Emma's Gotcha Day Video

It's finally done. I have struggled with creating it because I wanted it to be perfect and those who know me know what a perfectionist I am. I finally had to let the worry go and find the joy of reliving this moment again. Every time I see it, tears come to my eyes. My goal was to finish it for National Adoption Awareness month and I did. The thank you notes however are still being finished, so for those who have given our sweet girl a gift and haven't received a thank you, please know how deeply we appreciate your love and kindness for us and I will be sending a thank you note! Enjoy!

"E" is for Everything We Ever Dreamed of...

We are so in love with her. Our journey is everything we ever dreamed of when God placed the desire to adopt on our hearts. This experience has been so much more than we could have hoped for. How blessed we are to be her parents. The past couple of nights have been wonderful. Monday night Emma slept all night. Ryan and I were amazed and rested! Last night she was up for just a few minutes but quickly went back to sleep. We are so proud of her. She is also getting more independent and has been walking behind her ride along lion. She's saying many words and mimics what we tell her to say.

She loves stuffed animals, especially ones with UK on them! ;o)

Happy 9 Months Emma Yeirin

Emma Yeirin Johnson-November 2, 2009

Our sweet Emma is 9 months old today. We also have the joy of celebrating her being home 5 weeks. It's amazing how much she has changed and learned over the past 5 weeks. Everyday she does something new and exciting. She has bonded and attached to us so well. Her personality is easy going and funny. Her little legs are always on the move and she loves to explore. So, Emma, on your 9 months of life, these are 9 things we love about you:

1. The way you smile at your brother no matter what he says or does

2. When you look at us and say "Momma" and "Dadda"

3. We love the peculiar way you sit in the floor with one leg behind you

4. The way you curl up your toes

5. How you wake up from your nap, press the music player, and dance in your crib

6. The way you blow your nose when Daddy shows you how

7. The way you kick and squeal when it's bath time

8. How you growl at us

9. The way you try to stand up in the middle of the floor

Emma's First Halloween

Emma had her first Halloween tonight. She and Chase had lots of fun visiting family and collecting goodies. This was the first time I have tried to put her hair up in pigtails and it seemed to work. I am going to have to get some tips from other mothers with daughters! Growing up, I was a tomboy so I never got into the cute hair styles... We are so thankful to be able to experience her first Halloween with her. It is amazing to think a few months ago we were hoping to have a referral for a daughter this month, and God is so amazing that He brought her home before we were even due for a referral! I can only say that God has a special plan for her life and the life of our family. We hope that everyone who hears about our journey will hear how God's hand was in all of it. We give Him the glory.

Our first stop was Mema's house. Emma didn't know what fun she was about to have!

Look at that handsome football player and the most adorable little cheerleader I have ever seen. She sure does love her big brother.

Future UK football star and cheerleader

Go Big Blue!

The Whole Gang:

It's hard to believe our family has doubled in children in just two years...

Who knows what the next two years will bring-Kim may have something to say about that! ;o)

Halloween Party

Today Emma and I attended Chase's 2nd grade Halloween party. Emma enjoyed the excitement and seeing her big brother. Last night was a better night for sleeping at the Johnson house. Emma went down around 10 and we didn't hear from her again until 5 this morning. She took a bottle and went back down until we woke her up at 7 this morning. We are trying to get her up earlier each day and put her to bed a little earlier. She was tired this morning and took a nap from 8:30 until 10:00. After a quick nap this afternoon, she is hopefully down for the night. Tomorrow will be a big day for a little cheerleader. More to come...

Emma and Chase playing in the clothes basket

What a sweet face...

Night Owl

The title and the outfit are fitting considering Emma didn't go to sleep until 1 o'clock this morning. She is quite the night owl these days. We are still trying to get her nighttime routine sorted out. She is doing better in her car seat! We are thankful for that. Here's a few pictures from the past couple of days.

Does she look sleepy to you? This was taken around 12:30, yes after midnight!

Ready to play...

Emma is crawling everywhere. When she gets to her desired location, she pulls up to stand in order to see what she can get into.

The sweetest face... I love the twinkle in her eyes.

I have never been much of a housekeeper. Nana and Granny raised me better. But these days I can't keep the mountain of toys picked up either...

Emma loves music. Here she is checking out Barney songs.

