Update and too much to post in the upcoming months!!

Well, I have been wanting to post all summer!! Every since we started getting our foster children.

Guess what??? I can't post much about them, so it's frustrating!!! It makes me not want to post at all and that is exactly what happened.

Well so much has happened in the last 4 months that I am just going to have to post a little summary for you.

April 20 3am- CPS brings us two little boys 6 months and 3 years for short term care. They had another brother so reunification with him was #1 on our agenda.

April 27- CPS calls about an 18 month old little girl and tells us the boys will be picked up the next day. We say bring her right over.

April 28- It rained so hard last night that CPS is closed until 1pm and we still don't have the little girl. No call, nothing.

1pm- I get a hold of the Placement dept. and they tell me that the little girl was placed with family, but they have a 4 day old that needs placement. I tell them bring her right over!!!!!

4:30- Get a call from the case worker telling me to figure out a name for her

5pm- "VK" gets here... she is beautiful... she is wonderful... how am I going to let her go if we have to????

April 29- Boys leave to be reunited with brother.

April 30-today- TOO MUCH to tell!!!! We still have "VK" and we are in the adoption prep. unit of CPS!!!!! We should be able to finalize in late Oct. or early Nov.!!!!! Words cannot express what God has done for us. Because honey, no one else but God could have bestowed a blessing like this upon us!!!! We are in love with our new baby girl and we cannot wait to share everything with you all!!

So there it is... a little update.

It is so hard for me to share with no pictures!! I don't know what to do???

School has started now, so I will try to be better. I will update some pictures of the other kids very soon.

I promise. :)

It is official!!

I can't believe we actually have the license on the wall!!

This means the next step for our family is a call. A very important call that a case worker will make to ask if we can take children. Of course we can. We have been ready for awhile now and we are so excited to see what God has in store for our family!

We are praying now. Praying for the children that God will lead to our home and for their protection. I can't imagine what they could possibly be going through right now. We ask for your prayers too. I will absolutely be updating with any information that I can.

Love you all!!

I absolutely love our Praise and Worship Team at church!

I know, I know... it's the Monday after Easter and I am not posting adorable pictures of my children in their adorable clothes.

Well... this Easter started off late, very yucky weather, and my kiddos were not up to getting dressed in their new Easter clothes. Except for Joshua of course so I posted this one just so you could see how precious he was. Not the sharpest of pictures, but he didn't want to stand still for me. he had just seen me in the atrium and didn't want to stay with his class anymore.



What I did want to share were the pictures from our Worship service this Easter. It was amazing and the amount of talent that is up there on the stage is astonishing!! What makes it even better is that all of these people give God the glory!! I love watching them each week and wish I had half the talent they did so I could get up on stage with them. They really do tempt me sometimes. :)

My mom is fussing at me.

Hello baby Allen!!! This is my brand new baby nephew born on 3/11. Isn't he yummy!!


Well my mom called tonight and even she told me it was time to update my blog! I guess I'm going to post some random pics from the last month and then tell you how things are going with the foster/adoption. (Let me warn you, they are not in order.)

It's March, so in Texas that means bluebonnet season. I LOVE bluebonnets!!

Even after we got home from Disney, Joshua wouldn't wear anything else. Too cute!

Spring Break was Disney World!!! My favorite place to be besides home!!

A few pictures from earlier in the month. Grace and Joshua gardening, and half the girls in the neighborhood in a huge oak tree!!

OK, back to the adoption news.

We have a case worker!! All we need now is our id number and we can receive children!!!! Did I mention how absolutely excited we are!! I will be on here as soon as something happens. It could be any day from now!!

HA!!! I am sooo sad at blogging now and I don't know how to get back in the groove. It literally takes one of my kids to get sick and slow me down to get back to blogging. :) 

We have been so busy planning our trip to Disney... 11 days to go and counting!!! Woo Hoo!!!

We have been busy getting things together for our new additions to the family. (We will be licensed in the next 4 weeks or so) 

I have been following the Weight Watchers diet. I have lost 9 lbs in 3 weeks AND I have still been able to eat Thin Mints!!! Now that is a diet I can handle!

All this and I have been planning the next mission trip to Montana. Whew! That is enough for me right now. :) 

Well, mommy duty calls and I have to take care of my sweet Grace. I am still hoping to get back to the routine soon. Pray for me. Hee hee! :)

My baby is playing her first instrument!!

This is such a proud moment for me....

my baby is playing the guitar!!

Anna has had an interest since she was 3, but she was too little to take lessons then. She has always brought it back up time and time again, and FINALLY mommy and daddy got the hint!!

We found a wonderful teacher and Anna absolutely LOVED the lesson!!

Look for some video clips in the weeks to come. :)

My baby brother, John

My brother John is leaving for Navy boot camp in less than two weeks. I am thrilled, excited, nervous, scared, and proud all at the same time.

John has always been the sweet boy who used to grab onto my leg every time I walked in and out of the door. (Even when he grew up and didn't pay attention to me through the teen years) I love my baby brother and I can't wait to see what God has planned for him in this journey.

Tomorrow is his going away party and I can't wait to give him a big hug and tell him how much I love him!!

Please pray for him. Of course I will update you when he gets back. :)

Where oh where is our mommy??

Just look at them, so so sad. They don't know where their mommy has gone.

She hasn't blogged in over a month!!! How is anyone going to know how big they are getting?




Desperate times call for desperate measures.



We are going on a hunt.





We will find her.

THERE SHE IS!!!!!!

Yes, here I am. Facebook swallowed me up and I have finally been spit out. I better start making a habit of posting again or I am going to be lost forever!

