Sunday, August 30, 2009

Congratulations....!!!!

...to Nancy Cozadd, a friend of ours from Missouri, who won a Love 89 / Petros Prize Package from the Bears for Claire fundraiser!!!  You go, girlfriend!

If I counted correctly, 995 bears were donated to help the Adkin's Family in Knoxville bring home their daughter, Claire, from Taiwan.  Yipeee!!!!

Check the link below for all the details.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Only 2 days left to win GREAT PRIZES!

Donate to Bears for Claire and you could win a Nintendo Wii

Check out this fundraiser hosted by some new friends of ours. They have some incredible prizes! And they are also naming their daughter from Taiwan "Claire"! :-)

Invites for new Taiwan blog

Don't forget...I need those email addresses from you all!!

Though I should also tell you I haven't...

(continued at:  http://johnsonfamilyadoption2.blogspot.com/2009/08/get-your-invitations-here.html)

Happy 39th Birthday, Eric!

We LOVE you so very much!!!

(Noelle crowned her prince to honor the occassion :-))

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Attention Readers!!! (especially you "silent" ones)

I know there are lots of family members/relatives and friends from back in Richmond, and elsewhere, who read our blog. 

(ok, yes, i'm sorry. i know it's been a bit lame around here the last couple months. i.e. lack of photos and cute noelle stories and so forth. very sorry about that.  but i digress...)

My guess is that many of you also check in with our Taiwan adoption blog from time to time as well (sure hope so!!).  If you haven't checked there recently, let me share that I have created a PRIVATE BLOG where I will be posting more personal details of our Taiwan adoption process and information about the little gal we are adopting...information you will not see anywhere else!!! 

Here's the catch.  I think you have to have an email account, possibly even a Google account (i.e. Gmail account) to be able to read the blog.  I could be totally wrong about that, but I'm looking into it.

Here's how it works: 
1.  If you want to be a "reader" of our new private Taiwan blog, you will need to provide me with your email address. 
2.  Then Blogger (that's the blog program I use) will send you an email invitation for you to be a reader. 
3.  To read our blog, you will go to our website and sign in with your email address and a password you create. 
(4.  Or something to that effect.  I'll get back to you with the specifics.  If anyone reading this post knows for sure how the email thing works, will you let me know in the comment section?  Thanks!)

This is how our blog will stay private.  Only folks authorized by me can see any of the content on the private blog.  This format will allow me to speak freely about our adoption process without the fear of strangers, or internet lurkers, or even people in Taiwan seeking info about our future daughter, being able to have access. Cool, hu?

So all this is to say...I hope you will join us over on the new blog!! 

And in the mean time, just for fun, get yourself an Google email (gmail).  Just to be on the safe side, or until I know what I'm doing.  Just type http://www.google.com/ into your internet browser; click on "Gmail" at the top of the page; click on "Create an account" on the lower right portion of the page; and follow the brief instructions.  That's it! 

The new blog site will be found at:  www.johnsonfamilyadoption2private.blogspot.com

Friday, August 21, 2009

Taiwan Blog - going PRIVATE for now

The blog is BACK OPEN!

**********************************************************

I've got to make some changes on our Taiwan adoption blog before I'm able to have it visible to others again. I will post here on this blog the status of the Taiwan blog and explain more at that time.

Thanks for your patience, friends! :-)
Jen

(and someone please let me know - post here - if you CAN see the Taiwan blog, so I can quickly remedy the situation. thnx)

Thursday, August 20, 2009

This SATURDAY - Car Wash - Taiwan Adoption Fundraiser

** UPDATE, check the Taiwan Blog **

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Who wants a shiny clean car??!!

OR

Who would like to smile shout and bounce around while holding a sign? Or would like to scrub tires? Or take donations / hand out fliers??!!

Well...then I've got an opportunity for YOU! ;o)

This morning I was able to get us on the schedule for a car wash this Saturday, August 22, at the Rite Aid parking lot (corner of Ringgold and McBrien). We'll get started around 10am and go into the afternoon (we have a bday party later, but will figure that out).

Please let us know if you'd like to volunteer. Or just stop by and we'll clean your car!

Thanks ya'll~

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Techie Update

Last night our techie friend and hero, Oh-Danny-boy, talked Eric through the reinstall of my recovered data. It looks like most everything is here...except I did lose my email contacts. :-( Photos, documents, our Taiwan dossier scanned documents, etc are all accounted for. Only it's a crazy wild mess, 'cuz I tend to not be very organized as to where / how I save things onto the computer. But hubby dear assures me he can get me organized and has already created several new file folders. Now all I have to do is "click and drag" to said folders, or something. If I smile and wink just right, I think he will help poor little me...

But now for the less-good news. I have succeeded in losing 400 or so photos and a handful of videos on my BlackBerry. Yes, you'd think I'd have learned my lesson by now.
Download and backup.
Download and backup.
Download and backup.
I trust technology way too much for my own good. Somehow my memory chip became "corrupted". (I didn't do a thing to it! I promise!) I simply cannot retrieve any photos / video, nor can I take any. Time for a trip to the Verizon store.

Do you have Blogger's Disease?

