Christmas Pictures

Here are some pictures of our 1st Christmas together. We were all really sick with pink eye, laryngitis, etc, but it was still wonderful to be the Jernigan family at Christmas. Also, there is a new post under this one about our 1st 6 months home.


Seeing Santa for the 1st time at the FCC Christmas party


Seeing Santa for the 1st time at the FCC Christmas party


After she got her present from Santa, she QUICKLY got out of his lap!


Christmas morning


Christmas morning


Christmas morning


Christmas morning

We have been a family 6 months today!

It's hard to believe it has been 6 whole months since we became a family of 3. The time has gone by so fast and then, in other ways, it seems like Julianna has been with us forever. We can't imagine her not being in our lives. As her Mimi said, she is a miracle! We love her more than words can say.


Julianna in China - June 2009


Julianna at Home - December 2009

My Girl

I wanted to post some bullets to update everybody on how our sweet baby girl is doing:

-Julianna is walking! Not a lot but she is walking some now. She is so proud of herself. She still prefers to crawl since that gets her where she want to go faster.
-She gives the sweetest hugs to us - she will lay her head on our shoulders and pat our backs. Then she will rub our backs. It just melts our hearts.
-She now says "that" when she wants to know what something is. (Sounds more like "dat".) She says "juice" for any kind of drink and shoes which sounds more like "Jews".) Her favorite new word is "cat".
-She can point to her hair, eyes, and mouth. She has a harder time with her nose for some reason.
-When I tell her it's time for her bath, she say "ba". She still loves her bath.
-She LOVES shoes! When she sees her shoes she wants them on immediately! This has us worried that she will be spending lots of money on shoes one day!
-She stayed in the nursery at church for the first time this past Sunday and did great! I think her parents were more worried than she was. :)
-She had her first haircut in the US and didn't like it at all. She didn't cry but whined a lot.
-She loves Baby Einstein videos and learns new words from the videos.
-She loves to swing on her baby swing and take walks in her stroller every day.

We are enjoying every day with her and continue to be thankful to the Lord for this blessing we have been given!


Julianna at 16 months

1st Haircut

My birthday with my baby - my best birthday present ever!


At the park

Just Pictures

I am so behind on my blogging. It's getting harder and harder to find the time to post with a one year old. Today's post will just be pictures. Enjoy!


Julianna peeking around the corner of the living room


Isn't she beautiful??


Crawling to Mama


Crawling closer and closer to Mama


Hey Mama! I'm right in front of you!


Having Fun in her sandbox before we put sand in it


More fun in the sandbox


Julianna's 1st visit to NASA (Thanks for the pictures, Mark!)

1st Birthday Party and Home One Month

Since we were not with Julianna on her 1st Birthday on April 17, we decided to have a 1st Birthday Party this past Saturday, July 18. She turned 15 months on July 17 so we thought it was a good time to celebrate! We had a small party with just family. We had pizza, birthday cake (Thanks for getting the cake for us, Mimi!), and homemade ice cream. Julianna didn't really know what to do with the cake so Mama had to help her get started eating the icing. Of course, I didn't mind since I could live off buttercream frosting. :) She had a great time and played with everybody. Some of her big items that she got were a swing set from Mama and Daddy and a sandbox from Mimi and Pop.

Also, we were home one month on Friday and we are continually amazed at the progress Julianna continues to make. She is crawling now and pulling up on us and on furniture. She is so proud of herself! I am sure she will be walking in no time. She can say duck and dog. She loves playing with her cousins and loves to go on walks in her stroller. She can point out my mouth and nose. She has gained 1.5 pounds since coming home according to the doctor's office. We are so blessed to have her in our lives and we thank God for her every day!

Here are some pics of Julianna's birthday party:

Julianna, Mama and Daddy


Julianna getting read to tear into her cake


Julianna and Mama opening presents


Opening presents with cousin Sarah Beth helping

1 Month Ago Today

It's hard to believe that it's been a month, but one month ago God brought Ed, Julianna and I together as a family. Julianna is the most precious child we could have ever asked for and she is perfect for our family. She is learning and growing every day. She is crawling now - well actually it's an army crawl but she can move all around the house like that. She is also sitting up now from being on her stomach and she is standing a lot with us holding on to her or with her holding on to furniture. She is saying dada, mama, and bye bye. We can ask her where her belly button is and she will pull up her shirt and pat her belly. We have also found two things she won't eat - turnip greens and cabbage. She also loves music and will start dancing when she hears it. It seems like every day almost she is learning new things.

If you are in the adoption process, please remember that there is a reason and a plan for why you are waiting. Jesus has a plan. Isaiah 55:8-9 says "For My thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways My ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." If it would have been up to us, we would have had a child 5 or 10 years ago. But God had a perfect plan to bring us Julianna. I can honestly say that she was WORTH THE WAIT!


