Highlights of 2013

I know there are many ways to highlight the year 2013. Many people choose their 13 favorite moments or favorite photos. Since I have way too many favorite moments and pictures, I decided I would pick a picture from each month from the past year. I promised I'd get it up by Chinese New Year which is tomorrow. So here we are... the highlights from 2013!

In January, I had the amazing privilege of watching this precious sweetie join her forever family. I also was able to witness the"gotcha day" of about 15 other children! It's a day that I will never forget! 

Last year, Chinese New Year fell on February 14th. We always bring out the Chinese silks to dress the kids in for the occasion. Woohoo for Year of the Snake! We are now entering the Year of the Horse.

March was a month of birthdays! We had two children celebrating birthdays this month along with our director's wife and myself! I was very blessed to celebrate my birthday with this little sweetie who is near and dear to my heart. March was also the month that I traveled home for 2 months to raise support for another year in China.

April's highlight was going on vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC with my family for Easter. Even though it was chilly this year, we still had fun and I managed to get a little tan. It was a great time spent with family.

May brought baseball, baseball, and more baseball! Thankfully, I love it! Since I was home during baseball season, I got to watch Asa and Thaddeus play college ball and Tage play high-school ball.  There is nothing quite like sitting outside on a beautiful spring day taking in a ball game. I wish I had counted the number of ball games I have gone too over the years! This season was very special because it was the last time I was going to see Asa play. He is a senior this year and I most likely won't be home in time to see him play his last game.

June was the month of getting back into my routine in China. From what I remember, it was a month of loving on my little ones!

On the 4th of July we received a call that a baby boy was recently abandoned and in need of immediate medical care. A late night drive to Guangzhou and he was admitted that evening. This tiny boy would go on to spend the next several months of his life in and out of the hospital. He is doing so well today!

In August, we said goodbye to this young lady who had been with since January. She brought such laughter and joy to the foster home.

In September, I traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to spend 5 days with my dear friend, Caroline, and her husband! It was a wonderful relaxing week spent with good friends, eating great food. I loved it!

In October, this cutie left us to join her adoptive family. I miss her laughter and spunk!

November I traveled home to spend the holidays with my family. On Thanksgiving Day, all 7 of us Johnson kids were together. That doesn't happen too often anymore!

In December, I got to experience China with my brother, Thaddeus. It was awesome to go to the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Wangfujing Street, and many other awesome sites while he was here. What an incredible way to end 2013!

Looking back, I can not believe how fast this past year flew. I only wrote about the fun times and exciting things that happened but in all honestly, there were quite a few difficult times. Looking back, I see the Lord's fingerprints all over this year.

2013 was great but I am very excited to see what 2014 has in store. It has been a great year so far. This year is going to be a year of change. I will share more on that later. I am so excited to see where the Lord leads and guides me in this new year.

Home Sweet Snowy Home

I am home at last. Flew in Wednesday evening and now just taking the time to update my blog. All I can say is that being home has been WONDERFUL. I was greeted by my Mom, Dad, and sister, and have had fun the last few days either seeing my family or talking to them on the phone. My two brothers in college will be arriving home Tuesday evening for Thanksgiving and I can't wait! 

The biggest adjustment has been the climate. Going from 70's southern China to 30's and snowy western NY is a bit of an adjustment! Thankfully the snow didn't come until today so I was able to "ease" into it.

 Snow and everything, it's great to be home.

And yes, I have already had my pumpkin spiced latte from Starbucks if anyone was curious. First one in two years! Yes, it was as good as I was imagining.

Month of Thankfulness

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever."

Psalm 106:1

There is so much to be thankful for. I for one, do not give enough thanks and praise to God for who He is, what He’s done, and what He has given me.

For the month of November, I am going to try to change that. Today is the 1^st of November and the season of thankfulness. There are 28 days leading up to Thanksgiving and for those 28 days, I’m going to attempt to blog each day about something I am thankful for. Some will be serious, some will be silly. But all will be full of thanksgiving. Now I know this past week, I have been an awful blogger so this will indeed be a challenge, but I am going to try it, because I feel that it is important to give thanks to God for what He has done. It is something that I do not do enough of. 

There will be other blog posts thrown in there throughout the month but the “thankfulness blogs” will each get their own post. Please join me in giving thanks to God and all He has done. 

Spider Rings

My friend Laura, sent me a care package last week. And among other wonderful things (like candy corn, stickers, and leaves from home) there were spider rings!

 I wasn't sure how the kids would react to them at first as for some reason they really don't like bugs. I mean, come on.... my preschool class is currently all boys! Don't most boys like bugs?

