changes

The “good” in goodbye

April 27, 2017by Sheridan JohnsonLeave a Comment

new

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!

Adoption, changes, foster

SURPRISE, this makes 5!

July 30, 2016July 30, 2016by Sheridan Johnson11 Comments

baby girl

Last week, we got a call (during my gym class) about a preemie baby girl that was born 1 lb. 3 oz, but is now 4 mo. old and is ready to be released home from the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). They also stated that this was looking in the direction of possible adoption, if the court agrees with everything that CPS has found out.

I, of course, did NOT hesitate one bit, and said YES, please submit our home study! Well, turns out, we found out the next morning that we were selected as baby girls foster/adoptive parents, and were SO excited!! We actually drove to San Antonio and met with her that day and then was told that either me or my husband had to do an overnight stay at the hospital Friday night in order to be able to leave with her.

Friday night came quick, and my mom and I spent the night, while Shane took the kids to the coast to go fishing with some friends. It was hilarious because baby girl must have known that she was finally released from the NICU and moved to a regular room with no monitors, because she was up practically the whole night. It was so cute to see her personality shine already, and get to know who she is and learn all her little quirks.

The nurses that took care of her, quickly became her family. She was officially in the NICU for 128 days. It was so sweet to meet all of the amazing team that kept her alive and thriving, and to see God work through their amazing skills. She was so tiny when she entered this world, and we got to take home a healthy little girl (with a few problems that I will get to on another post)!

We couldn’t be more happier to be fostering two children and having our own biological child as well! We officially have 3 under 3 and our hands and our hearts are SO full.

Thank you so much for everyone following along our journey and helping in any way that you can. We love and appreciate you all.

Please continue to pray for little mans family and baby girls family as they go through these tough times without their children, and pray that they turn their lives around and lean towards Christ for their answers.

Love,

The Johnsons

P.S Here is a sneak peak of baby girl!

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changes, children, Family

Super Mom

May 8, 2016May 8, 2016by Sheridan Johnson3 Comments

Mother’s Day has come once again and I could not be more happy to be a mom/have a great mom!

I have accepted and embraced the fact that my children are where they should be and there is nothing I could/would want to change about that. It took me a great deal of time to come to this point in my grief journey, and I know some days are definitely worse than others, but I know God’s right there with me through this healing process.

But this day isn’t about me… it’s about my mom. Let me just tell you a little bit about her and why she is so amazing. My mom has been through a tough times, and had to make some adult decisions early on in her life. With getting married and divorced at such a young age, she was left with raising two kids on her own. She never gave up. She continued on to getting her Masters, all while working full-time and raising two children. I am sure there were moments where she probably just wanted a “break” and throw in the towel. Well, good thing she never did, because her desire and drive to love unconditionally and have a great work ethic passed on to my brother and I.

She fought for us in every situation (even when the daycare said that we did something wrong–she stuck up for us). She gave us freedom to attend any camps during the summer that we were interested in and gave us the ability to learn how to make decisions early on in our childhood that would help mold us as adults.

Just when we thought she had done it all, she amazed us by graduating with her PhD from the University of Texas. My brother and I have never had the educational drive like her to further our careers (well, at least not yet), but she instilled in us that you must get a good education if you want a good job.

When we both became parents for the first time, she was the person we wanted in the room (me) or on the phone (my brother). Nana will forever be her name now, and I know that makes her so happy to be called that (and trust me, it’s usually one of the first words our kids learn to say).

She is super Mom because even though my and brother are both grown adults (27 &28), we will always know that our mom is just a phone call, text, or drive away if we ever needed her.

We love you forever mom,

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