What I've been up to...

WOW, my blog needs an update. Let's see....where to start....

Well, I got back on Babydow and am creating more graphics than ever. Here's one of my recents:

I've created a few websites including my graphics website for Babydow which is www.giddygraphix.weebly.com and I'm working on a site on which I will put lots of kids waiting in China. I'm also going to open up a selling blog on which I will sell stitcheries and stationary! I'm excited :)

My latest projects around here in the way of crafting have been one big thing I started last night. Painting my club house!! It's so fun :) Mom's been taking pictures of my progress so hopefully soon I can post about that! It's very bright and very fun :)Luke helps...or at least tries!

A friend Abi and I have been spreading the Good News about God on Babydow. It's amazing and very rewarding and I'm so excited to be telling people about Jesus. I actually witnessed to a muslim girl who is fifteen. She wrote back saying that her religion, Islam, believes the same thing about Jesus and everything. Yikes....How do you answer that? I'm still pondering. By the way, I highly reccomend Babydow. It's www.babydow.com. You should join!

Please keep in your prayers four little guys and two little girls who are waiting in China for their Forever Families. Ben, who is 5 and has mild Thalissemia, is steadily waiting waiting waiting....and he has such a minor special need and is such a cutie. Check him out in FTIA's JOH program. John Wayne, Gordon, and Jimmy are all waiting. John Wayne has very minor special needs and has taken so many hearts and been viewed several times only to be released again. I guess his file is like playing Hot Potato, you never know where it's really gonna stop! Gordon has a medical history of Hernia but he's so cute :) I really hope he gets a family, I think he'd really blossom under that kind of bonding love! And Jimmy. Sweet Jimmy. Just look at his face and you fall in love. I'd love to pinch those little cheeks! Deformation of his hands, yes, but he's doing so well. And sweet girlie Lexi! She's been viewed seriously so many times. I'm actually not sure if she's matched or not but it's showing she's not, so I guess not. She can't walk yet, but she can crawl and sit very well. And also, Carly. Carly is my age and she is a hep b carrier. That can be so mild and un noticable! Praise God for prayers answered-Maria, the 11 year old girl who had a growth problem has been matched and her family recieved PA recently! I'm so happy for her!!

If you will, scroll down past this post and past the NaNoWriMo post to my recent Waiting Kids post to see more!

Luke is doing so well. Apart from not wanting to be in a room by himself(though he will stay in a room with Colt, Dad, or even Colt's girlfriend or a friend of mine) and getting insecure when we make him sit down for time out or spank his hand, he's adjusted well too. He will stay with my Grandma for 4-5 hours while me and mom have our special time together. He's found a few old videos that he loves and will watch with eyes glued to the TV, so we use those when we need to do something he can't get in to! He's also very taken with our Wii! He loves to "play" (He actually just holds the remote and pushes buttons) and asks for it several times while I'm doing school. His english has amazed me! Still, though, some of our conversations sound like this: Luke: Joy! Me: Yeah? Luke: Koyadongsheewahtoodeekadookashafaraeeuh Me: What? Luke: Monster Truck!

Lol :) Seriously though, he still jabbers in Chinese all the time. We have a little chinese book that shows certain objects and tells how to write and pronounce them and if we say it right he can usually find things in the book that we say in Chinese. Very cool!



At Homeschool Group, we've started our co-op classes. I'm helping Mom and Ms. Lori out in their drama class. Very fun! Then afterwards I teach a free dance class for girls 4-10. I have about 8 girls as of now and they range from 6 or 7 to 11 years. We're dancing to "Lesson Number One" from Mulan 2!



Thanks for dropping by. I hope to get back to blogging soon. You know, Faithful Fridays, stories, photography posts, etc. And commenting!



Blessings,

Joy

NaNo 2010!

That's right! My first NaNoWriMo! Just in case you're totally confused like I was when I first read that, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It's an online challenge where you attempt to write a full length, 50,000 novel in 30 days. Oh yeah. From November 1st to midnight November 30th, it's a writing craze! You upload your word count, then once you've reached 50,000, you submit your(NON EDITED) final story for final verification, and you get posted on the winners page! NaNo focuses on quantity, not quality. But as they say on the site, leave those badly written passages, horrible grammar mistakes, and story mess-ups on the page and move on! December is the month for editing before trying to get it published(if you want).

So my novel this year is named....I don't know! I'm still working on that. Maybe it will come to me when I'm writing. I've already got quite a big outline of my story. Here's a short synopsis of my novel from my NaNo page

When the ever-writing Haven Jaxon's parents take her and her two brothers to her Uncle Silas's house in the Minnesota countryside, she writes more than ever out on the rolling hills and grassy endlessness. Then one day, after it rains, she goes for a walk in the forest to get inspiration on her latest story. There, she finds some unexpected characters-hers! How will Haven use this as an advantage to write the best story she's ever come up with? Come along with her as she meets people she'd never imagine, gets great inspiration, and learns a very important life lesson.

(c) Joy S.

Do you like? Here's a short excerpt. Something I sort of wrote up that will probably go into the book.

I glanced down at my jade bracelet. Had it really been five months since we had gotten home with Jacob from China? How had time gone so fast? Wasn't it yesterday we arrived at the Memphis airport at 3:00 AM to leave for Beijing? Gosh. I tightened my bracelet as my dad's GPS rang out, "Arriving at destination on left". Jacob abruptly stopped his singing of the Bob the Builder theme song and I looked up. Mom closed her magazine and put it back in her bag. We all flung our heads to the left. Well, except for Jacob. He looked the wrong way so I had to turn his head to the left.

A few hours later, it was very downcast and the clouds were darkening. I could see little droplets of rain hitting the cars. I ran upstairs and grabbed my notebook and pencil then climbed into the window seat that faced the forest behind Si's house. I began to write of a couple of characters I dreamed up years ago when I was little. Maybe a story about what happened to characters after they weren't wrote about anymore? No, to predictable. Maybe a story about a girl who gets a job at a coffee shop? No, too boring. As I provoked my thoughts, poked and prodded my mind, and scoured every nook and crannie of my imagination for a starting place, I could have sworn I saw a girl run out of the forest then run back in. But it was like lightning. It hits the sky then it's gone. You weren't really sure if you saw it or not, but, it sparks in your mind that something's about to happen. And this time, it was something big.

So do you like it so far? I am SO excited! :)

Hopefully later I can write up an update on crafting, Luke, and life around here! Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Joy :)

Picnik!

Yes-that's what I've been doing my friends! Picnik.com is like your own little easy to use free photoshop!! I love their collage/scrapbook templates and retouching photos is a BREEZE!! So here's just a few examples. NOTE-Some of these are for Babydow, thus the cartoon babies :)