Christmas Sunday

🎄We enjoyed a lovely worship service today complete with beautiful music... but we are missing our 2 beautiful little girls. So grateful for the blessing they are in our lives, and anxious for the day soon that we can have them in our arms again. 

Our most asked question... when will they come home??

This is a very fair question!

We have been in process with this adoption for a very long time (over 7 years since we first started...and 5 years since we switched to the Haiti program). We received our official referral for our girls 14 months ago and have visited them 5 times during that period. Our adoption was finalized on September 6th and we thought we'd have them home for the holidays this year, but the extreme economic and political crisis in Haiti reached a fever pitch that same month and things became very difficult for the Haitian people during that time. Part of that turmoil included protests and roadblocks that prevented people from getting to work (and therefor our girls' final stage of paperwork was delayed). Gratefully things have been calmer recently and we are hoping to exit MOI (the Ministry of Interior) offices that are verifying all our paperwork to be able to apply for passports.

Once we exit MOI we need the girls' Haitian passports and U.S. visas to be able to pick them up and bring them home. As is the case many places, people take time off over the holidays so I'm anticipating that we likely won't exit MOI until early in January. Hopefully we receive the passports and visas quickly after that and can bring our girls home!

So! The short answer to that question is that we don't know, but are hoping for January or possibly February. This is a long, difficult process and emotions are extra heightened over the holidays...but these two amazing little girls are worth every bit of it. We can't wait to have them home in our arms and once they have adjusted we are so excited for all of you to meet them and get to know them!

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us during this process with  prayers, encouragement and by asking for an update even though most of the time the response is just a big fat  I-don't-know! We're glad you ask! Thank you. And please...keep the prayers coming for our girls and for the people of Haiti.

Happy birthday to you, Mama!

First of all, watch this adorable video:

                 https://youtu.be/G04U3QlDY9s               

Now a little background. I took that video 3 months ago on the twins' birthday! I was doing the whole "How old are you?" routine and then my mom and I happened to simultaneously say in a sing-songy voice 'Happy birthday to you' and the girls broke out into this synchronized song of "Happy birthday to you... Manman!" (which is Mama)

I love everything about it from the spontaneity of it, how they didn't skip a bit synchronizing it, to Evelyn's shoulders, to the big finish, and the adorable quick hide behind the couch at the end.

I must have listened to this video 20 times on my birthday yesterday. I wished our girls could have been there to celebrate with me in person, but listening to that adorable song made it somehow feel like they were actually singing it for me on my birthday.

Oh how I miss these girls and can't wait to have them home!

Christmas music

I'm finding that Christmas music is going to be the end of me this year.

I was at our church's Christmas party on Saturday and they started playing music while people ate. Straight out of the gait the first song that played was, "I'll be home for Christmas"...

...that about destroyed me.

I have so much to be grateful for, but this Christmastime has been especially difficult with how much I miss our girls. Last Christmas I was missing them something fierce, but kept telling myself that at least next Christmas we'd all be together. With sentimentality at an all time high during the holidays I find that I am missing them even more than normal.  It's just so hard to be at the very end of this process and feeling stuck. I know it will happen and I'm trying to be patient, but hearing the words "I'll be home for Christmas" sung and knowing they weren't true for us really stung extra this year.

Baby all I want for Christmas is YOU

This song has been running through my head more than normal this Christmas season. I just had to share it with these pictures we got of the girls last month...they're even pointing in 2 of the pictures (and the 3rd was too cute not to include. With as much as they love to sing and dance, I can just picture them pointing when singing "All I want for Christmas is YOU!"

I don't want a lot for Christmas

There is just one thing I need

I don't care about the presents

Underneath the Christmas tree

I just want you for my own

More than you could ever know

Make my wish come true oh

All I want for Christmas is you

I don't want a lot for Christmas

There is just one thing I need, and I

Don't care about the presents

Underneath the Christmas tree

I don't need to hang my stocking

There upon the fireplace

Santa Claus won't make me happy

With a toy on Christmas day

I just want you for my own

More than you could ever know

Make my wish come true

All I want for Christmas is you

I won't ask for much this Christmas

I won't even wish for snow, and I

I just wanna keep on waiting

Underneath the mistletoe

I won't make a list and send it

To the North Pole for Saint Nick

I won't even stay awake

To hear those magic reindeer click

'Cause I just want you here tonight

Holding on to me so tight

What more can I do

Oh, Baby all I want for Christmas is you

All the lights are shining

So brightly everywhere

And the sound of children's

Laughter fills the air

And everyone is singing

I hear those sleigh bells ringing

Santa won't you bring me

The one I really need

Won't you please bring my baby to me quickly

I don't want a lot for Christmas

This is all I'm asking for

I just wanna see my baby

Standing right outside my door

I just want you for my own

More than you could ever know

Make my wish come true

Baby all I want for Christmas is you

All I want for Christmas is you, baby

5 years ago today...and the girls' bedroom!!!

