The USCIS approval that arrived a week ago has become quite well-travelled. It went from our hands to the Secretary of the State of CT's hands in Hartford, down to the Brasilian Consulate in NYC, and back to us in less than a week's time. Now it is in Oregon being translated before it heads down to Brasil. The court in Brasil will apparently accept an emailed copy of the document in order to keep things rolling while the original hard copy travels down. I figure it's around 9,921 miles from start to finish.
In the meantime, we're proceeding to get things ready around here.
Our little house has 3 bedrooms--2 small and one large. We moved out of a small one and rearranged the large one which had been a family room with futon, TV and desk. We painted it a soothing blue called Ocean Kiss. Ahhhh relaxing. James also built us a "cloffice" which is an office in a closet. Quite nice, though. Away went the desk to make room for a cozy little couch where we will almost surely flop to read bedtime stories.
The other two bedrooms are works in progress, but there are beds for both (two are currently being refinished, and the other bunkbeds are traveling to us from a dear friend of my mother in Virginia.) One room is tidy and set up as a guest room with one double bed at the moment. The other room is currently known as the "garbage room" (I won't horrify you with a picture). It caught all the bits and pieces that that didn't have a home when we rearranged everything. I have plans to tackle that project this week.
Downstairs we moved a big shelf out of the living room into the dining room. We will buy baskets to hold the kids' toys and backpacks inside the cubbies of the shelf.
We also replaced the old carpet (thanks, Oscar) with some delightfully easy-to-clean FLOR carpet tiles. We got a new (old) coffee table from The English Country Building, a fantastic modernish antique shop downtown.
The new desk was from a yard sale at our neighbors' house. They sold us this sweet 50's vintage desk and chair for $20. We're hoping to mount the TV on the wall to save space.
We still have a pretty long list of chores to accomplish before we feel like the house is ready for children. Our hearts are ready, and I suppose that's all that matters.
This weekend we celebrated birthdays, anniversaries and Mother's Day with both of our families. Our parents are SO excited to be grandparents. They are being so helpful and encouraging. We came home with hand-made pillows from my mother and a carful of bed pillows and mattress pads from James' mom. They can hardly contain themselves. We all had lunch together on Sunday and I got my name on my first Mother's Day Cake. There is so much joy in our family right now... and so much anticipation of the joy to come.
4 comments:
Aaaaaaaaah! Garbage room!
Just teasing. :) It is always cathartic to see before and after pictures. Your bedroom makeover is beautiful, and I can't wait to see the kids' rooms. There's a mural is one of them, right?
ooh, I love everything! But especially the cloffice. It's so cozy. I totally want one for myself. Can't wait to see pictures of the other rooms, and of the KIDDOS!
Happy Mother's Day, belated!
Sounds and looks so much like our house right now--just shuffling things from room to room while we decide how we want it all! Love the pictures!
Wow, don't all the preparations just make everything seem more real? All the anticipation all these years leads up to right here, right now. I enjoy being able to read and see all the changes being made, the joyful excitement in your voice as you tell us about them is contagious! AH! <3 Let's get together again before you have four wonderful, little ones running around. ;)
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