Litte Girls Room

I love to decorate, especially shabby chic, feminine decor. Painted furniture, soft pastel colors, lace and flowers are my favorite. In preparation for our new little girl, I've been having fun re-doing Ellie's room.

The "old" room had a queen canopy bed, but the room is rather small and the bed took up most of the space. With two little girls needing playspace/sleeping space, well, there just wasn't enough room! I sold the bed and Ellie's old dresser on Craig's list and then my parents gave us a set of white bunkbeds with a matching dresser. The dresser had been an "as-is" purchase years ago and came without the top doors.

We put the bunks and dresser into Ellie's room, and added matching pink tea-cup duvet covers. I rearranged the dollhouse bookshelf (a Target purchase several years ago) and the dresser several times, trying to get the most functional space out of the room.

The room still needed something to give it a more "girly" touch....I love to see how little I can spend when re-doing a room, so I didn't want to spend much money. I tried a couple different curtains, remaking or using what I already had. I ended up taking Ellie's old curtain (Shabby Chic, again from Target several years ago), cutting off the bottom, and inside mounting it. I added some ribbon and loved the end result!

                       Then I took the leftover curtain fabric and made a set of curtains for the dresser!

I found a picture of a painted house in a Pottery Barn Kids magazine, and while painting is not one of my strengths, I decided to try anyway. (I figured I could always paint over it if it was a flop!)
Here's the first step (you can see one of my curtain attempts in this picture, too)

Next came the pink scalloped "roof". I traced a kids bowl to get the round shape.

I had only bought two sample size paint cans, one pink and one white. So after I painted two shutters, I mixed a little pink and white together for the stripes on the shutters.

I took an old shelf that I wasn't currently using

spray painted it white

and hung it under the shutters.

The "window" is a cheap picture frame spray painted white. Ellie drew a picture of a little girl for me to put in it. And the doll is the first thing Ellie bought when we started our adoption! It's for her new sister.

My other children were busy making messes while Momma painted. Here's Noah:

And the completed room, all ready for TWO sweet little girls.

Adoption Update

We received a phone call from our adoption agency last week that the final clearance we had been waiting on had come in and they were sending out our finalized, approved Home Study immediately!  Yippee! One major step accomplished in this journey.

Next comes our USCIS (Citizen and Immigration Services) approval. So we filled out another long form, included a copy of our Home Study, birth certificates and marriage liscense, and a lovely check for $830.00, and paid extra to Overnight it via FedEx on Saturday.

Average approval time is around 40 days right now. Of course, we're hoping for LESS than average, but we'll see! This is the last piece of paper we need to assemble our dossier (the paperwork that actually goes to China for approval).

Keepin' it Real..

We have four children, with one "on the way" via adoption. Four honestly doesn't seem like that many to me, although five does start to sound big. Now, when it's laundry day--twice a week in our home--I feel like there must be at least 8 children living here, dirtying clothes, dumping them in the laundry hamper, and then hiding. Seriously. But, I digress...

Anyway, you know you're starting to have "too many" children when you start getting the comments. Heard any lately?
"Are they all yours?" (Actually, I'm running a daycare. How many daycare centers take their children grocery shopping??)
OR
"Wow. You really have your hands full."
OR one that I've been getting alot lately, especially if we mention our adoption:
"Better you than me."

We believe children are a blessing because GOD said so, and because we know. Four live in our house! They truly are a blessing and we hope to have as many as God allows. I'm praying this blog can be an encouragement to other Momma's who are drowining under the laundry pile, too parenting lots of little ones.

But I don't want to just share the positives, the blessings, the good days. Because while there are plenty of those, there are also many difficult days. The kind most people don't blog about, but that all of us experience at one time or another. Sometimes I'm afraid to be transparent enough to share about those times that stretch me as a mother for fear someone will have the attitude--"Well, then stop having kids!"
Here's the simple truth, though. Hold on, cause it might be revolutionary to you.....

We all experience rough days, trials, and sin (whether in our life or someone else's life). I remember at my six week checkup after the birth of my fourth baby, the midwife asked me how it was going. You know, how am I doing with all these kids. I told her the truth---well, I have good and not-so-good days, but I bet you experience the same at your job! Her face lit up with a smile as she responded, "You are so right. Every job has its joys and challenges." It's what you make of it that counts. Momma's with four children, or eight children, or NO children. Doctors and nurses and Pastors and their wives. We ALL have good days and those days where everything goes wrong not-so-good days.

Where am I going with all this? I am challenged, in beginning this blog, to Keep it Real. To share what God is teaching me and hope it can be a blessing to you in some way.
To not be afraid of what someone might think but to share what God lays on my heart.

To be real.

My Very First Blog Post

After several years of enjoying other people's blogs, and several months of Daddy "B" encouraging me to start my own blog, here I am, writing my very first post. The funny thing is, I have a million posts swirling around in my head, but none of them are a "perfect" first post. (No pressure here!)

So, I'll just end this unimportant, boring first post so I can get on to my probably still very boring second post!