Ed,Julianna and I with her Uncle John, Aunt Melanie and cousins Martin, Steven, and Oliver on the 4th of July


Her shirt says "Daddy's Little Firecracker"


4th of July - Our 1st holiday with Julianna


Time for Bed - Her PJ top says "Hand Picked"

Random things about Julianna

1. She loves to eat - anything and everything! Green beans, corn, french fries, creamed potatoes, hamburger meat. The only thing she has not liked is ice cream. We think it's too cold for her.
2. She sleeps very deeply for 10-11 hours a night (Her paperwork was right on this one.)
3. She has learned to wave bye-bye, to do patty cake, and she gives us these big open mouth kisses!
4. She finally likes taking a bath after Mama got in with her. She loves to splash and play with her bath toys.
5. She likes the color orange. It's the color of her favorite bath toy and also her favorite page in her "Who Loves Baby" photo album.
6. She likes to swing on the front porch swing and sometimes nestles her head on my chest as we are swinging.
7. She babbles and smiles constantly.
8. She knows her name and always turns when called.
9. She has gotten clingy to Mama lately which of course I LOVE!!
10. She mimics me putting lotion on my hands and brushing her hair. She will touch the lotion bottle and then rub her little hands together. She will also take her little brush and try to brush her hair.
11.She is the most BEAUTIFUL baby in the world! (OK, I am a little biased.)


Julianna and Mama with her cousins, Anna and Sarah Beth

Julianna and Daddy with her cousin, Will

I love this picture of my little angel!

The Jernigans on our 1st Sunday at our church

WE'RE HOME!!!!

We got home late Wednesday night and it is so good to be in our home with Julianna! After travelling for about 29 hours straight, we were greeted at the airport by our family and friends. It was so good to see everybody although Ed and I agreed that we are not sure what we even said to anybody due to sheer exhaustion. Julianna was very good on the long flight from Shanghai to Atlanta and slept a good bit of the time. It was so sweet to get home and have signs up in the neighborhood and in our home welcoming us and Julianna and a Build-A-Bear was in her room from her friends Cody and Lily. I also heard that one of my friends who I won't name (Joy Hetler) actually picked the lock of our house by using a card! I am wondering if she has done that before. :)

I want to say a special thank you to my sister Trina for keeping my blog up while we were in China and couldn't access it. She is the best sister and friend I could ever ask for and has been a constant support to me over these many years. I love you, Trina!

We have been trying to get on a schedule but we all 3 have our days and nights mixed up. That will work out in time. Julianna and I were able to spend about 6 hours today together alone and everything went great! We hope and continue to pray that God would heal her little heart and mind.

Thanks for all the sweet comments left on the blog. Ed and I have been reading them over the past couple of days. Thanks also for the prayers that have been offered up on our behalf. We could feel them literally in China.

Here are some pictures of our greeting at the airport:

We Love Guangzhou/Red Couch Photos

We got to Guangzhou late Friday night and really like it here so far. It kind of reminds me of Florida with the humid weather and tourist shops. Julianna had her medical appointment yesterday for the US consulate side of the paperwork. Needless to say, there were many tears shed by Julianna. After that we went shopping, and everything is dirt cheap (children's dresses for less than $10). We also went to a McDonald's and had some good American food. All of the stares and people obviously talking about us made us feel like Brad and Angelina:)

On Sunday morning, we went to Christ Church for the morning Chinese/English service. It was a blessing because it's been such a dream of ours to be in church as a family. The pastor preached on being thankful, and we are definitely thankful to the Lord for Julianna. We had the famous "Red Couch" pictures in the afternoon. Let's just say it was traumatic. We did get a picture, but it was not without some major tears.

Julianna can sit and lay between Ed and me on the bed now without tears, and he can get up a little with just some whimpering on her part. She is still laughing and smiling a lot. She also sat on half of my lap and half of Ed's on Sunday for lunch. Here are some pictures of the Jernigans:

Last Day in Nanchang

Today was our last full day in Nanchang and tomorrow we head to Guangzhou for the US consulate stuff. We saw a lot of progress with Julianna today. She has been smiling and giggling most of the day. I started blowing kisses at her and she blew some back at me! She also reached out for me a couple of times and she can now sit for several minutes at a time on Ed's lap facing out instead of always being chest to chest with him. We talked with the UAB clinic and they reassured us that this happens all the time. We just have to keep working with her and be patient since her little world has been turned upside down. Her little smile is the most beautiful thing and can light up the room. She just grins from ear to ear. We toured a pagoda down the street with some of our travel group and went to a grocery store. Pretty interesting trying to buy stuff when everything is in Chinese! Otherwise, it was a pretty low key day spent together just the 3 of us. We are very excited to be going to Guangzhou tomorrow. It's a very large city with lots of shops and actual American type food. We will be staying at the White swan hotel which is famous in the China adoption world. We will complete the American side of the paperwork there and come home next Wednesday!

Here are some pics of the last couple of days: