Room Preparations

This may be a boring post, but actually we will probably use some of the pictures during our court hearing as "evidence" that we are good parents. The Russians like to know what type of sleeping arrangements will be provided for the children and seeing "evidence" that we are working and preparing for our child's arrival is important. Pictures of every room in the house is part of our home study. Showing that we care by working on things ourselves may score a few points in our favor on court day. Plus, years from now, our child might read this and appreciate all the hard work that went into her arrival.

Our plan for sleeping arrangements is that "Valentina" will get Jason's old room and crib/toddler bed and the guest room has been converted into Jason Alexei's new room. We really wanted to get this done before the first trip so that Jason Alexei would not think his new baby-sister was kicking him out of his room.

With that in mind, Wendy has been working very hard getting Jason Alexei's new room furniture ready. Over Labor Day, she took our queen-sized guest bed to her brother's in Knoxville and traded for a set of twin bunk beds. She then spent a lot of time sanding the beds and painting them black. Then she painted the room blue. She also ordered some bedding for the bunk beds that have rockets all over them. Pretty cool stuff.

A couple weeks ago the painting was done and we began to assemble what Jason calls the "New Bed". I really was not planning on doing it all that evening. We mainly just wanted to get an idea how it looked after Wendy had finished painting. The frame was mostly together when it was time for Jason to go to bed. When we told him it was "night night time" he ran into his old room, grabbed a pillow, set it down inside the bed frame, laid on the floor, and pretended to go to sleep. Wow! He really took to his new room. It took a lot of coaxing to get back into the old bed.

After he went to sleep in the old room we worked on the new bed and finished the assembly. The new rocket sheets got washed and everything was put together. When we went to sleep we got Jason out of his old bed and put him in the new bed. He does not have to sleep in the old bed anymore.

Having completed the bed project, we tackled refinishing a couple of old pieces I have had since the sixth grade. My dad and brother bought me some furniture a long time ago, and I have kept the dresser and the nightstand all this time. I ditched the bed not long after Wendy and I got married. I used some Fill & Finish to cover up some funky 1980's swirls that were on the front of the drawers and sanding everything smooth. Wendy painted them the same black as the bed. Then we put on new hardware.

In the end, everything turned out great. We still need to put up the pictures that were in his old room and to hang the flag we had flown over the US Capitol in Jason's honor. I finally bought a nice flag holder for it and framed the certificate that came with it.

The best thing that has happened is that Jason is learning the concept of "baby-sister" through this experience. He can tell you that she is in Moscow and when she comes home she is going to sleep in the "old bed". I think he will be a really good big-brother.