Introducing Clementine!

We got the e-mail a few minutes ago. She is ours and we are hers.

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15 Photos

15 photos. 12 pages of amazing descriptions about our little girl. The social report that arrived in both of our e-mail inboxes this afternoon was just wonderful. The report is incredibly thorough and goes over all these little nuances of her day-to-day life in the care center. Sentences like this one, "... to fall asleep, she has to be covered up with a blanket, otherwise she stays up for a long time observing her surroundings," make me want to board an Ethiopia-bound plane yesterday.

If we all send some collective good vibes up into the universe maybe, just maybe, I'll be posting a few of those delicious photos on this here blog sometime tomorrow.

Tiny Update

We learned today that Clementine's court date is still set to go for Friday. We also learned that she came into care about six weeks earlier than we'd previously thought. What's done is done but it still makes me sad to think about her in an orphanage for those six weeks when I'd previously imagined her with her birthmother. The Ethiopian work day will be coming to a close when we wake up Friday morning, so we've been told to anticipate learning the day's outcome sometime before noon. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be sharing good news on this blog in a little over 36 hours.

Bleh

I feel like posting. Absolutely. Nothing. It's been a helluva long day. I'm grouchy, and I'm getting really nervous about Clementine's court date. I keep thinking I'm going to open my e-mail to find a message about it being postponed. And then, of course, it could really happen... the Friday appointment could go off as scheduled and we could simply not pass. Trying not to think about it, which is tough to do considering it's all I'm thinking about. Bleh. NaBloPoMo, SchlaBloPoMo.

Gabriel's new room

The transformation is complete. Gabriel's been sleeping in his new bedroom for a month or two while I've continued to drag out the finishing touches. But I've now officially deemed it as good as it's ever gonna get, and I'm moving on to house projects that are slightly more fun than decorating for a four-year-old boy. Not that he doesn't appreciate it and won't keep the room in perfect condition but...

First, a quick before photo. Wish I had something that showed off the room before I started deconstructing it, but, eh...


Of course, you've already read all about the red wall saga, so I won't bore you by rehashing all those posts.


And then, there was the blue dresser that I redid using the Caromal Colours kit.


Some of the things I love about the room?

The blackout curtains. Hands down. Gabriel's a tremendously light sleeper and I wish I'd invested in these years ago. I think it's absolutely cut down on the number of nights he wakes up in the middle of the night. His new room is super light at night, so I knew we needed them. I bought the navy blue sailcloth ones at Pottery Barn Kids and they were back ordered for forever, but the wait was still worth it. I didn't use the Pottery Barn clip rings but purchased cheaper ones at Lowe's, and they did the trick just fine. Love, love, love the curtains.

The bed. The twin-over-full bunk bed was a super-duper splurge. I'm embarrassed to admit I spent more on G's bed than I did on my own! But Kevin was convinced that, with only three bedrooms, we needed to build in some room for house guests. I looked at a thousand twin-over-full bunk beds, and so many of them just look... weird. Like there's a twin bed randomly sitting on top of a double bed, in an awkward, kind-of-tipsy, might-fall-on-top-of-you, who-let-giants-into-the-house-and-allowed-them-to-rearrange-the-furniture kind of way. I loved the lines of Room and Board's Riley Duo Bunk because it didn't look so obviously... weird. Plus it's solid wood and Gabriel can beat up on for a good many years to come. Gabriel's not allowed to sleep in the top bunk until he's seven, and he's already eagerly counting down the days (ah, childhood!).

The Obama poster. Yes, can't help it. I'm insane. Just to rebel against me, Gabriel's going to go Republican:-) I just think it's fabulous that Gabriel was alive and in our living room when the first African-American man was elected president.

My baby quilt. After years of being folded away in the linen closet, it's in a place of honor. I won't divulge the ridiculous strategy Kevin and I developed to hang it on the wall. Let's just say that, when plaster walls and a quilt hanger failed us, we had to get REALLY creative.


The trunk under the window is a freakin' piece of woodworking genius that our good friend Trey made for Gabriel as a gift for his first birthday.


Trey thought of everything when he made this toy chest. It's impossible to squeeze a finger when it closes. The hinges are hydraulic so the lid can't slam closed. It's perfect. Since Gabriel's nursery had been decorated in orange and lime green (trust me, it was cute!), the trunk was especially perfect in all it's lime green loveliness.


But times change. Lime green doesn't so much go with red and navy, so I gave the trunk a bit of a face lift with some taupe paint. I think the color's called limestone.

We already had all the other art in the room, including a Monopoly Boardwalk poster that I've had since I was a kid. I picked up the storage cube by Gabriel's bed at Target. It's great for storing all his beloved "friends" that don't quite make the snuggle cut when it's time to go to sleep. There's a built-in bookcase hidden behind the closet. We're still getting used to our routine in the new room, but so far, so good. Gabriel really loved it when we laid down the rug... he loved being able to roll around and stretch out in his new room, which he's told me he thinks is "beautiful." We'll see how long it stays that way!

How to take a long walk

After nothing but rain all week, we decided to seize the day and head outdoors this afternoon. We've never explored Petersburg Battlefield, run by the National Park Service, so we explored some of the park's trails today.


We've been pondering what we'll do on long walks with Gabriel when we travel to Guatemala. He's great at short distances but when he gets tired, he usually winds up in a stroller or on Kevin's shoulders. A stroller isn't a great option in Guatemala where it's rare to find a wide, evenly paved sidewalk. And we don't know how much Kevin's shoulders can take! The upside to having a kid who's never seen the 50th percentile of any growth chart, when it comes to weight, is that it's not out of the realm of possibility to squeeze him back into the backpack we used when he was much, much younger. Only issue is his legs...


I think he might have reached the backpack's upper bound for height! Anyone traveled with a four-year-old in a non-stroller friendly country? What'd you do?


There are always plenty of moments like these, where G's 100 percent ready for action.


But then there are also a good number of moments like these:-) Or at least plenty of moments where we're somewhere in between!

Under the wire

Oy. Almost messed up NaBloPoMo tonight! It would have been my earliest fail in three years. It's 11 p.m. so I'm just in under the wire. Watched The Ugly Truth tonight. And while I adore both Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler, I'll even admit (see Kevin!) that the whole thing was a tad ugly. Night all. More updates tomorrow. Can't believe we're nearly 5 days away from knowing about the outcome of Miss Clementine's court date.