Email Announcement and Adding to My Yahoo!

Hi all,

Well, last night I finally got the mass email message to go out. Got a lot of bouncebacks, so I obviously haven't done a good job keeping in touch with everyone. Some of it may be AOL issues with my email provider, so more investigating to go.

Also, Yahoo is in the process of changing their web site inside and out. One of the coolest new features is that you can add content from other pages to your My Yahoo! pages via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds.

If you'd like to add this blog to your My Yahoo! page, just click this link: http://e.my.yahoo.com/config/cstore?.opt=content&.sid=363554. It's a great way of using a site you already visit to know when new posts are made here!

Let me know if it works for you or not and I'll try to help.

James

Fun with Video

Well, yesterday I got the screen shots from Ian's video online, so today I'm putting up the whole darn thing! I even had a little fun with the opening and closing.

James

http://adoption.jameswoosley.com/Ian-Medium.WMV

Click the link to download the file (right click, save target as...) to your computer. It's only about 1 MB, so it shouldn't take too long to view with a high speed connection. But if you're on dial-up, expect about 10 minutes or so.

Pictures of Ian!

Hello everyone! We finally got a video of little Ian and managed to pull some shots off to share with all. Isn't he cute?!?

Picture 1


Picture 2


Picture 3

It's a Boy!

Late yesterday we got three pieces of great news:

• Our home study was approved.
• We're on the waiting list.
• We have a referral!

Ian James was born on 26 May 2004. We received a statement of his medical and family history. We hope to have a picture and/or video very soon, and will of course post it when we do!

Now we go through the process of accepting the referral (we fully expect to) and entering the Taiwan courts. It'll be 4-6 months, but hopefully in late winter/early spring we can go to Taiwan and pick up our son!

Prayers answered!

James, Heather, Anna & Ian

Update: Hurricane Ivan

Well, we survived Hurricane Ivan and fared much better than most. We lost a lot of shingles and will need a new roof. We also had a few leaks but nothing too bad. Check out some of the damage below. Thank God it wasn't a direct hit!

Please continue to pray for all those affected!

James, Heather and Anna

Hurricane Ivan

Had to at least post once from the Hurricane Zone!

Ivan is bearing down on us now. Not sure how long power will last, as we just had a major flicker.

We've jokingly considered naming our new son after the hurricane. Ian is close enough! Besides, we already have a Hurricane Anna that scatters toys everywhere daily!

Prayers to those in this mess.

James

Overdue Update with Big News

Well, we're still bogged down on the homestudy process, but it should be finalized next week. Summertime delays and of course, the normal bureaucratic process that never works quickly.

But the bigger news is that I'll most likely have to change the name of the blog. Two weeks ago while going over some minor changes with our agency, they asked if we'd consider adopting a boy. Seems they have more people requesting girls and the pipeline in Taiwan is about 50/50. (Hmmm, pipeline seems such a cold word...but it'll do for now.)

Heather and I had always thought of adopting a sister for Anna, especially when we were focused on China where the ratio is more like 99/1. So we talked and prayed about it, and have decided to leave the decision to God. Our homestudy will say that we're open to either a boy or a girl, and the odds are we'll get a boy! Talk about turning things upside down!

Surprisingly, the name discussion didn't take more than a few days. We've decided on Ian James (sticking with the "I" theme for some reason).

Once the home study is finalized, we hope to have a referral very soon--possibly in a week or two! Then it will be official and I'll change the blog title for good!

We'll be posting more soon!

James