Three Months With Kaylee Grace!!!

How can it be that we have only had Kaylee Grace for 3 months??? It seems as if she's been with us all along...and just to think of all that Jesus has done in such a short amount of time!!!

We were reflecting on all that He has done over the last few months as a family the other day. Kolson was remembering back to China and how she just screamed/cried or was completely shut down. We laughed as we remembered how she didn't play with toys there at all (only food and a ball a time or two!) Now you would never know that she missed out on playing for the first 2 1/2 years of her life...thank goodness for 3 siblings that LOVE to play with her! 

Sis and I were watching her play with her baby the other day ~ she uses the play coffee maker in her little kitchen as a bottle warmer. Ha! It's hilarious!!! She watches me heat up her bottles in the bottle warmer on our counter 4x's per day so I can see how she would play that way. It's the cutest thing ever...she warms it, makes the beeping noise, takes it out and says, "haw, haw" for hot! Then she gets her baby and ever-so-carefully places the bottle to its mouth...after a few seconds she makes the sound for "all done" (with her mouth closed)...and she does this over and over. Then she holds her baby close and rocks her back and forth and then lays her down on a blanket and tells us "shhh" (by putting her finger pretty much up her nose) :)

When I'm making Kaylee's bottle and take her bottle out of the warmer, I always use a paper towel because the steam really is warm. Well, the other day Kaylee was playing with her baby and while the bottle was "heating" in her play coffee pot, she ran into the bathroom and got some toilet paper and then ran back and used it to pull the bottle out saying "haw!!!, haw!!!" 

It's amazing to think that a little girl who had zero play and zero stimulation just 3 months ago can now play like this! Our God is an AWESOME God....He cares for the least, the last and the lost and we have felt His favor go before us in the most beautiful ways imaginable. 

Sometimes I think about Kaylee's birth mom and the JOY of this sweet girl that she is missing. I wonder if she thinks about Kaylee. Mostly I pray for her and Kaylee's birth father. I truly believe that this is the best gift we will ever be able to give Kaylee...praying that her birth parents will somehow be told about Christ and that they will make the decision to follow Him so that they can live eternally in Heaven with Him; and so that they can meet their precious girl.

I wish somehow I could tell her mom all about her...

how smart she is

how funny she is

how filled with JOY she is

how beautiful she is

how her giggle is the most beautiful noise we've ever heard

how she has a family who loves her and will teach her all about Jesus

how her surgeries went well and she can see better and hear better and she is starting to try to talk and her hands are functioning wonderfully!

But all I can do is pray that her birth mom will encounter the ONE TRUE GOD, JESUS, and say YES to His Love and YES to following Him. Nothing is too difficult for our God and I truly believe that as we persist in prayer, He will send someone to her birth parents to tell them of His Love...whether they choose to follow will be up to them, but I pray that He will open their hearts as only He can and that they will say yes :)

Here's some more about our Kaylee Grace at 3 months with her (2 1/2 months home):

She LOVES her Sissy and Brothers!!!

She LOVES to play outside

She really seems to be bonding amazingly well

She is doing MUCH better with Brodie - she is fine with him doing pretty much everything except for putting her to bed and a bottle (unless I'm not home - she took a bottle once from him when I was gone)

She is beginning to sleep better this last week or so (still in her crib next to our bed but falls asleep laying in there, rubbing my arm or with me rubbing her back -rather than needing to fall asleep on me ;) Sleeps pretty soundly most nights from about 10pm-4am...wakes up, takes a bottle and then falls back asleep for about another hour or two---takes us a while to get her down still but we're heading in the right direction ;)

She is beginning to say words: hiiii (Hi), hoe (home), ha-eee (happy), uh (up), ahh (out), maw-ma (mama - only said a few times), eye,  heh (help), aww (off)

Still no solid foods or even water but still in OT working on it ;)

LOVES music and dancing...and if you're in the room while she's dancing, she will call you out by pointing to you to get you to dance :)

