Making a place for Alex

Lately we have been busy physically rearranging the house to make room for Alex. Here is the larger dining room table that we picked up at a local thrift shop, thanks to the tip of a neighbor:

Our old table sat six. This one seats eight comfortably, ten in a pinch, and twelve if we put in benches. So, theoretically, we could adopt six more kids! Just kidding.

I spent last weekend rearranging the kids' rooms (for the umpteenth time). These are SMALL rooms, so rearranging the furniture in such a way as to accommodate one more child posed significant challenges. I think I spent more than an hour just trying to figure out the geometry of the girls' room (where our two-year-old will now sleep)...trying all sorts of configurations with no luck. It's difficult when you don't want the kids' beds up against the windows, blocking the air vent, or blocking the doors. My exasperated prayer: "Would it be asking too much for You to bend the laws of geometry a little here?" Yeah, that didn't happen, but I was inspired to a new solution that I hadn't thought of before. (Toddler's bed and girls' bunkbed smashed together in the middle of the room...not elegant, not pretty, but it works.) The space for Alex's bed is all set up, too, under our eleven-year-old son's loft. Sometime in the next week or two we will be running to the store to get a mattress for him. He already has a beautiful blue and white blanket, knit by my aunt (she has knit blankets for all the kids).

What else do we need? We do not need carpentry help at the moment; we are waiting to see Alex's situation to determine whether we will need to install a ramp. We will need clothes, but we are holding off on asking for old clothes until we know how big he is. I think our most pressing material need is CHAIRS  to go with that table. Our current chairs are literally falling apart. Again, we're asking people to simply keep their eyes open for a set of used chairs in good condition -- we will buy them, we just need all your eyes to help us look! (I'm referring to Winona people, here, obviously!)

Of course, we also need continued prayers for Alex's safety and the process to move along quickly. At this point, we could be traveling in a month...or in two months...and the way things have gone lately, it seems more likely to be on the long side. One of our concerns is getting Alex home soon enough to provide him with a few months of adjustment time before beginning school in the fall. I think I will continue fasting until we meet Alex -- perhaps we can break my fast with a shared piece of Ukrainian chocolate? Or five, given my appetite for chocolate.

Please also pray for our two-year-old, who is going through that clingy stage of toddlerhood -- having lots of difficulty separating, even with people he knows. It sits heavy on my heart to think of leaving him for three or four weeks...the other kids, too, but he won't understand what's going on at all.

Thanks, everyone!

Jerry