Memorial Day Fun

Dr. Andy Johnson

All that hard work finally paid off!!!  (Click here to see more graduation pics)

PJ Party

"You're in-vi-ted . . . to a P.J. par-ty." You know those songs that get stuck in your head - over and over and over again. This is definitely one of them!
 
P.J. Party from Michaella Johnson on Vimeo.

The girls had their first preschool choir performance in "big church" last night. The theme was a P.J. (Praise Jesus) party. I'm pretty sure that they were the most excited about getting a chance to wear their princess gowns to church, but like a good parent I tried to talk to them on the way to church about singing as a way to worship God. I might have also mentioned that it would be hard for them and others to worship if they were goofing off and playing around instead of standing still and singing. I also could have possibly mentioned that some ice cream was waiting at home for obedient little girls. You know, as a reward - not a bribe or anything.

PJ Party - Rock in My Pocket from Michaella Johnson on 

Approval

Yesterday we received our approval letter from the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services to adopt a child from Bulgaria! The letter says, "After reviewing your Form I-800A, the home study, and all the other evidence that you have submitted, as well as the results of the biometric fingerprint record checks conducted on you . . . USCIS has determined that you meet the eligibility and suitability requirements as the adoptive parents of a child who will be adopted under the Hague Convention." Now we can finish compiling the rest of the documents we need (we had to wait because some of them have very short expiration periods) and send off our dossier to Bulgaria.

We've been on this journey for just over 7 months, and it seems like we've hit some type of snag at every point along the way. Here's hoping (praying!) that the next part is much quicker and smoother!  We've also applied for several different adoption grants, and we should be starting to hear the replies from some by the end of June. Thank you all for your continued prayers!

Ballerinas and Princesses: A Perfect Pair

In addition to our yard sale, on Sat. we also attended the Sleeping Beauty ballet. We had tickets given to us from some very sweet friends (thanks, Odles!), and the seats were amazing! We all enjoyed it so much! The girls sat through 2 1/2 hours of dancing without any problem at all! In the beginning, Kerri kept asking when they were going to talk, but as the ballet progressed they were able to follow the story line. After all, what could be better than combining princesses with ballerinas? I wasn't allowed to take pictures during the performance, so I hope that I'll always be able to remember the looks on the girls faces as the curtains rose and when the wicked fairy entered the scene and as they watched Sleeping Beauty grow up and as they fearfully watched the prince fight the dragon. They were completely enthralled and enchanted by everything that happened. Shh, don't tell, but I did sneak in one shot of the stage at the end as everyone was bowing.

 

Fundraiser Sucess

We had our yard sale adoption fundraiser on Sat. I really had no idea how much work is involved in a yard sale, especially one that is not taking place at your own house. Fortunately, we have a pretty amazing lady as a friend who helped . . . a lot!! You're awesome, Casey Taylor! It was so cloudy and we felt a few drops of rain occasionally, but thankfully the rain held off! I'm sure that had something to do with all the praying going on!

One thing for sure, you can meet some interesting people at a yard sale. We met quite a few who gave us some laughs after the fact. We also met a few really sweet people. One lady bargained me down $5 for her items. As I was bagging her purchases, I explained that we were doing this as an adoption fundraiser. About 30 min. later, she came back and explained that she hadn't known the reason for the sale and felt bad for talking down the price and handed me $15.

We made just about a thousand dollars to split with the Hambricks, so I'm definitely thinking that it was worth all that work! Thanks to everyone who donated items for our sale. We ended up having a HUGE amount of stuff! I'm also pretty sure that we owe Jenn and Jeremiah big time as we had to leave early and left them a couple hours before the sale ended. Thankfully, they're good friends and will (hopefully) still talk to us after that. :)   

The Best of Both Worlds

Cookie?
Cake?

You just can't go wrong here!

A Year in Review

Emma Lee graduated from preschool today. I can't believe how much she has grown up this past year! It makes me sad and excited at the same time. Here's a little review of her year:

First day 

 Show and Tell

Field Trip to the State Fair

Celebrating Her Birthday

Thanksgiving Banquet

Community Helpers Week - Firefighters Day

School Pictures

Graduation

 I'm so proud of my big girl!

Johnsons Unedited: Emma Lee on Adoption and Mother's Day

Today I started thinking how cute the girls' conversations are with their little voices and their word choices and how I do so much to record their growth in pictures and not enough on video, so I think I'm going to start a weekly video post letting one or both ramble on about whatever comes up or maybe try to catch some of their "deep" conversations when they are unaware. Emma Lee wanted to be first, and she decided she wanted to talk about adoption then she ventured into some Mother's Day thoughts. Enjoy the first in the Johnsons Unedited series!  :)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Baking

This is the part she loves:

This is the part I love:

 This part, not so much:

Anyone want to come clean my kitchen? I'll give you some cake! :)

My Favorite Subjects

Click the title to see my 44 favorites (out of the 330 I took!) 

Catch-up

Sorry to those of you out there who actually have been checking my blog for regular posts. We haven't been home much in the past two weeks, so let's catch-up. :) Here's what's been going on -

We spent a lot of time with my parents (and some of the girls' cousins) (and with the girls' favorite little dog). We did stuff around their house and on the lake, went to a great park, saw some neat traveling animals, and rode a camel (how many times are you going to get a chance to do that??)

On the adoption front, we got our criminal background checks back from the FBI and for those of you who doubted - Andy and I both have a clean record. :) We also had our third set of fingerprints taken (biometrics this time instead of ink) for the I-800A application, which is for US Citizenship and Immigration Services. We have run into a slight snag with this application and need to get some other paperwork to them "signed under penalty of perjury" within 45 days. Hopefully I'll figure out what that means before the 45 days are up! ;) I'm hoping that we are pretty close to having our dossier all finished, which is the last major thing on our part that we need to do. We also have one last fundraiser with the Hambricks scheduled for May 22. It is a yard sale/bake sale, so if you want to donate any items for either part just let me know!

On the home front, Andy's dissertation is officially turned in, so he is officially Dr. Johnson now! We are looking forward to his graduation ceremony on May 28th! The girls are quick to remind him of his promise to get them a dog since he is done with school now. He's stalling a little by telling them it take a while to find the perfect dog for us (aka one that we can afford!) :)

We had a great Mother's Day with a HUGE surprise for me!!! I was in shock. I cried. Let's just say that I won't expect any more presents for the rest of the year! Because my sweet husband decided to surprise we with a "real" camera for a combo Mother's Day/thanks for getting me through school/birthday/etc. gift! Expect LOTS of pictures to come in the near future. IF I can figure out how to turn it on. Kidding - although I am having a hard time remembering to take the lens cap off.