Tantrums are MUCH better...LOTS of hitting and pulling hair instead (while "yelling"/grunting loudly at us) ...this is so much better than the tantrums that would last so long...now we just tell her "no hit" or "no pull hair" and put her in a "time-in" (where Brodie or I take her away and sit with her until she is "ready to be nice"...which she can indicate to us by using the sign for nice). No time-outs with children from backgrounds where they've been pretty much isolated their whole  life, sitting with them keeps them from being left alone but helps them to gain self-control...this seems to be working well and hitting/pulling hair seems to be getting a little better ;) After she tells us she is ready to be nice, she goes and nicely touches the person she hit/pulled hair (usually Sis or Keeg) ;)

Attention span is slowly increasing...will sit in high chair for about 5-10 minutes while we eat (with food to play with) and occasionally plays with something (like her baby) for 5-10 minutes :)...she could play outside for hours!

Walking steadily now and running well, too!

Still cannot stand for us to brush teeth (this has been put on hold with all the eye/ear meds she has had) or let us clip nails, but if I ask her to bring me the nail clippers she will run and get them for me...then she hands them to me an starts to cry :(

The biggest change we have seen in the last couple of months since we've been home has been Kaylee Grace feeling comfortable and peaceful...she was so terrified, overstimulated and confused at first. Now she runs around this house like she is the one in charge ;) 

We LOVE seeing her growing into who her Heavenly Father created her to be!!!

Here's that giggle that we love to hear...and we LOVE that we are hearing it more often these days!!!

One Month Home

Yesterday marked one month since we have been home! We are adjusting to our new normal and loving watching this sweet girl blossom! We are so thankful for our church family providing meals for us! It has allowed our afternoons to be more focused on the big kids ~ playing with them and helping with HW. We've enjoyed the slowness of this season...lots of outdoor kick ball games and movie nights ;) Kaylee is really coming along! She has started speech therapy where we are working on helping to grow her vocabulary and understanding of what things are...as well as learning some basic signs so she can communicate. She's doing great and picking up so quickly on sign language! Right now as I type this, she is taking a nap in her bed (that is pushed up against our bed in our room). We will eventually transition her to this bed at night time and eventually she will move out of our room ~ Sissy has said that she'd like to share a room with her, so we may try that! I'm thinking she will need to share for a while until she really learns to trust and feel safe.

Sleeping on her bed! She took a 3 hour nap!!!!! She wakes up every 45 minutes or so and if she sees me sitting there, she goes right back to sleep ;)  I try to stay in our room with her when she naps so that when she wakes up here and there she will go right back to sleep. This is when I do my Bible time and read :) She normally takes a 2 hour nap

Brodie and I were reflecting yesterday about how far we've come this last month being home. I get a knot in my throat every time I think back to her village and her orphanage. It reminds me every time of the ENORMITY of our God and the DEPTH of His Love...we can't even begin to skim the surface of knowing His All-Powerful Love.

Over and over I reflect on this unfathomable Love...

this Love that sent His Son to die...

this Love that has washed my sins away all because I trust in Him...

this Love that leads and guides me so mercifully everyday. 

Love that would call our family to adopt and say, "Will you love this one for Me?" 

Love that fills me with all that I need every minute of every day... when I feel like I'm not enough, He says, "It's ok...I am More Than Enough!"  

When I start to worry..."why won't she eat solid foods?", "why isn't she talking yet?", "what if she doesn't start to grow soon?" He presses again on my heart, "All I have asked you to do is love her with My Love" and He reminds me that we will see His Glory through the life of this little girl. 

"Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;

His greatness no one can fathom.

One generation will commend Your works to another;

they will tell of Your mighty acts.

They will speak of the glorious splendor of Your majesty;

and I will meditate on Your wonderful works.

They will tell of the power of Your awesome works,

and I will proclaim Your great deeds.

The will celebrate Your abundant goodness

and joyfully sing of Your Righteousness."

