Making room

Kerry's room is starting to come together. We've been working on it here and there for the past 2 weeks. It's all painted and the furniture is put together and in the room. I've had a blast working on it but I love decorating and...well...I've kinda been waiting a loooong time to get to to this particular room. So, anyway, I thought I'd share a few pics of how it looks so far. I still have a lot to do. I need to put artwork and probably a decorative shelf or two on the walls. I need to find places for a few nick-nacks. I also need to find curtains and some sort of storage system for the lower half of the closet.

Obviously, this is the crib =). It transitions into a toddler day bed which is perfect since she may only be in a crib for a few months.

This is the matching armoire. I found both pieces on sale almost 2 years ago and they've been sitting, unassembled, in the basement until now. I love seeing them all put together and in the room.

The dresser I've had since I was a teenager. I'm going to switch out the old knobs with new glass knobs to match the glass knobs in the curtain rod finials, the armoire, and to coordinate better with the chandelier. I also have yellow polka-dot ribbon and pink ric-rac to trim the lamp shade with.

It's not easy to tell but this is a pink and green braided rug that I found at T*rget . It's much cuter than in the photo. Yeah, I've decided I want a better camera when Kerry gets here.

Goodbye Office!

I'm saying goodbye to my office space

My Gramma's old typewriter and some old family photos

It's all been moved downstairs




I love this old picture of my grandmother at her first secretarial job. She was 17.

My plants can go back out on the patio now that it's warming up

I finally get to paint and decorate my daughters room. I've been waiting for this for a very long time. The walls are Valspar's "Coconut Cream" (a soft creamy yellow) and the ceiling is Valspar's "Pink Whisper" (very pale pink). The walls were already yellow but not quite the right shade.

Priming the wood work

Salem supervised =)




A bit too well =)

My baby girl has a little bitty chandelier

Kerry Lu Ying

(Just because I couldn't stand seeing her picture sink further and further down the page)

I got an e-mail last night from our advocate, Dana, informing us that WE GOT PA!!!!
I'm very happy and a bit relieved. Now I can tell you a bit more about her.

Chinese name: Ji, Lu Ying

DOB: February 28,2008

She currently resides in the Jiangxi province in southern China and her special need is a ventricular septal defect. At 5 months of age she weighed 14 1/2 pounds and was about 24 1/4 inches. We hope to get updated measurements soon. Her caretakers call her "Ying Ying" (so cute). They indicated that she is active and restless, tender, and not shy and that she loves being outdoors. I love it! We will be naming her Kerry Lu Ying . "Kerry" is Irish and it means " dark haired" and County Kerry, Ireland, is the most wonderful place we've ever visited.

Here are just a few pics from the last week. It's been crazy and exciting. We had less than 24 hours to get the initial paperwork completed saying that we HAPPILY accepted this referral and have a specialist review some of her test results. Luckily I work for a group of 6 Pediatricians so they were able to make that happen. Later in the week there were more documents that needed to be signed and notarized (thankfully I work with a notary public as well) and we had to have another physicians letter written (did I mention I work for 6 of them)? The issue was we didn't realize this until Wed. night but by Thurs. at noon we had them done and mailed, overnight, to our Agency (phew).

The morning we got her referral...I'm still in my work scrubs.

Don't we look like the happiest people in the world? =)

My Mom..

Doug's Mom

Our niece, Sydnie, helped us celebrate her first birthday. I wanted to have pictures and birthday cards that we can use the fill the "first birthday" page in her adoption themed baby book, I just couldn't see leaving it blank since we knew about her on her birthday. I want her to be able to look back and know we were thinking about her.

After seeing her pictures, Jamey said "that's my best friend." =)

They will, unoubtedly, end up spending alot of time together, along with his future sibling who is due in September. Jess and I joke that we're going to be a regular stroller brigade with our stair-stepped kids (her Jamey, mine, her soon-to-be) and we're already trying to work out the logistics of fitting 3 carseats in either of our cars when we're out together.

We got permission from our Agency today to post pictures (but thats it, sorry) I've been waiting soooo long to see this little face and I'm so excited to share it with those of you who have wished us well and prayed for us along the way. So without further ado...

HERE SHE IS!

Told ya she was cute!