It's been an adventure, friends! We have gone through personal requirements, training, background checks, financial checks... We've submitted photos of our home and neighborhood, information about our school district and which ice cream parlor we frequent (okay, not true on that last one, but close). We are finally nearing those last steps—the home study! While there are several requirements, as far as the room goes, it has to be a certain size per amount of children living there, there has to be a door, a place to sleep, and a place to put their things. Even if their things show up with them in a garbage bag or a backpack (cue my breaking heart). In classic Kirsten fashion, selecting furniture took awhile. Striving to be good stewards of the money we've saved, earned, and that which has been generously gifted to us, we spent many weekends scouring thrift stores and buy/sell sites...until this beaut showed up. Sure, she may not look like much here, but we were smitten. William guarded our treasure while I tried to find somebody (anybody) to give us a price. After waiting in line to talk to someone and then in another to claim our prize, we brought her home. (William loaded her in the truck before we even paid. We took no chances.) We figured some coats of paint and new hardware would restore her confidence. William will be the first to tell you that he is a furniture maker--not a painter. While he has the basic know-how of what to do, neither of us possess a deep desire to restore furniture; but off to work we went. The sanding! Of all things. Thank goodness he has industrial tools but all of those little crevices? Those were deemed my job. And then that crazy man said we had to do the drawer fronts, too?! My 'lanta! We totally look like we know what we're doing, don't we? We decided on neutral core furniture because I want to be able to easily change up the room if I need to based on placements. We want the space to always feel safe and homey—even though in all cases we will be strangers in the beginning. But as we labored away trying to make our piece as perfect as we could, we couldn't help but imagine the person that might be using it one day. Perhaps one day not too far from now. And as is the case in most of our steps these days, there were tears. She was starting to really shape up! But of course, some crazy person wanted to go for the distressed look. Did I know how to do that? Nope. So I did what any semi-pro would do—YouTube! We broke out the sandpaper and made a terrible attempt—repainted—and gave it another go. And you know what? I kinda liked it! We were starting to feel pretty proud of ourselves. But let's be real, it took forever. Figuring out how to accomplish the look we wanted, fixing our mistakes, adding the hardware, peeling away her layers—it took time. Here's the thing, guys. The more I loved on our little dresser, the more I realized how much she reminded me of the kiddos we were preparing for. Someone decided that they couldn't take care of her any more. She had broken tracks and mismatched handles, and they found someone else to take her. We saw how much she had to offer and scooped her up. It took some time to strip away that old trauma but we did. Slowly but surely we loved on her and her beauty showed up. She has a brand new look. You can hardly see that oak dresser left alone on the sidewalk with blue tape and missing pieces. You can see shreds of that life peeking through because that will always be a part of her story. But here with us, she'll have a new story. She's going to hold new Christmas pajamas, be deemed the keeper of trinkets and treasure, and forever know the secret of missing socks. She'll watch kiddos play on the rug and listen to bedtime stories. There's a lot of work ahead, but I have a sneaky feeling that we can handle it. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Philippians 3:13
xoxo
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWriting is really my outlet, so you'll mostly see my prose on here. But William might occasionally make a guest appearance. Archives
May 2021
Categories |