We've had our adoption decrees for over 3 months now - two more little Woolleys officially ours, just waiting in the mountains of a Caribbean island. And because of the situation in Haiti we are still waiting on passports (and visas) to be able to bring the girls home. Things have been very rough there, but the last 10 days or so businesses have been open, kids are getting back to school and I'm allowing myself to begin to feel hopeful again!

5 years ago today I was feeling a similar feeling of hope. It was difficult to already be 2 years into our adoption journey and have the program we were adopting from close. To start over. But after praying and feeling confident about our decision to transfer our immigration pre-approval over to the Haiti program and adopt through Wasatch I felt hopeful. So, 5 years ago today we turned in our application to do just that. It was many years of the unknown (6 to be exact) before we were able to know who our girls were and reaffirm that knowledge that the timing of this whole process was necessary and perfect. Even if it's been hard. And so I try to remember that now as we wait on the very end of this process to bring our precious girls home.

I thought that it would be fun to document the process of creating the twins' room! It takes me a long time to hone in on what I picture for a space and to make all the little decisions necessary for it, so this was years in the making...and six months actually in progress to complete as we had time. It is a beautiful space and I can hardly wait to see them IN IT! 

We started on the room in May after moving Noah from this larger room to another room. Noah helped us design his new room and it is a great space for him too! I'm grateful we had this larger room for the girls since it is right across from Mark's and my room and will be better sized for two children. After moving all of Noah's stuff out (and pulling the Star Wars decals off the walls) we started by choosing a color of gray that we wanted to paint the walls. This took a while...

We finally settled on the shade Platinum and Mark and I got to work taping and then painting.

We weren't worried about painting the ceiling since we knew that we'd be covering it with wood planks, but here you can see the color of the tan walls we started with and the gray we changed to. We were really nervous when we started painting because of how light it looked...but as it dried and we added a second coat it was just what we had hoped it would be.

Next it was on to the reclaimed wood plank ceiling! This is the one element of the room that stayed the same for the last 7 years I've been planning this room. I was sooo excited to do this project (and grateful Mark was on board with doing it together)! Here we are unbundling one of the boxes from Plank & Mill. The wood came untreated and cut thin with adhesive backing (which we would find out later wasn't sufficient to hold on a ceiling since it's designed for walls). I loved the variety of shades, textures, weathering and grain of the wood!!!

We started out laying out boards on the ground to familiarize ourselves with how we wanted to begin designing the layout...spacing out knots and nail holes, making sure not to cluster too many dark or light boards, trying to avoid seams from lining up on adjacent rows, etc...

Then it was time to start putting up boards! I would decide what board we wanted next, remove the backing and hand it up to Mark...

Stick on board, and apply roller pressure...

Things were pretty slow going at first and Mark and I found that it wasn't long before we both had a pretty good kink in our necks from looking straight up for so long...

Mark did a great job measuring the ends of the boards to cut as well as cutting around the edge of our wire access for the light. Once we were past the light we took a break from boards to hang the chandelier! Here's the story on this light fixture. I had been eyeing it for a long time, but couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger on it. I loved that it fit the feel of the room... chic/fancy (like the french provincial furniture), but with an element of nature too since it had butterflies. I also felt like the butterflies added an element of whimsy which made it feel more like a little girl's room while still being a beautiful chandelier. Anyway! They stopped producing that specific light fixture so I didn't worry about trying to justify it until a couple years later when the designer temporarily brought them back! I knew I wanted it at that point and we bought it and stashed it. So! It was very exciting to me to unbox it and hang it! I was impressed (but not surprised) that Mark was able to figure out all the electrical issues to connect the chandelier and he even was on board with my request to install a dimming switch on the wall so the light can turn way down low. Get this...when the light is turned all the way down the little candle lights on the chandelier flicker like real candle light. It's so pretty!!!

 Unwrapping all of the edges and individual butterflies took a while, but was really fun.

Before long we began to find that the boards were falling off the ceiling. Sometimes several at a time. That Saturday we realized they were falling of so quickly that we realized that if we went to bed without fixing things somehow that we'd have an impossible puzzle to try to recreate of pre-cut boards to somehow put back up. So, I did some quick research and sent Mark to Home Depot to buy a brad nailer. And we nailed those suckers back down!

After sticking boards back up and nailing a good portion of the ceiling we realized that the brad nailer had been building up too much pressure and most of the brads were shooting straight through the wood into the ceiling...therefor causing the boards to continue to fall. Darn gravity!

So! The next thing we tried was putting liquid nail on the back of the board before putting it back up and then barely turning the air compressor on when shooting in nails (and then turning it off in between) so it didn't build up too much pressure.

