Bedroom Makeover

Ok, FINALLY, I'm posting pics of our beautiful new bedroom. For those of you newer to my blog, I'll fill you in. Last spring we bought a $500 room makeover at our church auction. Five couples would come and work, and they would each donate $100 to the project. Kinda a "design on a dime" type of a thing. I was so excited to have the winning bid! I had saved up some money from daycare and we were able to purchase it. It was a splurge, but of course benefiting something near and dear to our hearts, so it was a win win for us.

Here is my bedroom BEFORE:

A bit of history on the cross in the corner. Two years ago I gave a talk at Cursillo. One of the main happenings at the retreat are speakers. And I was asked to speak. This was actually my second time giving a talk. Brandy put this cross together for me and a girlfriend and I decorated it with some fabric for the talk. The gist of it? While I was speaking I picked up a very heavy bag. It had all those stones you see in the bag. After a bit, I showed everyone what I "carried." Stones that represented things in my life I was trying to carry on my own.

My husband.
My kids.
My family.
My hurts.
Jobs.
Health.
Home.
Adoption.
Guilt.

Carrying all this heavy stuff around made it hard for me to be productive in God's kingdom. And it wasn't very much fun, either. So during the talk, I laid each stone at the Cross of Jesus. I also talked about how sometimes I lay it down, and then pick it up again when I leave. Sometimes I need to lay down my burdens every day, every hour, every minute. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you...and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:28-29

After that weekend, I couldn't put the cross away. I put it in our bedroom as a constant reminder that these things are in the hands of my Lord, and I've given control over to Him.

When the gals came to do a consultation of sorts, they asked about the cross. I told them about it, told them that I didn't need that specific cross in my room, but I did want a cross with my--or should I say now Jesus'--stones. Before I show you the rest of the room, I have to show you what they made for me. It's something I will keep forever and hope to pass down to my children...

Thank you so much. It is a treasure. Wow.

Just for fun, here's a couple of pictures when they came once when I was home, to take the border off...

When asked what I was looking for, I said a couple of things. One was something more masculine. Cuz it's Brandy's bedroom, too. And also, through talking with them I realized I wanted a calm place. A retreat of sorts. Especially needed soon with seven kids! I think they did beautifully, don't you?

A bit more details on some of the details. Is the names above our bed just the coolest thing ever?!? A note: the blurry one in the middle is actually our last name that I blurred out. They asked us if we had a family verse. Both Brandy and I have life verses, but hadn't thought about a family verse. We chose Eph 3:17b because of an inspiration I had from another adoptive family's blog from our agency. The verse is "...rooted and established in love."

Also, they put in a beautiful new faucet in our bath. We're actually paying for that, but they picked it out and installed it. I just love it!

Something really cool. You'll notice the neat design they painted on the wall to the right of the bed. And the 3 picture frames...which will look much better when I put pictures in them! The wall art "Always and Forever" they will come back and apply in a week or so. They aren't supposed to be applied on fresh paint. But the neatest thing about that wall? "Always and Forever." What they didn't know was that before we were married, and the first few years after we were married, we signed every letter to each other..."always and forever." Isn't that the best?!? Gotta say that's a God thing. Wow. I love it and am amazed that God is in the littlest details of our lives.