I have been dying to buy paint, wall decorations, wash little wash cloths, agonize over furniture placement. And now I get to do all of that. In short, I'm nesting and man, is it fun!
So with the help of my sister and brother-in-law, I have begun transforming the boring spare bedroom into Grace's girlie butterfly room. We painted the top of the wall Sweetie Pie Pink and the bottom Jaded Lime Green. Think Sherbet colors. Actually, it looks like spumoni ice cream but I see my vision slowly coming together. I'll post pictures when it's done. The trim and doors have been painted white and the chair rail will go up over labor day weekend. Then I can put up the crib, arrange the furniture, put up the curtains and decorate the walls. I can't even begin to explain how fun this has been for me. I would never go to this trouble for my own bedroom but I just can't seem to do enough for Grace's. And it's not about spending a bunch of money. It's about spending two hours on Sunday looking for the perfect pink trash can or just the right sheers for the windows. And I spent 20 minutes debating whether or not to spend $13 on a light switch just because it had butterflies and the right pink and green in it. Had I been by myself I might have passed on it but I had Meghan with me and she talked me into it. Let me tell you, after I hung it up tonight, I have to admit that she was right. It was worth the little splurge. I've never spent this much time looking for the right accessories, and it's never been this fun. I had Meghan and Jacob with me and it was so fun to have them walk through stores and point out things that would be great for Gracie.
There is a travel group from my agency leaving this Friday for Ethiopia. I had sent an e-mail to the agency list serv asking if anyone would be willing to take pictures of Grace for me since she has been moved to the agency's care center. Two families have offered to take pictures so in the next couple of weeks I should have new pictures. I can hardly wait. I also had a third family e-mail me. That family was at the care center last week picking up their son and they spent some time at the infant house and wondered if they had met her. I wrote back with her name and sure enough, they had meet her! Their oldest son had fed her a bottle and they said she was smiley, enjoyed being held and was just a very sweet baby. I can't really describe how amazing it was to hear this. Here's this beautiful baby girl who is my daughter, but I've never met her and I've never spoken to someone who has seen her in person. And now there is someone who tells me some of the little tidbits I've been craving. She smiles. She 's sweet. She responds well to other people. They also said that the love and care the kids receive from the nannies is exceptional. I have trusted all along that this was the case but it's so great to hear that from other parents who have seen it in person. I'm so anxious to meet her and hold her but until I do, these little updates are priceless and really help with the wait.
Tonight I finally got her photo album together and sent it off to my agency to mail to Ethiopia. I was so excited to get the album off I was almost giddy. It's a small album with six pictures and I labeled who everyone is. I also put in a picture of me holding her referral picture, our first family picture! We send the album so that the nannies can start to familiarize the kids with their new families.
Last weekend my niece Meghan and I were out shopping for baby dolls. I wanted a soft black baby doll, sort of on the idea of a rag doll. I found lots of black baby dolls but they all had hard faces. I had seen what I was looking for on line so I told Meghan we would just go home and order it on the computer. She asked me why we didn't buy her a soft white baby doll since they had lots of those. I explained that she'll have dolls of all different races but for right now, I wanted a black baby doll. She said, well that's fine but don't you think we should buy her a white baby doll so she gets used to our color? I mean, she's probably expecting a brown or black family and we're white. We've been expecting a brown baby but she might be surprised by a white family. I don't want us to scare her. I think we need to prepare her. Pretty insightful for a five year old. I explained that we were sending a photo album full of our pictures so that she knows what we look like. So many adjustments for such a little baby. I only hope that I can find the right way to help her navigate it all.
I had copies of Grace's referral pictures made and tonight I put them in frames and in the little photo album I bought to carry in my purse. I just love seeing her gorgeous face every place I look.