Psalm 145: 3-7

We needed to make a quick Costco run last night for school lunches this week :)

Stopped at Panera Bread for a quick bite on our way

Kaylee's First Month

Here's a little more about 1 month with our girl ~

She LOVES music

Loves to dance and clap and get us all to dance with her

Copies (or tries to copy) most everything we do

She likes to lay her baby dolls out on a blanket and tells us "shhh" by putting her finger to her nose, covering up one nostril and blowing out the other side to make the "shhh" sound

Won't say any words yet but mimics our sounds and will use her nose for other sounds as well to try to sound more like us

Still only will drink a bottle (but will take them consistently from us)

She likes it best when everyone is home

Gets sad when she has to say goodbye to the kids for school

Gets excited when anyone comes home (kids or Brod)

She makes us laugh a lot

Her tantrums/melt downs have started to get better as she will now let me comfort her 

Still sleeps in our bed but is sleeping a little better (still wakes 4-5 times a night crying but calms right away now)

Sleeping with her is like wrestling a small bear cub ;) She goes from on top of me to the foot of our bed, to rolling over both me and Brod - she's all over the place! I'm about to transition her to her bed that we have pushed up next to ours with a bed rail at nap time...she's not quite ready for that at bedtime ;)

She does stay asleep now when I roll her off of me once I get her asleep at night

When she lays on me to fall asleep she rubs my arms (she does this to Brod when he holds her when I'm taking a bath)

She likes to "feel" each of our arms and legs (she feels one persons and then points to who is next)

Wants to "eat" everything we do and pretends like she is chewing after she takes a "bite" (pretending)

LOVES her bath

LOVES to go outside

Will now open her mouth to scream (used to scream with it closed)

She feels like she is getting bigger - I think she has gained a couple pounds!

She likes clothes, bows and shoes...likes for us to get her dressed and smiles when we do

Has come a long way with Brodie and really enjoys playing with him. He holds her every night when I take a bath and she just lays on his shoulder -most of the time - she had a big fit about it tonight :(

She giggles when the big exercise ball is rolled towards her and bumps her

She likes to play Ring Around the Rosies

Takes a 2-2.5 hour nap every day (will wake many times throughout to make sure I am sitting there and then goes right back to sleep)

If we get down and put our arms out and say "give me a hug" she will run and hug us

She will let us kiss her lips now (used to turn away) and smiles when we do kiss her lips

We have seen such growth as we have shrunk her world SO small - she is really doing better this way!

Overall I really feel like she has done so well this first month with us! I know we have a long way to go...but we are enjoying this sweet girl so much! We stand amazed at God's goodness and grace - He is so gracious to have brought her so far in such a short time!

 Here's a snapshot of our weekend:

Loving the "big" ball

Here's that FABULOUS giggle...

Music to our ears! When she giggles like that we usually sit there and do whatever amused her over and over until she no longer thinks it is funny ;)

 Our big kids have been playing a lot of kickball in the yard and enjoying this beautiful weather. Look who joined them tonight...

Dear Jesus, please cover Kaylee more and more each day with Your Peace - it is Your Peace that surpasses all understanding! We ask you to surround her with Your Presence and shield her with Your Power. Please give us all that we need to be Your Hands and Feet to this precious girl!

One Week With Kaylee Grace!!!

It's hard to believe it has been 1 week already with Kaylee! In some ways it just feels like she's been with us forever. Here is what we have learned about our sweet Kaylee so far:

