Big New Year Adventure

Well Happy New Year Friends!  We are starting on a wonderful new year and I don't know about you, but we have kicked in 2012 with a BIG new adventure in our household.  Our family is moving back to Texas next month and January has hit with a bang.  We have loved our time here in Oklahoma.  We have a wonderful church home, we have made some life-long friends who we really consider family now, and our daughter was born here!  It has been a tremendous almost 9 years here.

I was actually reflecting on this a couple of days ago while sitting in the floor of my daughter's room playing with her.  We are packing up boxes and putting our house on the market...the house that was our daughter's first home.  While she won't remember it, Jody and I will always think of it as the home that held some of our very best memories.  Bringing her home from the hospital, so many of her big "firsts," and so much more.

Looking around her room that day was a little sad for me thinking of leaving this place, but then also a reminder of why we are moving and the wonderful things we have in store for us.  One of the main reasons we are going is to move closer to our families who are all in Texas.  And looking around that room, there are so many tokens of love made by her family who love her that we are taking with us to her new room in her new home.

I couldn't help but take some snapshots of the room so she can know what her nursery looked like when when she gets older.

I don't claim to be a decorating genius by any means, but I do love her nursery.  The curtains and bedskirt and pillow in her chair I made the week she came home with us to match an old copy of The Wizard of Oz I had found and loved.  I also painted the canvas above the crib with Psalm 139:14 before we ever met her or knew it was Olivia who would be blessing our lives.  The beautiful tree quilt draped on her chair was made for her by her Mimi.  I'm sure it will be a keepsake she will keep always!  And the bird hanging on her wall with her name and birthday was made for her by her Nana.  Just perfect for her room!

Her nursery came together piece by piece after we brought her home with love from her family!  And even though I'm a little sad to leave behind her first home, I know it is the memories that we'll always have.  I also know God has a wonderful plan in store for us as He is leading us back to Texas.  And it is such a blessing that Olivia will have the close support of her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins as she continues to grow into the beautiful woman God intends her to be!