The “good” in goodbye

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This little girl in the picture above was our “newest” foster child, making our total turn to 6 kids in the Johnson household.  Call us crazy, we think we are too, lol!

She is wild, bold, and has a very strong personality! She is hilarious when she figures something out, and she LOVED having “older” siblings in the house, since she is an only child with her mom and dad.

This little girl came to us at 21 months old, non-verbal, loved to treated like a “baby”, and with only the clothes on her back, and 1 extra pair from her daycare.  You can never know what to expect with emergency placements such as what they will come with, or what they will need (bottles/diapers/clothing), but we knew we were going to take care of her until her hearing/or until a family member stepped up as a placement opportunity for her to be with her family.

It was an adventure having her here for the last few weeks, she taught us so much more about ourselves and our family dynamics, she taught us to lean on each other more for patience through this trial of parenting six children, and she taught us how to clean up better (had to put ALL food away at times of not eating or else she would scream/beg to be fed all.day.long).

As of today, we had to say goodbye to her, and it’s the “good”bye kinda thing, since she got reunited with her family today! Her Aunt and Uncle stepped up and said they wanted to care for her, and that makes our heart happy! I truly hope she does amazing things with her life!

It was nice getting to know you, precious little girl! Now our family is back down to just the 7 of us!

Thanks to everyone for following along our journey!

©2017 Sheridan Johnson @Journey with the Johnsons. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

Being Black.

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This yearly celebration of Black History Month, all started when one man named Dr. Carter G. Woodson wanted to make  a difference.  He wanted people to become aware of the discrimination, racism, and prejudice that surrounds the African American community.

I am a 28 year old black woman.  I am proud to be, and I want my kids to be as well.

You see, I wasn’t always this way. I spent more than half of my life, thinking completely different, because I wanted to be stubborn, ignorant, and believe that all black people would resemble the one person I disliked the most in my life… my Dad.

Growing up in a white family (my mom married my step-Dad when I was six years old), I didn’t know that I was different.  My mom never made it a point to discriminate others, or judged anyone else based on the color of their skin.  She raised to me to treat everyone equal.  I proudly said yes to anyone who asked when they looked at me (half black/white), and then looked at my mom and said the words “is that your mom”?

Growing up in school, they make it a point to put it in the textbooks about slavery, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr., but we didn’t go much beyond that.  We didn’t dive much into the topics, it’s almost as if we just barely touched the surface.

I remember a very distinct conversation I had with my mom when I was younger when I was taking a test and they had filled in my race/ethnicity as Black. I came home furious and asked my mom why they wouldn’t put White since I was, and that was the moment that I will never forget.  She said to me “Sweetie, your father is black and therefore your ethnic background/race will always be Black”.  It stung hard.  It hurt.

It wasn’t until I met Shane and his family, that I started learning what it was like for them to grow up in a predominant white community, and experience racism first hand.  I never had to experience the daily trials and tribulations that they lived through.  My heart hurt for them to hear how people would use the word “nigger” when talking to them/about them, or the many examples that they gave me of people disrespecting them.  Shane’s Grandma (may she Rest In Peace), taught me so much during my 3 hour interview with her about growing up in our small town, going to different schools and how she had to use a different public restroom than the white people in town.  Our community has changed so much for the better, but there is still such a long way to go.

I will always be honored to celebrate the African American community, to celebrate the #Blacklivesmatter movement and to fight for equality in our nation and fight for the eradication of racism in our county.

©2017 Sheridan Johnson @Journey with the Johnsons. All Rights Reserved.

 

Rochelle is 2!!

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This year, I am doing better, with knowing she is exactly where she is supposed to be.  It’s interesting.. this thing we call grief.. it’s an unending roller coaster of ups and downs, and it’s a ride so many of us are on. I am happy to say right now.. we are on the “up” side.

This year I still kept with tradition and did #pinkforRochelle on FB for all of our friends and family to participate in a balloon release in honor of her name, or just wearing pink/doing something in her honor.  It was so nice to see so many friends/family participate!

We were going to do our own balloon release, but God had other plans and it was POURING the entire day of the event, so we cancelled it and just did a craft with all of the kids with the balloons and made the most of her sweet memories.  Now that we have 3 boys (who didn’t know our sweet precious Rochelle) we got to tell her amazing life, battle, and story in those 2 months and 1 day, and how Brielle will forever be bonded to her baby sister (she still talks about her quite often).

We love you Rochelle Elaine Johnson ♥♥ Happy 2nd heavenly birthday!!

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©2016 Sheridan Johnson @Journey with the Johnsons. All Rights Reserved.

 

Lucky number 3!

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The past 3 months, have completely flown by and I cannot believe on her 3 months with us, we got 3 more children to add to the clan!!

Between the weekly visits with her parents(we have to drive almost 2 hours there and 2 hours back) each Tuesday, to the endless amount of doctors/therapy visits.. she definitely keeps us busy!

She is already loved by SO many, and I seriously can’t believe our precious girl is already 7 months old! It has been just recently that she is losing all of “newborn” tendencies and it’s so amazing to witness the growth in her brain, and also her extremities.  She is such a miracle in every possible way, and we love that we get the honor of sharing life with her and can’t wait to see what the next few months hold for her!

She has really adapted to our home, our environment, our crazy schedule and all of the kids so well, it amazes me.  She is so familiar with “her people” that she will smile SO big when she recognizes a familiar face (it’s the cutest thing, literally).

We still don’t have her sleeping away from us in her own crib in her room yet.. but we definitely foresee that in the near future (since her adjusted age–the age she was actually born at would only be 3 months old, we are waiting until she gets closer to 4-5 months old for the big transition).

She is also still teething.. like major time! Baby girl even ran a high fever for 3-4 days with no other signs/symptoms even sent us on a trip to the ER. Still as of today.. no teeth! Little girl is a drooling/teething machine lately!

Thank you for all the love for the her, for the gifts from people (especially my parents–y’all are amazing) and for all the help each of you have provided in her short life, and all the love you have given not only baby girl, but to all of my children!

Can’t wait to watch baby girl soar and grow into such a big girl soon!
(Update**She officially rolled over front to back for the first time ever on Monday  11/07/16)

Here are some pictures.. which of course I have to blur/black out her face due to foster regulations and rules!

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©2016 Sheridan Johnson @Journey with the Johnsons. All Rights Reserved.