She it itty-bitty (12-18 month clothing - size 4 shoe!)
She loves balls
She has the cutest laugh/giggle ever (although we still have seen only a few laughs where her teeth show)
She learns SO fast
She is CRAZY strong
She knows just what she wants and will clearly let us know ;)
She hates having her teeth brushed and her nails clipped
She won't take anything other than her bottle
She thinks it is so funny to throw things and throws everything we put into her hands
She knows her name and all of our names too - when we tell her "throw it to so-an-so" she does
Her eyes have started to track together sometimes when she is looking at things up close (we were told her Strabismus could be just environmental and she may not need surgery- not that we see the progress her eyes have made in just one week we are wondering if that may be the case with her??? One less surgery would be great!)
She likes the Ergo carrier
She loves to sleep on top of Mama - not just next to her. If she wakes up in the night and I have rolled her off of me, she will crawl back on top of me and hitch her leg over me like I'm a horse - then she goes right back to sleep
She now knows the kids are FUN and she laughs right when they walk in the room and immediately looks for something to throw so that they can retrieve it for her ;)
She let's Brodie play with her and knows that he is the one who makes her bottles and watches him very closely when he is making them.
She finds the most random things amusing and we never know what will make her start to giggle - sometimes we think she is starting to cry (like if there is a loud noise or if she falls...the kids shuffling their UNO cards, opening and closing the curtains, the wheat thins box) but really it is her starting to laugh.

We woke up feeling a little better this morning...THANK YOU all for praying! We also slept better last night...we so appreciate all the prayer! We ended up going on the local shopping trip with our group so that we could get Kaylee some Jade and Pearls for when she is older. It was a CRAZY experience- people everywhere - probably a million or more people in the shopping area that we were in. We got 3 Jade necklaces (one for each of us girls) in the shape of a circle which in chinese means "united family". We also got her some pearls for her wedding day.

Johanson Fam in our shirts that the Shabaglians got us....thank you Shabaglians! So fun!!!

One small section of where we went for the pearls and jade

Kaylee's pearls for her wedding day

Brodie is getting the jade necklaces with Rebecca helping him negotiate 

Hot and sweaty!

Rebecca keeps commenting on how great Kaylee's skin and hair is looking - she has visited Suixi many times and saw her before she was with us

Crazy sea of people shopping

The M n M man at the grocery store

Some of the videos of her yesterday.....

Thank you all again for praying! It means the world to us!!! We feel covered and lifted up :)  Please continue to pray for our health and for sweet bonding :)  3 more days until we head home!!! China has  been such a blessing for us to all see and know more about Kaylee's birth place - but it is hard work (all good hard work) and we are ready to come home and start really adjusting!

Introducing.....Kaylee Grace Ting Johanson

She's here!!!! We met in the lobby at 2:00 with our entire travel group from Lifeline and drove to the Civil Affairs office. We walked in and as soon as we got to the 8th floor Kennady spotted Kaylee through the curtain in the playroom (they keep the children in a playroom and all of the adoptive families stay out in the big open room and you get called one by one). She was walking around and stood at the curtain and was looking right at us! I had to get my camera out and take a few pictures (which I wasn't supposed to do ;). She was in an Alabama cheer uniform...ha! Too cute! Our guides gathered us all together, had us get our paperwork out and then just as we were getting our cameras all ready they called us - we were first! Her orphanage director walked her out and I got down and scooped her up ;)  She was really whimpery at first and then as soon as we had to walk out away from the curtain (so other families could get their children) she started really crying - poor thing was just terrified. I could feel her little heart beating out of her chest. She would calm down for a while here and there but if I moved to walk to the other side of the room it would all start up again. She HATED the elevator ride - I had her in the carrier and she just about pushed her way out of it - both on our way down and when we went up in our hotel - too bad we are on the 27th floor! When we were in the Civil Affairs office, she watched EVERYTHING that went on around her - she paid attention to each child that was being adopted in our group - in fact, that was about the only time she's stop crying was when she became so fascinated with watching the other children cry...very curious and noticed everything that went on around us. She didn't like going to the busy supermarket with people everywhere and cried the first few minutes but quickly calmed down and just hung out in the carrier - I could still see in her eyes that she was terrified. So glad I have that carrier! She seemed to feel much more secure once we put her in it. She wouldn't really look into my eyes yet - she tried to avoid looking at me at all for the first little bit but then would check me out every once and a while. At first when I would tap her and say, "Kaylee, Ting-Ting" (they called her Ting-Ting) and then tap myself with her hand and say "mama" she would whimper...but by the end of the evening before she fell asleep she would just stare at me when I said it. We could not get her to eat a thing at all! I had to feed her with a syringe (with water and juice - which is what REbecca told me to try) --- but even with that she fought us so hard that I could barely get any in - her diaper was bone dry when we got her and she hasn't wet yet. Rebecca thinks that she will take a big bottle tomorrow. She is TINY! I mean so small -her little ribs stick out and her bottom is so small and boney - we are going to have to fatten her up ;)  But we quickly figured out that her size should not fool us...first we tried to clip her nails (which were like claws and so sharp and jagged) and she was seriously SO strong and fought us so hard that we could not cut them. Then when we tried to feed her with the syringe she used that same strength - crazy strong. But the second we stopped she would calm right down and lay back on my shoulder. Even though she was so sad and scared I feel like she knew she was safe with us - she seemed to accept that we were taking care of her. I feel like today went GREAT overall - although we felt so bad for her little heart she made such progress in just a matter of a few hours! We are going to try to get her to take a little more liquids before we go to bed and we are praying that she will gulp down a bottle tomorrow!