The combination of the brad nails and using the liquid nail finally did the trick. I think over the next several weeks that nearly every board on the ceiling fell off and had to be put back up with this method, but hey we figured it out with plenty of time to spare before the girls came home so at least their new room wasn't scary with boards falling on them!

We really love how the boards (finally) turned out. We love to imagine the girls laying in their bed looking at the designs in all the wood...

 I found two twin beds used online that I was super excited to buy until the day I was going to get them the seller texted me saying that he'd listed them without consulting his wife first and that she said they couldn't part with them. I was so sad and didn't think I'd find anything I loved as much until I found these beds. They are PERFECT! Here is Mark assembling them!

Before long we got mattresses for them and I threw the bedspreads on them while trying to decide how I would style them...

 My canopy arrived!!! I wanted to incorporate different shades of pinks and blush into the room so I spent months trying to decide which of 3 shades of pink I wanted to get. This was my first choice, but I felt like it was a bit more risky of a color choice compared to the other two pinks that I felt were "safer". My friend Sarah encouraged me follow my gut to get this one (it was her favorite too) and I'm so glad that I listened to her! It's perfect! I was pretty excited unboxing my order from Spinkie...

The canopy had generous layers of soft tulle and hung beautifully. Here is when we were figuring out the perfect place to install the hanging hook...

And the canopy is hung! However...the champagne colored poms I ordered for it (that I intended to style with a cascade down the side) made it hang lopsided. I tried all sorts of ideas to get it to hang properly, including using pillows from my bedroom to see if pillows would hold it in place. It didn't. Eventually I just decided to cascade the pots down the front and it looked good. Here it is when I was trying to figure out the lopsided issue...

Now on to refinishing furniture!! I found this beauty used for just a few dollars to use as a nightstand. I love that it's round, solid wood with nice grain, and I love the pattern on the top that I intended to leave naked while painting the rest white...

This piece is special because it used to be Mark's grandma Janet's. I love the shape of it and couldn't wait to give it a coat of pink paint! I was also excited how perfectly the size of the table fit in this spot. {And how about a peek at the girls' names from Winnie Dot in that rose gold?! I mean...xoxo}

More paint color decisions!

And I had to document this. Inside the drawer I found where Mark's cousin Darling wrote her name when she was a little girl. Pretty cute, huh?

And this is the dresser that I found used online and we've hoarded in our garage for the last 3 years. I really love it. I was so anxious to get started on painting it that I forgot to take a before picture until after I'd taken off all the handles and taken out the drawers, but you get the idea...

I painted with chalk paint and there was a learning curve for me since I hadn't done it before, but I got the hang of it...

Eventually when I had it how I wanted it I distressed it and then sealed the base with wax and the top and mirror with poly acrylic...

I fell in love with these peony decals from Rocky Mountain Decals a long time ago and was so excited to finally order them. Each bloom and leaf comes individually separate so you can design your space and spread out of overlap your design as you see fit. I spent a lot of time taping everything into position with painters tape as you can see here...

I will say this about applying the decals, some went on more smoothly than others (due to user errors...mostly related to how hard I was or wasn't crying while putting them up). I recommend applying decals when you feel most emotionally stable! Putting this room together was a form of therapy for me. Creating the space was something I could control, except when I couldn't...which usually reminded of the other parts of my life I couldn't control (like how fast the girls' paperwork would get processed so we could have them here with us). Anyway! The smaller flowers and the leaves went on without bubbles much easier for me across the board.

Before moving on I owe a HUGE shout out to Holly at the shop To Market who gave me all the tips and ins and outs of chalk painting furniture. I budgeted to pay someone else to do it, but decided to give my hand a shot at it knowing that if it didn't turn out well I wasn't out anything except some of my paint...and that if I did do it then I'd have more money in my budget for things like pillows. So! Since I did all the furniture myself it was shopping time!!! I had a LOT of luck finding everything else I needed at the store At Home. I ended up there twice in one day and had help/input from my SIL Katie, my mom, and Noah! Here is a picture I took of Katie holding the lamp I liked while I was trying to pair it with what lampshade would look best...

Things went in and out of the cart while I figured out what I liked best...

Look at all the pretty girlie colors and textures! They were willing to hold the items in my cart and I was able to come back later in the day with a killer coupon (thanks so much to my friend Shauna!) which helped stretch things a lot further too.

The next day I was able to put together the reading nook under the canopy. I already had the little critters and stars from Spinkie when I ordered the canopy, but added the larger pillows and soft faux fur rug. I can't wait to see the girls enjoy this space!! And yes, I anticipate that will be both with reading/playing quietly and sometimes throwing those pillows and hiding behind the canopy tulle too...

I had a simple white wicker basket that I wanted to line with soft pink fabric inside and underneath...especially to protect the pink table from getting scratched up with the coarse wicker.

