Remember forever and a day ago when I was doing the 'Before and After' of our house renovation?? And then they just stopped? Because we stopped. Time, money, life, yada yada.
Well, I showed everyone's bedroom B&A except for Cale's. That was because we never finished- mostly because we (Cale and I) would stand in the middle of the room looking around with zero ideas on where it was going.
BEFORE:
The day we moved in. AG set up camp briefly while we moved stuff into her room.
^ Look how little!!
We definitely did removed those mirrored sliding closet doors right off the bat, but re-purposed them elsewhere (guess I'll finish up those B&A's on the rest of the house at some point...). They just didn't scream "Cale" to me.
He wanted "blue walls and boy stuff". He picked his paint and we moved in his queen size bed, dresser, a few of his favorite things, and not much else.
The room went through a few minor transitions in the last year and a half. When we started the process to become foster parents, we knew we'd need another bed- and C wanted nothing more than to share his room with somebody (kinda how this whole convo got started, actually...).
So we sold the queen sized bed and bought bunkbeds. We split the beds because giving our kids something tall to jump off of is like setting a cake in front of them and telling them they can't touch it. As soon as we put the beds in there I said, "This looks like camp!"
BOOM. CAMP BUNKS. CAMP WEST.
(Clearly missing my husband and now talking like him. Not cool at all, actually. Love you, West!)
AFTER:
We are still using the small dresser, {
igoring that Cale had scratched his sister's name in it with a nail... ahem. Scratched dressers still hold clothes.}, the oar was in the garage when we moved in, but Cale and I added a little color. The deer print was made by one of our RR Family Warriors who is helping bring Roman home. Pretty neat to have that little touch in there! I got the lamp shade from a lady on Varage Sale and the base at GW. C keeps his army men in the little blue pail.
Cale's side!
I bought the big letters, painted and distressed them.
The fishing rods belonged to Nathan's grandfather. The car print was actually a set of placemats that my grandfather gave to Cale a few years ago. We couldn't decide what to do with them, so I'm framed one for the wall. The antlers were Nathan and he has wanted them to hang in our house for 11 years- ha. Finally had a good spot!The red "toybox" was a white chest Nathan's parents gave to me before we married. And C always keep the Air Force blanket Nathan brought home from his deployment on the end of his bed.
Love the difference in their shoe sizes! Funny- considering they are four months apart in age.
Roman's side! (It's still a little Cale-heavy on the details, but once Roman is home we will add his own!)
The little red side table belonged to Nathan's great aunt; we painted it red.
The "first aid" box (C did the stenciling...) holds the 121 Hot Wheels. That's not a guesstimate. He knows EXACTLY how many are in that box.
The shelf is made from wood from their old swingset (if you'll remember, that is sprinkled throughout the
house). It mostly holds trophies and trinkets so far. Cale chose to hang his two favorite shirts before there were any adoption plans- his "Airman's Little Man" shirt that he used to wear ALL the time, and his first "jersey".
I painted the little blocks on the right. Just because.
Layla painted this picture of a campsite and they decided it would be perfect over Roman's bed. I agree!
Six buckets (three each) helped organize the closet and make use of the space.
That about does it! Blue and boy stuff! CAMP WEST :)
Cannot wait for these brothers to share this room!
I know at least one 7-year-old is even more excited than I am.
Early last week, we sent one last care package to RJZ. It should arrive just before we do.
I cannot for the life of me get that picture to rotate.
Since we opted not to send the photobook last time (I will just take it to China with me.), we sent a small photo album of our family this time and a translated note in the back. Hopefully, he will have a few days to study our faces!
We also sent a couple of Hot Wheels, a cap, pictures the girls drew, hard candy and stickers to share with his foster siblings, and a recordable frog.
Cale said I love you, brother! in Mandarin and then we said We love you, NingNing (his nickname) in English! It's sort of precious and I hope he loves it.
Since we got our approval from China last week, things have been moving at lightening speed (finally! And ya'll, again I say, our SW is the best!). It's been crazy trying to crank out the next steps as quickly as possible, but we are doing it. Our i800 was approved quickly and forwarded to China. We have gotten the needed paperwork from the NVC (National Visa Center) and the next step should be dropped off in China early next week! It will be picked up 48 hours later (expedited) and then we are officially waiting on Travel Approval! LOUD NOISES!
Travel approval can be a little unpredictable (not my favorite thing these days: unpredictable waiting times. I kinda feel like we've paid our dues there.), but still... it's the end! We are CLOSE!
And his room is ready and waiting. Whoop.
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