In the lobby about to head out to the Civil Affairs office

Getting on the bus...

Walking up to the Civil Affairs office with our group...everyone is excited and ready!

This is what we saw as soon as we walked upstairs!!!

In a way too big cheer uniform ;)

She was just walking all around checking things out

Here she comes!

They just walked her out towards us

I reached for her

She wasn't too sure....she was already whimpering as soon as I got down to her level

And just kept on whimpering...she had some puffs in one hand and a plastic wrapper in her other hand - her little grip stayed so tight that neither the puffs nor the wrapper came out of her hand until we gave her a bath 4 hours later!

Sooooo... sad :(

Here we are with the Orphanage director and assistant director before they left

The big kids kept trying to calm her down and make her feel better

She just kept crying :(  She watched the director and assistant director leave and that just pushed her totally over the edge...she let out the loudest and deepest cry

After Brodie finished the paperwork he came over to try and hold her

Our big kids were troopers!

Mommy's trying to calm her...

Now Daddy...

She was truly deeply sad - poor girl! We felt so bad

Family picture!

On the bus going to the store...she didn't really cry - just whimper a bit here and there

She was very interested in all of the cars and people on the street - today was her first time so much going on

Heading to the store

Shopping - crazy! 5 families trying to get formula and diapers - people all around staring at us ;)

We got all that we needed!!! Plenty of water!!!

Rebecca (one of our awesome guides!) told me to give her a bath as soon as we got home - I had showed her Kaylee's hand - there was a rash on her hands and she wasn't sure if it may be scabbies or not so she wanted us to really scrub her down. Once she was bathed the rash cleared up :) She didn't love the bath - just kept doing that whimper thing she does. 

She seemed happy to be out :)

Rebecca also told me to rub her down with special lotion since her skin was so flaky and dry

All clean!

Much better!

Sitting with the toys - she really had no interest in them but whatever we put in her hand she would hold onto and not let go of

I could tell she was so tired but she was fighting it so hard - I finally got her to relax on me and she laid there for about 45 minutes

Finally out - what a SWEETIE! 

The big kids LOVE their baby sister! We think she's the best!!!

I can tell that she really has such a sweet side to her - she just kept laying her head on me and every once and a while she would pat my back (as I was patting hers). She also has such a strong side - which we LOVE! She knows what she wants and is not afraid to let us all know! And the second she gets it, she is fine - the big kids thought that was hilarious how quickly she could go from screaming her head off to calm ;) I think Kolson put it best tonight..."Kaylee is the best little sister ever!" We feel so blessed to FINALLY get to love on her. In some ways it really feels like she has always been a part of us - she didn't feel unfamiliar at all - I'm sure it's because the very One who knit her perfectly together has been knitting our hearts together all this time :) We are truly grateful! Please pray that this sweet one will eat tomorrow :)