anniversary

And here we are.. 6 years later!

October 10, 2016by Sheridan Johnson5 Comments

cheers

Wow, I can’t believe we have been married for 6 years already and together for almost 12! We have literally grown up together, and I am so glad that we have made it this far. Seriously, time has really flown by.

I can’t believe we survived me going to nursing school, and then getting pregnant in nursing school (twice..) and then having to lean more on God than ever when yet another one of children were diagnosed with a terminal illness. 90% of couples who have lost a child, end up in a divorce. While that is not our case (and hopefully never will be), it has not always come easy to us. We both have had to put the work, dedication, time, and love in each other that each of us deserved to make this marriage flourish and even at times thrive.

All I know is that we made sacred vows to each other, and we will be there for each other for richer or poorer and in sickness and health.

LOVE you babe! Happy Anniversary!! ❤

celebration, Family

11 years down…

March 12, 2016by Sheridan Johnson1 Comment

I cannot believe Shane and I have been dating for 11 years!! Where in the WORLD has all the time gone??

So much as happened that I feel like I want to take a trip down memory lane for my lovely readers!

2005- The year we met and became “official”, I was a little 16 year old teenager, and he was the “older man” (lol), 17, and about to graduate HS.

2006-I drove 5 hours to go visit Shane at Cisco Junior college and spent the night in the boys dorms.. um gross! lol

2007-I graduated HS, went to Shane’s first family reunion (and was SO overwhelmed by the amount of people in his family).

2008- Still doing our long-distance relationship, and met up more times this year and than ever before.

2009- We got engaged a week before I turned 21, and realized that romantic dates involving kayaking, canoeing, or paddle boats, were not so fun.

2010- We got married!! 10-10-10!

2011-We got pregnant with Lamar!

2012- We lost our precious baby boy.. 07-14-2012. I also graduated RN school 12-12-12.

2013- We welcomed our baby girl Brielle 06-14-2013.

2014- We welcomed our precious Rochelle 11-06-2014 and she passed away 1-07-2015.

2015- We bought our first house!

2016- We got certified/approved to foster/adopt!

We actually just got through with our 3 hour home study!! Hopefully everything went well, and we will be adding to the Johnson family soon!! 🙂

We have been through so much in our lives, but we have remained together through thick and thin because God has a plan for the both of us, and our lives together. We were meant to be together, and take this journey through life with one another.

Please join us in prayer as we leap into this journey with foster or adoption and open our hearts to help another child in need.

20160312_195306 — Beautiful flowers Shane got me!! 🙂

Snapchat-6458660289233835100 — Family love!

20160311_200426-01 — Daddy/Daughter love!

angel, Rochelle

6 months and Reality Sinking In

July 7, 2015July 8, 2015by Sheridan JohnsonLeave a Comment

I didn’t realize that I had to work on this day that we would have celebrated Rochelle turning 8 months old, until I also had a huge realization that I had to also work on the next day, the day that we are mourning her and realizing it has been 6 months since her passing. I am not sure if I subconsciously just agreed to work all Mondays and Tuesdays this month in Austin not knowing that actual dates that I committed to, or that I just realized on July 1st that I am working so many days that I would rather be off and spend them with Shane and Brielle. Crazy thing is, I am scheduled to work on July 14th as well, which is when Lamar would have turned 3!

Today, I was unable to sleep throughout the night and I woke up thinking and asking God “why am I still awake and I cannot sleep, knowing that in 2 hours at 5:30am I am going to have to get up and drive 40 mins to work a 12+ hour work day and drive over 1 1/2 hours home with Brielle tonight?” It wasn’t until I heard Brielle at 5:00am calling me and saying “mommy, come in” which usually means she woke up and she wants to try to go back to sleep in bed with me. I did not know why at the time but I know in her heart that she did indeed feel her sisters presence at this time, and God was trying to speak through both of us and just know that we needed to hug and cuddle and love on each other before I left for work.

Work was spent calling my patients doctors, scheduling appointments, going back and forth with my company about my patient needing to be fully staffed for the month, taking care of her all day, and running errands with the family. It was full and I thought it would keep me from feeling sad, or just letting reality sink in that I would trade anything just to be with Rochelle and Brielle at home and taking care of my girls, but my mind definitely wandered off to that place a few times when my mind was clear.

I know God placed Rochelle in our lives for a reason. Shane and I may not fully understand, but we know that she brought us closer a family, she opened Shane’s eyes to sort of understand my life as a nurse and how much I handle on a daily basis when I work, she brought us closer to my parents and gave us such a safe place at any moment Shane and I just needed a “mental break”, she showed us how much love we have to give and showed us to love both of our girls equally (and even though she was special needs and required much more of our attention) we made an effort on the daily to really have one on one quality time with Brielle, and she really showed us how many opportunities are out there and how many giving and kind-hearted people are willing to serve and love others.

People still continue to ask us if we are going to have more children, or if Shane is going to have the full genetic work-up. The thing is, we have no idea where God is going to lead us in our lives and who knows if we are going to pursue adoption, or try to have another of our own, only God knows that answer so for now we are devouring in the life we are given, and truly realizing how important it is to spend the time and energy with those that you love.

We love you SO much Rochelle, and will never forget all of those precious moments with you!

I always like to leave some of my favorite pictures of her with you all. 🙂

Sleeping peacefully.. at least for a little bit when she was not being held.

Just minutes after meeting her for the first time, I will never forget the way her fingers curled and grasped mine so tight

the last night I was ever able to hold her hand and she was awake all night listening to me talking

perfection--even when she had jaundice! :) — perfection–even when she had jaundice! 🙂

Faith, Family

Recharge

March 16, 2015March 16, 2015by Sheridan JohnsonLeave a Comment

As Shane and I were thinking of things to do to celebrate our 10 years of being together, I really knew anything would be good just to get away for a couple of days. It’s so funny, because any weekend we ever have available to just go for a couple of days, we always want to go to houston to go see Joel Osteen.

We decided to go spend some quality time with my cousin Cara and her husband and three precious children. It was so nice to catch up and spend some quality adult time together. Of course, getting to love on their little kiddos made it that much more fun! We had some great home-cooked dinner and wine and stayed up late just catching up on life. It was so great to talk to them parenthood, marriage, future goals and life in general. It’s not every day that catching up with people your same age can be that fun and entertaining! I am so glad we got to do that, and next time we will definitely bring Brielle to enjoy the fun!

Saturday a little after noon, we left to go out to eat and we couldn’t decide where. We knew it was probably going to be somewhere close to the church, since the service started at 7pm. We decided to take it old school, and enjoy some delicious Fuddrucker’s burgers! It was amazing! After that we still had a few hours to spare and decided to try out Tiff’s treats (which were delicious!) and then Shane surprised me with the opportunity to get pampered (mani/pedi) and I loved every minute. I happened to forget one of my travel bags at Cara’s house (an hour from where we were), so Shane decided he would go back and get the bag for me. It was SO nice and he made it back just in time for a GREAT service at Lakewood Church. If anyone ever has the opportunity to go, you won’t regret it. Seriously, it feels like a Christian concert followed by a great service. We have never been disappointed, and it was just what I needed to hear.

Everyone needs to get a little recharge every now and then and remember how important the foundation (the parents) is! We were so excited to see Brielle and she was definitely ready for us to be home. Thank you to my parents for watching Brielle and allowing us a weekend get-away!