A Baby

After writing about our miscarriage story two weeks ago, I couldn't have felt more loved by our friends, family, and people I've never met. It's still crazy to me that social media can reach so many people. These past couple months, I've felt God's presence more than ever. And when I really think about life's difficult situations, I know that's why we go through them. To feel closeness with our Creator; to feel cared for; to learn more about his goodness.

Hardships in life, whether short term or long term, can either draw you nearer to Him or push you further for him. My prayer for all of my dear brothers and sisters in Christ out there is that it would cause you to embrace Him. Sure, you're allowed to yell and scream at first. I know that's my first reaction! I even questioned God several times. But, wipe away my first layer of natural human defense, and then all I want to do is curl up in God's arms and let him wipe away my tears. I'm still   SO learning how to relinquish a sense of control and anxiety in my life due to life's unfortunate situations, but as long as I'm living and breathing, I am gifted every new day to learn how to cope and dwell more in Him than the world's hopes and promises.

A verse that is helping me through these anxiety provoking, wanting to control everything situations right now, is a very well known verse.

" ...all the days ordained for me were written in your book

    before one of them came to be."

He knows my steps, my thoughts, when I'll be sad, my everyday trials, my future, and what's holding me back from living wholly in the days he ordained for me. He used our little baby to teach us how to love, why we need Him more than anything else, and that we need to cling to each other as a married couple rather than always looking to devices or TV shows... There are so many lessons to be learned with our miscarriage. We're still learning new things daily. And the funny thing is, that's what Jesus was too. He was a little baby when the world first came to know him. He used a baby to change lives. He used a baby to save lost souls. He used a baby to heal broken relationships. He used a baby to change the course of history. He used a baby. Our Jesus. 

Nursery Beginnings

Since finding out about the precious little girl we had coming this December, I immediately started planning for her. The first stop was a couple of cute outfits. The next was obviously her nursery! Her room that she'd grow into. I didn't want it to be overloaded with little girl type decorations that we all see at the big baby stores...you know...butterflies and flowers that smile back at you....caterpillars and forest creatures with high arched eyebrows and giant smiling teeth. That's just not my style! I like elegant, rustic, and chic. And baby Williams' nursery is no exception.

The first thing we did was paint her nursery a sweet peachy pink. It's a super light neutral, but a nice subtle "girl." I had several of my good friends from church come over in the middle of the day and help paint. We were done in two hours! Our Baltimore community is amazing to be a part of.

Next, we needed furniture. Have you seen the prices for furniture in the baby retail stores, though? It's more than we paid for our own furniture. $800 for a crib?? She won't sleep in it long enough to make it worth it. Luckily, we got a really nice Pottery Barn crib for free from another truly generous family in our church community. The crib is  a creamy white, so that's what we wanted out furniture to be as well. Striking up lucky once again, Kevin's parents still had his baby furniture!! How cool is that? Solid furniture that has been kept in nice condition. We went immediately to Home Depot and bought some white spray paint. I'll tell you the truth - I don't loooove painting furniture, so I thought spray painting would be easier. We bought Rustoleum's Antique White and covered all 3 pieces after lightly sanding them down with sanding blocks. (I actually stayed far from the spray paint and just watched the hubs spray away). We both noticed there were a few splotches that probably wouldn't have been there if we painted instead of sprayed, but he evened it out as best as he could with a second coat. 

The beginning with sanding

Drawers up close.

Already in my mask, realizing this is not a good idea for my lungs and the two lungs growing inside of me.

Starting the paint 

Splotchiness after the first coat...kind of nervous at this point!

After spraying the two coats of paint, we took these back to our house to put the sealer on. We sealed the furniture two days later since we had an extra day thanks to Labor Day! We went through 8 cans of white spray paint and two cans of sealer, so it cost about $40 in all. We also bought another can of hammered gold to use on the handles, but didn't use it all.

Second coat done! The vanilla color we were looking for :)

I couldn't wait to put these in baby William's room. I was ready to see the finished look (although it's still far from finished). I also wanted to organize all the cute little clothes we'd gotten for her. Finally, after spraying the drawer pulls, the room looked a slightly more pulled together. 

Tall dresser

Smaller dresser/changing table. Also, the peachy pink wall color!

Hammered gold knobs

Nightstand/Reading corner.

I will definitely show more pictures and how-tos of all of the DIY things we're doing in her sweet little room. The colors of the room are going to be the peachy pink, gold, and a vintage teal. Very girly, but not over the top with butterflies and smiling sunshines! It's something that I'll love walking into every time I rock her to sleep, read her a book, and play games with her. It's also something she can grow into as the next few years go by.