I think I might. Cyber Doc is working on a diagnosis. But I think I already know. And I'm wondering...Do YOU have it too?!???

(Just a teaser, 'will 'splain more later, it's late and my brain is tired)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Poor little girl

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Look at this poor kid. Pitiful.

It's 2:00 pm and here she stands, barefoot, engulfed in a giant bib, eating a McD*uble sandwich, in our carport.

Who is this kid's mom anyway? Where is she? Where is the supervision??

Where's the nutritious home-cooked lunch? And where are the vegetables?! (ketchup, onions and pickles don't really qualify) Besides that, does the mommy know that those tiny hands feeding the hungry mouth are covered in germs from who-knows-where?

And where are the shoes?! Doesn't the mommy care that a sharp screw or nail may be lurking behind a trash car, preparring a pedi-assult? Or that some winged creature, such as a giant horsefly or other foul vermin, may come swooping down for a taste of the burger and scare/offend the child's delicate sensibilities?!

Pitiful, just pitiful.

;-)

Saturday, August 8, 2009

She's asleep!!!

It is 8:05 pm EST, and our Lil' Squirt (one of my many pet names for Noelle) is SLEEPING!!!! Wooeeee, praise Jesus!!!!!

You may chuckle, you may think I'm being overly dramatic, but Noelle has had a moratorium on bedtime and naptime for 3 months or so. I've been pulling out new gray hairs in frustration. Eric and I have been beside ourselves, because the child was obviously sleep deprived, but she just wouldn't sleep no matter what advice we followed. She had been getting about 11-13 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period, then jumped quite suddenly to 7-8 hours per day. And that's where "we been livin'" these many weeks...

Until a couple of weeks ago when our ladies prayer group made this an issue of prayer. Eric and I had been praying regularly, but when this group of gals gets going...heaven (and hell) take note! Glory!! Within a couple of days, Noelle was getting 9-10 hours at night (naps are history). She has still been tired and a bit cranky in the evenings, but we feel like we are getting our life back! Especially me, 'cuz my "mommy-radar" ears never turn off. When Noelle finally sleeps, this mommy sleeps. Sigh. :-)

And now tonight. Eric and I take turns putting her to bed, but tonight Noelle specifically requested I do the honors. Eric had gotten her all pj'd and teeth brushed, so the kid was sleep-ready. I decided to forego storybooks or light in her room, and went straight for the lullabies and rocking chair. I snuggled up with my unexpectedly demure sweetie and sang our favorite prayer and praise choruses.

In short order, it happened. The "Twitch". You know, the tiny full body twitch that says sleep has ascended. Yes Yes Yes!!! I shouted inside my head, and sang/rocked her a minute more to be sure. Then ever so gingerly, I placed my beautiful angel child in her bed, blew a kiss, and slipped out of the room.

As I passed by the Hello Kitty clock next to her door, it read 8:05. Wow. Thank you, Jesus. :-)

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Fun drawing!

My friend Terri is a wonderful seamstress and is very generously hosting a drawing on her blog to raise $$ for our adoption of C--Y-- in Taiwan. Her items are super cute! Check it out here!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

DIFFICULT ADOPTION NEWS

Please visit our other blog for the details. And please pray...

Photos from Chattanooga Philanthropy Camp--

Here's a couple links to photos from last month's first annual children's Philanthropy Camp held at our church and the Jewish Cultural Center:

Slide Show

Virtual Tour

*If you'd like to get involved with next year's camp (i.e. planning committee, being a counselor, outreach activity idea, field trip idea, etc.), have a child who would like to attend, or a teen interested in being a junior counselor, please send me an email or post a comment here on the blog. Thanks!

A Family in China Needs Our Help

For several days I've been following and praying about the story of a mom and dad and their newly adopted 4 year old girl. They are in China right now. The family is facing the tragic possibility of having to leave their daughter in China due some recent regulations put in place by the CDC.

Please check out the link below to the family's blog and see if there is any way you may offer help. The story is too long to share here, but their blog lays out very well what is needed (plus you can see some cute pics!). Most of all, pray that this newly formed family will not be ripped apart because of government *red tape*...ugh!

http://jayscruggs.livejournal.com/

I'm writing this post from my...

...new computer!!!

Yipee! It feel so good to be back in business. It has been 5 weeks since I've even sat in my computer desk. Eric's brother Kirk via delivery from Eric's parents (who spent the last several days with us) has set me up with a new faster hard drive, DVD burner and a "new" tower. Now I can get online, download photos (OMW there are tons of those!), etc.

Next step is to set up a phone meeting with our friend Danny - my data rescue hero - so he and Eric can load all my saved documents (inc. our Taiwan dossier), photos and such onto the new computer. Then I'll be siting pretty!

Thanks everyone, for sticking around through the lack of photos, lack of posts, and weird looking posts sent from my BlackBerry. I look forward to things starting to settle down (???) in our busy summer, so I can catch you all up and even get photos up on flickr!

YAY!!!! :-)

later~
jen

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Lots to report from Johnson-World...

...but I still don't have a computer at home-- though I will this weekend! Hopefully Eric can load all my data back onto my new hard drive on Monday or Tuesday, then I can be back in business!