Nursery Update

How 'bout a little nursery update...and some other random subjects? :)

I painted the nursery this week. I had the color picked out since March, so it was probably about time to mark that off the list! ;) It's Benjamin Moore Gray Mist, OC-30, but I used Behr Flat Enamel Paint per the recommendation that it is completely scrub-able. I am really pleased with how it turned out!! {P.S. I got the scrub-able tip from the interior design blog Urban Grace. If you don't know about it, you should check it out...it's my favorite!}

It's a really light gray with more of a green undertone than a blue. I think that will complement nicely with all the blues that will be going in the room.

To be honest, painting the room was a daunting task. It was something that I really wanted to do. As I talked about before, I want to actively move forward in completing his room, but I was overwhelmed to get started, afraid of the rush of emotions I knew would come. So, after several mornings of saying I was going to do it, I decided to jump in & start at 11:00 pm Monday night! That's right, P.M.!! For some reason, it just seemed easier to tackle at night. I put on some worship music & pretended I was on Ethiopian time {they are 8 hrs ahead.:)} It turned out to be a sweet time of prayer, & of course some tears, but I was happy to get a chance to feel connected to bringing my son home.

On another note, we got 5 new pictures of our little man this week. I wish so badly I could share them with you all!! {Maybe someone can share with me how to do those little hearts over the faces?? Not sure if that's even worth it as far as seeing him, but maybe I'll play around with it & see.} Trust me though, he is super cute!! ;) His hair is thickening & the curls are coming in...it was pretty much board straight for the first 6 months. He has the biggest round brown eyes & the greatest facial expressions! Even though we also found out he has a viral infection in his lungs & ears, he is still big smiles like he has been since he's been at Hannah's Hope! We really are so lucky that he is cared for so well. Of course I zoomed in on every square inch of the pictures, & I do believe he is about to have at least one bottom tooth come through. He was drooling & chewing a lot when we were there back in August, & now his bottom gum is a bright light pink right in the middle. It stands out really well against the purply pink of the rest of his little gums. :) There was a family that traveled this past weekend for their court date who took pictures & asked some questions for us...looking forward to getting an update from her next week!

Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts & prayers! I know the business of life, so each thought & prayer genuinely means so much to us.

Hope you all have a great weekend!! We'll be celebrating my dad who turned 60 yesterday!!!

Notice any resemblance?? ;)

Pictures

Because all I can do is keep going back over the pictures that we took, I thought I might as well share the ones I can here. :) {we are not allowed to share his face publicly yet.} I hope you enjoy!!

The view outside our hotel window. Our hotel, the Riviera, was located on the outside of Addis Ababa {ET's capital} very close to our transition home. You can see some bigger buildings in the background.

Matt & I at the gates of Hannah's Hope, our agency's transition home.

The baby building. They run a VERY clean ship! You can see the mattresses, boppies, toys, etc. that are have been washed & laying out to dry.

Our little man was asleep when we got there on Wednesday to meet him. Ethiopians like to make sure their babies are warm- all the babies are completely covered {faces & all} when they are napping. :)

The babies play downstairs in a large room during the day while the upstairs rooms are being cleaned. They sleep in moses baskets...it's hard to tell, but there's a little one asleep in the first basket!

Upstairs are 3 bedrooms, each with their own bath. Around 3, all the babies are moved upstairs for bath time, bottles, & naps. {meanwhile, the downstairs is cleaned. :)} This is T's crib. You can see our photo album we left for him on the side.

Matt is giving T a bottle here. He's got some LONG legs!! He kept wrapping them around Matt's arm...so sweet!

A close up...LOVE!! T's mostly long & lean, but it cracked me up that he's got fat rolls on his knees! Plus, his little hands have formula in the cracks of his fingers. I could literally stare at this one picture all. day. long.

Another sweet picture I thought. ;)

Little Man rolling over...for the most part on his own ;)

Matt & I had dear friends that are adopting through another agency in town the same week for their court date. Here, we had gone out to dinner with them at Top View on our last full night there. Mollie, I am kicking myself that we didn't get a picture together! :(