1 Month Home,Pumpkin Patch, Pumpkin Carving

As I write this, I can hardly believe that a month ago today our sweet girl was on a plane to meet us for the first time. We were waiting anxiously and excitedly for the moment when we would hold her in our arms forever. She has come so far in the past 4 weeks. I am so thankful that God allows us to be her parents. Ryan and I can't imagine what life would be like without her. We don't really think about the fact that we didn't give birth to her, but instead about the unconditional and immeasurable amount of love we have for her. Last night she was playing and for the first time, we noticed that she was really thinking and figuring out how that toy worked. It was so nice to see her interact like that. We are blessed to have two wonderful children and we know that God has been so good to us.

This weekend we went to Jackson's Orchard to pick out a pumpkin and enjoy the apple goodies they have. The weather was great! Emma wasn't sure about the pumpkins at first. Especially when we plopped her down in the middle of a bunch of them. Her hesitation only lasted until the top was cut off. She loved playing with the insides of the pumpkin and even wanted to taste the mush. She was very curious about what was inside the pumpkin and liked squishing the pumpkin mush between her fingers. Chase and Dad did a wonderful job carving the perfect Jack-O-Lantern. Emma liked to see it lit up at night.

Our first post-placement visit is today. I'm sure Emma will love the company!

Funny Face

This is hilarious. Emma has this new face that she makes. There's no way I can describe it, so I took a picture of it. It's even funnier in person. We have it on video, but it won't upload to the blog... She does it when we give her the baby doll that she has played with since she came home. Aside from her new funny face, she has boycotted the car seat altogether. She literally cries and screams the whole time she's in the car. Any of you who have any suggestions, we'd love to here them. She also has a new thing where she shakes her head no when she doesn't want to do something. Little Miss Emma is getting quite the personality. She did sleep better last night. She went down at 10:30, had a bottle at 12:00 and stayed down until 6:00 this morning. We woke up and Ryan and I looked at each other and said, "Did you get up?" We were pleased to learn both of us slept for 6 hours straight!

Our little Minnie Mouse...

Notice Emma is right in the mix... She wants to be just like Daddy and brother...

Emma is such an explorer. Here she's learning more about spiders...

So Sweet

Emma is learning to do new things everyday. It's hard to believe that just 3 short weeks ago she was sitting up and falling over and now she is crawling, pulling up to everything, and even trying to stand up in the middle of the floor! She babbles all the time and her sweet smile and adorable laugh is such a blessing.

I am amazed at how wonderful the transition has been for our family. Here's a snapshot of the Johnson gang lounging around. Notice Emma is sucking her thumb and playing with big brother.

Here's Emma standing alone and even letting go with one hand to show me her red ball.

Did I mention how much I love this sweet girl?

Emma loves her big brother!!!

Holding Violation, Barn Service, 1st Post Placement Visit

Well, we've had a holding violation! This weekend, we invited Gran, Pap, and Mema to join us for some chili. Emma is continuing to crawl and pull up to everything. Emma happened to crawl to Mema (great-grandmother) and pulled up to her. Mema took the opportunity to put Emma in her lap. You know great-grandmothers... Emma didn't mind and liked playing with Mema's necklace. For those of you who are counting down, 3 weeks tomorrow!

Emma was so cute yesterday. We were playing one of her Korean children song CDs that her foster parents sent and she actually started singing along to the chorus (or what I believe to be the chorus). It was so funny! We might have a future singer on our hands.

I want to wish Nana a Happy _ _ th Birthday!!! She turned _ _ on Sunday! We love you enough not to tell everyone you're 50!!! ;o) We enjoyed celebrating with her!

We had our annual church Barn Service yesterday. Our church meets at a barn and we have food, fellowship, worship, and a funny talent show. Being the wonderful mother I am, I forgot the stinkin' camera!!! Emma was so cute in her pink snow suit. We kept her nice and warm in the carrier. She really liked the grass and tried to eat it. I don't know if she has ever seen it before. She also liked the fire.

We have our first post placement visit next Tuesday. It's hard to believe Emma will be home a month next week! She has continued to bond and learn some many new things. I can't imagine life without her and our family has so many wonderful things to praise God for.

The Holding Violator!!! :o)

Emma enjoyed playing with Gran's measuring tape. Grandmomma Johnson would be so proud!

Look at those two top teeth. There are two more up there working its way down.

Chase was trying out his photography skills..