 Well let me tell you... they sure LOVE these rings! I have kept them in the preschool room and they only get to wear them during class time. I will catch them occasionally just gazing at their spider rings.... it's too cute.

 Nope, not scared one bit. I even made a big spider out of paper and they were a little unsure at first until I had the spider start bringing them treats. Now they say, "thank you, Spider!"

 Spider rings unite!

Thank you, Laura! The kids love them!

Wordless Wednesday: Imported Leaves

Coming Together

My trip is coming up. In approximately 3 1/2 weeks I will be headed for home. As excited as I am to go home, there are a few "loose ends" that need to be taken care of before I leave. The thing is, when I am back in China again, Thad will be with me! And as excited as I am for that, I needed to figure out where he is going to sleep. Minor detail but one that will become a major details when the time comes. Well, I figured that out last night. Going to be a bit cozy in my room with an extra mattress on the floor but it'll work. It'll be January though and cold around here so I am not anticipating an issue. Hope he doesn't mind living with a bunch of women for a week!

The next thing on my "to do list," was to call the airline to once again try to figure out Thad's return flight. Apparently God already did that for me. Figured it out, that is, not call the airline (although that would be pretty crazy if He did THAT!). Had a rough internet connection but from what the Travelocity lady told me, the flight time changed again and now his connecting time is valid. It'll be rushed (he'll only have 1 1/2 hours in Beijing to switch planes) but I think it's doable. Won't you pray with me that he makes that flight in Beijing so that he is not stuck there overnight by himself?

Next thing? Buy silverware. That's right, I don't get too many guests and since my roomies are all Chinese, they use chopsticks. Therefore, another set of silverware was in order. Check.

Find extra sheets and towels. Check. Now just waiting for another warm, breezy day to wash them and let them air dry so they are all set to go.

Take out winter clothes since it's apparently snowing in NY. Brought out the long sleeved shirts, sweatshirts, and sweaters. Although I'm not bringing too much of it with me (most of my winter clothes are home still), it will be cold when I return to China the end of December.

I also have a lot of foster home work to get done in 3 1/2 weeks. I will continue to write 2 blog posts a week for the foster home and I'm trying to work ahead and plan those out now so that I can just write them up when the time comes. We also will possibly have up to THREE adoptions take place while I'm away! As exciting as I am about this is, it does means more work! I'm trying to get pictures and preschool material together to send with the kids for their forever families.

I'm sure I have bored you all enough already that hardly no one is reading anymore. All that to say.... the time is coming and things are falling into place!

Those of you wondering how I'm feeling, I am feeling MUCH better. Still have this annoying cough and praying that goes away soon. I'm tired of waking up at night coughing. Thanks for all your prayers!

October Birthday Bash!

Thursday was our October birthday celebration or our "October Birthday Bash" as I like to call it.

We celebrated two October birthdays and one September birthday (the month of September got away from us and we never celebrated that birthday!). There was a lot of celebrating going on!

Make a wish, Miracle!

We wore party hats....

 .... well, some of us did.

There were lots of smiles...

 ... and cake eating going on!

 As you can tell, we just couldn't get enough of that cake.

 It was delicious!

 Dig in!

 I lost count after two pieces each...

You mean they had MORE than two pieces of cake?! Maybe.... I mean after all we only get cake once a month! However we have no November birthdays so we had to eat extra cake to make up for no cake next month!

Sunday Snapshot: Apple Scones

Once in a while, I really like to bake. But when the weather is hot and humid, I hardly ever feel like it. Which means I usually take "summers off" from baking around here. Finally the weather is starting to cool down and it's not quite as humid. Which means that I felt the urge to bake on this lovely Sunday afternoon. 

I decided to try "Apple Scones" in honor of fall. 

 After cutting them, I had to shred them.

 I am trying a Chinese flour and wasn't too sure how they would turn out... so far, so good.

 Sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon on top and they are ready to bake!

 And the result? Not too bad! They are actually quite delicious if I do say so myself.

Happy Fall! I found my recipe at All Recipes. Here it is if you want to try them yourself. I only did half a batch since it's only me and that made 4 scones.

Apple Scones

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter, chilled

1 apple - peeled, cored, & shredded

1/2 cup milk

For Topping:

2 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons white sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Measure flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt into large bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly. Add shredded apple and milk. Stir to form a soft dough.

2. Turn dough into a lightly floured surface. Kneed gently 8-10 times. Pat into two 6-inch circles. Place on greesed baking sheet. Brush tops with milk, and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Score each into 6 pie shaped wedges (I was only able to get 4).

3. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 C) for 15 minutes, or until browned and risen. Serve warm with butter.

Ni Hao Ya'll