Seriously though, my kids have asked to see their pictures on "mommy's website" lately and I have had nothing to show them. It's pretty bad when my 5 yr old is reminding me to blog. :)

I have a long post that is coming up, so I will update you all on everything that has been going on soon!! Bye for now!

Snow?? Snow in Texas?? What is that all about??

Sad I know. Very sad that it takes returning home from a trip to Delaware and being in Houston, TX of ALL places to see... SNOW!!!

Now all you northern friends of mine... don't laugh. This little sprinkle of snow entertained my children for 2 hours!! Just take a look at that sad little snowball Anna and her friend Shelby were able to round up. :)

It has been so long since I have been here and I am so sorry for that. I really thought that after that last post, Anna was going to keep up with my blog for me. LOL She does have another post started, but she's as bad as I am about distractions. This time of year there are so many!!

Let me tell you a little of what I have been doing:

1. Organizing a Christmas party and gifts for 8 boys in the cottage my Sunday school sponsors.

2. Purchasing all the gifts for another cottage of 8 boys. (I was the personal shopper for their sponsor)

3. Lots and lots of photo shoots.

4. Laundry.

5. Trip to DE with the ENTIRE family... on a PLANE... on only 24 HOURS notice!!! (my grandfather passed away)

6. Black Friday shopping with my expecting SIL in Delaware!! (crazy, I know!)

7. Lots and lots of paperwork for our foster/adoption journey.

8. A couple of work Christmas parties with Rodney.

9. Facebook.

10. Both of my girls birthday parties!!

11. Oh yeah... and taking care of the 3 kids we have now. :)

How I want my Summer Vacation to be (maybe in school too)

   Do you want to know how I spent my summer vacation?Well, I really want to walk dogs for 1.00 each,there I said it! Now are you happy?Dogs are my favorite animals, besides my cat. The cat that I have now is,well my first cat that I've ever had (I think so). Back to dogs, Bailey my first dog, was my favorite dog. He was so fun and so cute!!! But we had to give him away!!! I was crying for hours!!! I want another dog but my parents won't let me. So thats why I want to walk dogs in the summer, maybe while I'm in school too. Now you know what I want to do in the summer (maybe all year and I want to save up to buy a dog and beg and beg and tell my parents that I'll pay for one myself). Bye! Bye! (see don't you love my story?! I'm only a kid! Well, I'm getting bored. Gotta go eat dinner!) AWESOME PLAN ISN'T IT!!!

(written by Anna, my 9 year old)

I wasn't kidding...

... I really wasn't. :)

I said it was going to be very busy and I meant it. Whew! We have gotten so much done! The fire inspection passed, yeah!! The paperwork is all filled out. MY LIFE BOOK IS COMPLETE!!! (Can you tell which was the hardest for me?)  CPR/First Aid got postponed until Monday. 

I had ablation surgery. 

Yep, you heard me. I feel fine. I feel 100%. I know it's because of all the prayers from friends and family, and because of our God who is a great healer! I mean, He knows it's the holidays and I can't be down for more than a day. :) Right??

Speaking of holidays, I want to tell you about our church's Ladies Holiday Dinner I attended on Friday night. It was AMAZING!! Besides the decor, the food, and the company, the speaker was WONDERFUL!! To put it simply, she challenged everyone to invite Jesus to Christmas this year. (at least I took it as a challenge) 

I mean isn't it hard sometimes to forget? It is for me. I try so hard every year, but even then they busyness of the season distracts me. I have a new challenge this year and I am going to do my best. I plan to invite Jesus to my house for Christmas. 

Guess what else...

I don't have any pictures to post right now. I have lots to catch up with, but I have to get back to work editing my sessions. I will be back soon my friends!

Gearing up for a busy few weeks.

OK, I was going to end with pictures, but I just can't figure out my computer right now. The ONLY time I have trouble cut/pasting is when I am blogging!! It is so frustrating! I guess you get to see the pictures first, then read my post. I actually wrote a little more than usual! 

You must be shocked! :)

It has been so long since I have just talked about what's going on in the Johnson household! I feel so behind.

 I can't believe that It's almost Christmas and I have barely even thought about it twice. The only reason I even remembered it was coming, was when I had to run into Hobby Lobby and decorations were everywhere!!

Guess what?? We should be licensed to foster/adopt by Christmas!! Yes, I remember it was a mere few months ago that I mentioned this on the blog, but God has put us in high gear! :)

I am so excited for what he has in store for our family! Don't get me wrong, I know that there will be tough roads ahead and good ones. I have an AMAZING support system! "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil 4:13" Not to mention the MANY wonderful Christian women who surround me!!

I promise to be better at keeping you updated in the future! For right now, we have the plumber coming to check the gas lines tomorrow. Then next week, we have the fire marshal coming on Monday and CPR/First Aid class on Tues. After that it is on to the home study!

Onto another completely separate subject, I have about 10 photo sessions I need to get scheduled this month! I am REALLY looking forward to them! I am about to get Lightroom 2 and I am excited to use the new editing software with my Mac!!

It's getting cold outside...Brrr.....

But I still cannot convince my children to put their shoes on! Hee... hee...

I absolutely LOVE my girls in hats!! Yeah for cold weather!!

Sneak Peak for the "A" Family

Every now and then there is a sweet boy out there who can tug my heart strings like my own Joshua does. This little boy was one of those boys!! "N" took a little while to warm up, but as you can see... once he did, he was all smiles!!! 

Mom and Dad thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to photograph your family! I look forward to watching these sweet babies grow up. Baby "E" is gorgeous!!

I will be in touch with you soon!