Here is the finished product of Grandma Janet's table painted pink! I love the little white bird and the pressed, framed ranunculus blooms. Peony and ranunculus are my favorite flowers and I love that I have both of them in the girls' room. I have included birds a couple places in the room for a few reasons...first of all because of the nature element to the room, secondly because the girls love birds, and thirdly because one translation of the name Evelyn is 'little bird' or 'beautiful bird'. {sidenote: another translation of the name Evelyn is "wished for child"} I love both of those meanings, and I also love that it was my grandma's middle name. It's perfect.

The room was getting so close to being done. I added a few finishing touches. We hung the curtain rod and steamed the curtains (here is Mark hanging the curtain rod)...

...we hanged the girls' names above their beds, and then I hung the last few peony decals and it was done!!

And here is the finished room! Drumroll please!...

And because I already wrote about Evelyn's name, I'd like to include that Eleanor is derived from the word for "light" and can mean "bright, shining one". It suits her perfectly. I also love that we've always called her El from her originally given name, so we love that with moving that name to her middle name and giving her the first name of Eleanor we can continue calling her El. Seeing both of their names above their beds made the room feel all the more theirs. I love how it came together.

I can't wait to sit on that pouf and read them books...

Do you love how the nightstand turned out??

The dresser. Note the bird again. I painted the base of the wooden candle holder with the same pink paint as the table, but I'm going to add a few artificial flowers to it instead of a candle. The lovely pink ceramic blossom was a gift from my friend Natalie. I just love how it all came together!

And I love how adding that last white peony and soft, white, ruffled curtains next to the bright pink table softened things up perfectly.

Now if we can just add our two beautiful, strong, clever princesses to this room!!

National Adoption Day

Today is National Adoption Day. I'm posting each day in November about something I'm grateful for and I did my post on Facebook about adoption and thought I would just share the whole post here too:

Day #23 I am grateful for adoption.

♥️ I chose national adoption day to express my gratitude for adoption. Three of our five children have come into our family by adoption. While there is no difference in the way Mark & I love any of our children, I do recognize and honor the unique way we were blessed with them. The heartache and loss that had to occur for these children to join our family will never be lost on me. I respect and honor their first mothers and acknowledge the loss that is inherent with the adoption process. It is difficult for me to put into words the gratitude I have for the blessing that these children are in our lives and I love them so very much. 💓

I am including photos from the first moments that we met Noah, Eleanor Abigaëlle & Evelyn Abigaïlle.

The first time we saw Noah he was six days old and he was placed into my arms wearing a little yellow outfit and was wrapped in a yellow blanket. Noah was such a calm baby and after making it through a fairly tumultuous preteen stage 🤪 he is turning out to be a pretty chill teenager also! He is very artistic and enjoys theater, playing the guitar, directing short films, singing, and producing stop motion. He loves to talk and is very open in sharing things about his life with me. He’s one of very few people that I can actually enjoy shopping with and we can talk about life, politics, movies and he enjoys eating a variety of interesting foods! He is bright, witty, and a lot of fun to be around. I love Noah so very much.

Eleanor Abigaëlle is such a happy little girl. She seems a bit quicker to adapt (to new foods, people, circumstances, etc) than her sister... but she does not like nap/bedtime. She spent less time with me (more with Mark or a gma) on most of our visits to Haiti, until the last visit when she insisted on dominating the amount of time being held by me and showered me with so much affection. She even bypassed the normal warmup period that happens upon our arrival and ran to me with open arms shouting “Manman!” (Mama) when she first saw me. I have noticed Eleanor showing an interest in soccer when other kids are playing it outside as she will sometimes dribble around a soccer ball. I have also seen her carrying around a football under her arm while supporting a pretty dress… I love that!

Evelyn Abigaïlle is such a sweetheart. She and I formed a very quick connection with one another. She is often a bit more cautious than her sister. She can be slower to warm up to new things (people, new foods, etc) but she is every bit as fun and spunky and silly as her sister if she feels comfortable. She goes down to sleep a lot better than her sister and seems to either enjoy or need a bit more sleep too. When given the choice she often chooses things that are blue/turquoise/purple in color as opposed to Eleanor’s draw to pink. 

Both twins are very girlie and LOVE putting on pretty clothes. In fact they are usually more interested in what clothes or headbands we bring than what toys or books we have. Both twins adore baby dolls and dancing and think it is hilarious to tease. They really love when I introduce sign language with English words. They are very quick to learn and especially enjoy songs like many three-year-olds do. Our whole family already adores these two sweet girls and we can’t wait to have them here with us. 💕

As I expressed earlier, we admire and respect our children’s first mothers, who gave them life and loved them before we knew them. We are also so very grateful for those who are currently caring for our girls and the team of people who have diligently worked on our behalf and are doing all they can to finish processing the girls’ paperwork so they can come home. We are so grateful for each of you!

March 3, 2006

November 19, 2018