday, May 25, 2014

It's a Boy!!

"A Chinese Cinco da Mayo Festival"

Sunday May 4, 2014

A gathering of close friends and family to celebrate Jake Jun Hao White

Some how a Chinese themed Cinco da Mayo party, held on the day before Cinco da Mayo just made sense and was as good a day as any to share laughs and love.

Thank you to all who attended the party and to the one's could not make it. We truly appreciate your generosity and love.

A special thank you to Wendy, Mun Sok and Shea for being the "hostesses with the mostesses". We have never had the luxury of leaving our house two hours before a party and return with everything ready to go. We LOVE you - you are the best!!!

Images of the Day