My Story

I was recently asked to write my story for a family in Budapest Hungary. It is a blessing to be able to share who I am and what makes me who I am. I figured I would share it with you as well :)

I was diagnosd when I was four. I was tiny. I was fiesty! My family was pretty unsure what to think when they first heared "Turners Syndrome." In a blur of doctors and tests, they quickly realized that I was still the same child as I was the day before. My parents were my cheerleaders, support, and biggest advocates. Having Turners for me meant continuous ear infections and a suppressed immune system. I was always getting sick with this and that, but my mom and dad taught me how to take good care of myself. They always asked the questions that needed to be asked and made sure I had the best care. I had wonderful doctors and have been very blessed in my life. Many children who go through lots of medical care grow to fear or hate doctors. I have quite the opposite feeling about doctors. I never hesitate to call my doctors or talk to them about something I am concerned about. God has always provided wonderful doctors that have taken great care of me. I have also been fairly lucky to have only minimal health issues. The most difficult issue to date since I am now married is that I can not get pregnant. It has been emotionally difficult for me to feel inadequate, but God has changed my heart. He created me. I am perfect to God. God has walked with me through my entire life. I became a Christian as a fifteen year old with friends that showed me what it was like to live like Christ. God came into my life and showed me what a beautiful creation I was.
I have always said that I have brown hair, green eyes, and Turners Syndrome. It is just part of who I am. God knew I was going to have Turners as he knit me in my mother's womb. He knew it before the doctors did. He also knew that he was going to take great care of me and knew the issues I would face. As a girl, we struggle with issues of self image. A Turners woman has an even bigger battle to face. Our bodies are not shapped exactly the same and do not function exactly the same, but God created us this way. We are just as beautiful as the next girl. God knew I was not going to carry a child so he blessed me with an amazing husband who loves me despite my flaws. God knew that I would struggle with weight and hypothroidism so he put people in my life that could teach me how to eat right and live a healthy life. Having Turners is just a part of who I am. It is not something wrong with me. I am beautiful. I am a child of God and he loves me the same.

Long time, no Blog

Hello dear blog world. Not sure who reads, but I shall write anyways.

It has been a wild ride the last 8 months. Our dog had puppies and October-January is kind of a blur of vets, dog poop, and selling puppies. Now they are gone and all is back to normal.

Nothing else much going on. We are sitting here eating pizza and watching tv. A normal Saturday afternoon. It is 6:30 pm and i am still in my pjs. It is a beautiful thing! I cleaned, but mostly got to be lazy which I haven't done since school started in August....remember the puppy thing so I did not get to relax over Christmas break...... oh well.

We spent Christmas with his parents this year. It was a blast with all of this aunts and cousins and immediate family. We got the first day of our trip to spend with just the 5 Larry Johnsons. It was a very fun evening. I really wish Kimberly lived closer. I hate that she is all the way in Oklahoma. :( I love when we get to see her.

Tomorrow we are going to a first birthday party for our friends sweet baby girl. She is precious, very fiesty, but precious. It will be a tons of fun.

I am learning a lot this second year of marriage. We are going on 18 months of being married now. Each month, each day is different. It is a blast having my best friend around every day. I am very proud of him. He started school this week to do something to better the future of our famliy. It was a very important decision for us. it was something that needed to get done. I was a bit in an internal struggle because if he started school then we had to put off adoption for at least 2-3 more years, but if he did not go to school, then it would not set our family up to be the best we could be. Now, we get 3 more beautiful years together before we welcome sweet babies into our life. It is a precious gift God has given us to take the time together. I am so very proud of my husband for doing this.

I have been a little on the emotional side in the end of 2010. So with 2011, I vowed to have a better attitude and better outlook. The first Sunday of the new year, our pastor preached on the verse "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in all things give thanks to the Lord." It was pretty convicting because I had gotten into a habit of complaining about everything around me, mostly the dog poop. :) haha I realy am looking forward to 2011. 2010 was very rough and I hope to see some really great things happening in 2011.

Hello world

Well summer is continuing to drag on. I am home by myself all day with the dogs. We got a new dog. He is a 7 year old lab named Jasper. I did not pick the name but it works for him. We have been on the go since school got out in May. Only on the weekends though. The week days have been dragging on while Chad is at work. I have been running with the dogs, watching movies, cleaning, and laundry. WOO HOO! But our weekends have been awesome. We went to the Houston Astros game and spent the weekend in Katy with Chad's family and cousins. We went to Beorne for his family reunion. It was tons of fun seeing all the Johnson people again. We went to Schlitterbahn and played games. We ate tons of amazing food! THen we went to the beach with just his immediate family. It was a special time we just got to hang out and relax. Unfortunately his mom has gotten sick, so we cut the beach trip short. She had to have her gallbladder taken out. SHe JUst got out of surgery about 20 min ago. She is resting and will feel so much better very soon.
Well I am about to go to Ohio on the 13th. Haley just had her baby. Dillan Renne was born June 28, 2010 around 9 pm. She was 5 lbs and 10 oz. SHe is perfect and adorable. They are all doing well. I can't wait to go see them.
Not much else to say, but Love you!

Getting to know Mrs.J

1. Do you have a fetish?my house being dirty

2. Do you sing in the shower?If I am in a really good mood I will, i mostly sing in the car

3. Who was your first crush? Patrick Edward Coggins, Jr. He is a marine in Iraq right now. He is married with a baby girl. We were neighbors since we were 5. His birthday is Valentines Day and it always bugged me because from Feb 14 to May 19 we were the same age but I really am older :) Praying for ya PC, come home safe!

