Nursery is starting to take shape!!

Now that my family room curtain project is finished, we emptied all the sewing equipment out of the nursery. Our glider and ottoman arrived from Babies R Us, so I went ahead and put that together. It's so comfy and cushy - I hope it will be great for those long nights when we have a little one!

I also assembled our changing table. I got a great deal on it at Target ($71.99!), so I was pleasantly surprised at how sturdy it felt once it was assembled. I didn't want to spend too much on something we'd only use for a couple of years. The picture below shows the room with the changer and glider. It's a petite room, but all that's left to add is the crib (on the wall where I'm standing to take the picture) and a small nightstand to the left of the glider. I'm really loving the wall color; it looks so pretty in the afternoon light. Please ignore the large plastic bags on the right of the picture - those hold my family room curtains, which are rolled onto tubes and stored in the bags.

Next up for the nursery: I pick up our crib tomorrow!! It arrived before the dresser and nightstand, but the box is quite large and we would have made two trips to pick up the stuff in our truck no matter what. Hopefully, the other pieces will arrive soon and I can put together the rest of the room. I also have some wall art and cute decals to decorate the walls. And I'm going to add some simple shelves and brackets for storing books.

The family room curtains go in tomorrow - hurray for this project being complete!!!! The handyman will be here at 9 am to help mount the hardware and put up the panels, so I'm looking forward to getting some pics of them when it's all complete.

In closing, I'd like to send out a big congratulations to my fellow blogger, Wendy, and her husband Steve, who's adopted baby daughter was born this morning!! I wish them every blessing and hope they have a smooth transition from the hospital to home.

2 months - and a few nibbles. . .

This week marked two months since homestudy approval. I have to tell you, the time goes by quickly!! I've been plugging away at the curtains for the family room. The silk fronts are complete and now I'm constructing the linings. That should go quickly and I hope to have them done by next week.

In other news, our SW has already asked us about 2 different situations with birthmoms! Nothing concrete yet; she usually gives us a quick synopsis of some factors about the birthmom that may make us hesitant to be shown and then we can decide if we want to be considered. So far, in both cases, hubby and I have agreed that the particulars are not deal-breakers for us. Besides, even if we are selected form a profile standpoint, we still have a chance to meet the birthparent(s) and decide if we are go/no-go at that point.

We've agreed that we are willing to be shown to darn near all situations. Not because we are desperate for a baby, but more because we wholeheartedly believe that God has already chosen our child for us. We feel that it is silly of us to quibble over "possibilities" and "potential risks" about certain medical or other issues in the birthparents when some of these same issues may have occurred in a biological child of ours.

We know that God will entrust us with a child that we have the skills and resources to care for. If that child has a medical problem or if the birthparent(s) face(s) challenges, then we will do our best to satisfy His plan. How blessed are we that we will get the chance to do just that?

My nursery sewing project. . .

This is the cute little valance from Carter's that goes with our nursery decor. I wish it were a little longer, but it fits OK over this wide window. Unfortunately, I have two much smaller windows in the room, as well. In a fit of domestic impetus, I crafted these little valances to go with it:














I found the cream-colored sailcoth at Target - these were originally some cafe curtains on sale there for $14.99. I bought some tan twill and chocolate corduroy (the dark brown trim part) at Joann and put these together in about 6 hours. The leaves are just appliques I made using cotton cut from a leaf pattern I drew. Then, I did a tight zig-zag stitch around the leaves and down the middle to add some detail.

The picture also gives you an idea of the room color. The pictures were taken in the evening with a light on in the room. It looks more glass-green in daylight. Nursery furniture is on order. The room is currently tasked with my latest sewing project, curtains for the family room. These will be 210" panels (4 of them) of spice-colored silk to frame our two-story family room windows. I will post pics of them when they are finished and hung - probably about two weeks from now.

Once the family room curtains are done, I'm somewhat conflicted about how to proceed with the nursery. We don't have placement and probably won't for quite some time. Should I go ahead and put the furniture together and dress the room as a nursery? Or should I wait? Is it really bad luck to set up the crib before baby arrives home? Or is that just an old wives' tale?? I know hubby is definitely uneasy about setting up the furniture. But, as an OCD control freak, I am actually leaning towards getting it done. I'm no longer as sad and emotional about the nursery; indeed, I'm starting to feel like this baby thing is really on the horizon - and I'm in full-on planning mode.

I suppose this it what I would have felt like if I'd been pregnant and awaiting a delivery. . .

1 month and counting. . .

We've officially been waiting for placement a whole month already! It's so funny - everyone talks about how long the wait is for placement, but it seems like it's moving swiftly. There are times when I wish we had a baby already - and others when I am thankful to God that he has given us this time to prepare ourselves.

I think we're going to order the nursery furniture this weekend. I wanted to wait a little since we spent so much on the yard and some concrete work in June/July. Those projects came out really well - and are paid for - so I guess we'll go ahead!

I've started to stock up on little things here and there. So far, I've amassed some bedding (crib sheets, receiving blankets), a few nursery decor items, onesies, some Avent and Dr. Brown's bottles, a pkg. of pacifiers, baby wash, some Dreft, etc. I think if someone handed me a baby tomorrow we could manage, but I'd still like to get a few more things. We really want to give cloth diapering a try, but I'm hesitant to worry about it too much in the first few weeks at home. As a peace offering to Mother Earth, I'm gonna get some Seventh Generation diapers for the first couple weeks, then transition to the cloth. So, I need to buy some of those, too, I guess.

It still feels kind of like a sham when I look at baby stuff; even though I know this is going to happen, it's just not quite real yet. But I'm trying to push myself to get the room organized and ready for a baby - in case we get "the call." I'd really like to modify the closet to be more functional for a small child and I need to come up with some type of curtain or valance project for the windows, too. The pack-n-play arrived, as did the car seat and stroller, but they are still sitting in the boxes in the room. I really don't want to unpack them yet 'cause I think they'll just get dusty.

We are getting there. If nothing else, this whole process is an exercise in learning patience.

And now we wait. . .

Well, we got our homestudy completed last week. Now begins the 6 to 18 month wait for a placement. It was actually pretty anticlimactic, to tell the truth. We looked over the homestudy report that the social worker wrote about us to identify any misspellings or errors and that was it.

In celebration, I've spent almost $700 on baby gear in the past week. Hurray for shopping! I'm trying not to go crazy, but I wanted to round up the basics - pack-n-play, car seat and stroller system, some bottles and a simple layette of onesies and socks and stuff. My mom helped me shop at Babies R Us the other day - which was good because I pretty much had a panic attack in the bottles and feeding section of the store. I think it was just from the overwhelming number of choices and hopefully it doesn't signify a more deep-seated anxiety about the process moving forward. Here's the stroller and car seat we got:

It's a Chicco KeyFit 30 and Cortina stroller. I bought the matching pack-n-play they make, too:

I know that we will be parents in the sorta near future, but it all just feels so surreal and nebulous now. I hate feeling so out of control about such a major part of our lives. All I can do for now is scour the internet and ogle all the great stuff I get to buy that, hopefully, I'll actually get to use someday.