A room waits...

Jews can be annoyingly superstitious in nature when it comes to upcoming blessed events. Some won't announce a pregnancy until their closest of friends notices a strange puddle of water on the floor. Baby showers are out of the question. And the baby's furniture is never, ever delivered before the baby itself.

With that in mind, we had no intention of accepting the furniture for Elena's room until we had our plane tickets firmly in hand for our return trip to Russia. However, two factors weighed heavily in our decision to take delivery:

• "Strong encouragement" from the furniture retailer, who's not used to holding ordered furniture in their warehouse for over seven months;
• Requests to include a photo of Elena's room in our dossier for the judge to review.

You can't see them in the picture, but Elena's first impression of what makes America great may be the 400-threadcount sheets on the bed, her first practical gift from her Dad. (See cousin Rich's post about the importance of threadcount.) Mom continues to contribute her design skills and handpainted accessories for the finishing touches. Brother Jesse has gladly given up the books and DVDs he considers to be either too "babyish" or "girly" for his own collection.

The room is ready. The family is ready. Elena is ready. The numerous girlfriends who'll be sleeping over in the trundle are ready.

Bring her home.

  ¶ 12:37 AM