4. What do you think is the best manly trait a guy could have?Manly trait? I love that Mr J can fix, build, or grill anything. I mostly love that he can fix anything. He is so handy. I also love his sense of forgiveness and letting nothing stay between us.

5. Do you sleep naked?Ask Mr. J

6. What do you do when (you think) no one is looking?the same as when they are looking...

7. What's the first thing you do when you go online?facebook, blogs, then email

8. Summer is.....?No work. =] Just around the corner! Kids are out Wednesday. I am done next Wednesday! :)

A funeral for my attitude :)

I am celebrating the death of my bad attitude. I have been kind of negative and a butthead lately due to recent events.  I am choosing this morning and promised my husband that this is the death of that attitude. The message at church was very simple but hit me right in the heart.  I am going to be filled with the joy of the spirit and speak with loving kindness.  I will strive to be the essence and fragrance of Christ daily.  I will fail.  I will make mistakes. I may have a bad day or so, but I am going to battle with the strength God gave me to be joyful.  So here it goes! :)

We started going to a new church. We were kind of tired and not pleased with the church we were going to.  It has been a learning experience as a married couple to find where we fit in. It has been weird for me to find where Chad fits in to the thigns of the last 5 years of living in College Station.  With that said, my college church was definitly not the place for us and that is ok.  The Lord spoke very clearly to us on that point.  We are LOVING First Baptist Bryan so far and can not wait to see where it takes us.  

Well right now Chad is at the store and wouldnt let me go or tell me anythign about where he was going. I am guess it has something to do with my birthday on Wednesday! :) 

There is more to stay but I can sum it up by saying Summer is only days away now and school is out!

Springtime!

I do not like cold weather. I am sick from September to February! Actually..it is still march and I have 2 more days of Antibiotics for my ruptured ear drum courtisy of sinus infection. Spring is FINALLY here.  Right now Chad is making hamburger patties and fired up the grill! The sun is out and flowers are starting to bloom. It is such a refreshing time of year. I love seeing new colors and being outside.  I can finally breath again and enjoy being awake and out of bed :)

My kids are growing up so much as we get closer to the summer and they are almost Kindergarteners.  I am so very proud of how far they have come this year.  

I don't have too much to say except that thigns are going really well for us right now.  We had come together and found are place of contentment.  The Lord has brought me dear friends who has sent me messeages of verses and love. He has sent me an incredible husband. He has spoken sweet comfort to me and showed both of us his love.  Our family is his and he knows the plans he has for us.  

Love you all so very much! 

Karen

A Heavy Heart

Caution: This is a very blunt post about my feelings right now. Read as much as you wish to know.

My students are "asleep" which means I am watching them wiggle and roll on their mats and trying to get them to rest.
About two weeks ago, a student at our school was killed in a four wheeler accident. The mother is my "personal trainer" ( I use parenthasies because she does not charge and it is a group of us that she works with up at the school) and a very dear friend. I cannot wrap my mind around the pain she much be going through. My heart is broken for her. It is also painful to watch the small chilren of our school, mainly his classmates, go through this at such a young age. Their best friend died. He was so young and full of life. He was a believer already and is waiting for us all in heaven, probably playing basketball or something he loves. His siblings have returned to school and are doing well, but my heart is still broken for my grieving friend. We miss her deeply and despereately here at school. She is such an encouragment to many of us. She brings me such joy with her smile everyday. My prayer for her is to find peace and find some sense of normal in their new road as a family. I hope she can find her way to school soon and return to us.
My second heartbreak right now is a baby. Being a mother has been my wish my entire life, but I have also been told all of my life that it would not be possible. I always told myself that if I prayed hard enough and wished long enough that I would become pregnant when I got married. When I met Chad, my heart for adoption grew bigger and became more real to me, but I still told myself that when I was older I would get pregnant because I wanted it so bad. We both want children. We want our family with little ones running around. We also have been praying for a long time about when we should have children. We wanted them fairly quickly after we got married and knew we would more than likely hit road blocks. We wanted to start the very long road to parenthood under God's will and see what was ahead. We have talked extensively and prayed abudantly what should happen. We know that I do not need to be off any of my medicines including the bc. We also know that we DO NOT want to do fertility drugs and in vitro and mess with my body. Both of these make me a crazy person and that is not good for any human I am in contact with :)
So basically, we want to get pregant or we will adopt. We just feel like why try SO hard and screw u my body chemistry when there are precious babies that need homes and families to provide for them. This is where is become VERY hard for me. There have a been a few moments that we thought I might be with child, but no such luck. After thinking about it, I do not want my child to hvae to deal with my medical issues so conceiving has become almost a bad idea to me. I also would love to feel that baby move in my belly. I would love to have belly pictures and I would love to feel it grow inside of me. I know this is not for me. God has spoken to us and we know that adoption is for us. God is working on my heart to fall deeply in love with a child destined to be ours. I am just not good at waiting. We will have to wait until he is done with school adn we can afford a house. We want to be ready, stable, and prepared for a child. I am just learning to love the waiting game. I am learning to rely on God to carry us through. God is working on our marriage, on us as individuals, and on my heart. I love my job, and I am not ready to be a stay at home mom. It is a weird place to be in, and my husband is so very supportive. He is my champion, my hero, my best friend. He is going to be a fabulous father some day and I cannot wait to see that. We are still so young and have many greay years ahead. I just need to be patient and wait. I need to wait on the Lord's will. I need to wait until my husband is done with school. I need to wait until we have a good home to live in as a family. I pray that this journey grows me. I pray daily for the child that will someday be ours. I pray for the family that has to part with a child that we can give it life. My heart is heavy. The Lord is good and he knows what he is doing. OK I am done. THe kids are awake. Love ya, see ya, bye!