Big IKE's room.

First, my Dad wants to "change the way we talk about [Ike]". He wants to start calling him "BIG Ike!" and "interject an aura of strength with compassion and generosity". That was a text message I received from my dad the other day. So, OKAY GREAT! BIG IKE it is!

I just wanted to show Big Ike's room. Clearly he needs more things. I have been doing laundry ALL DAY LONG and it is ALL HIS CLOTHES! Really? Why? Why does he need so much? Of corse some of the clothes go to 24 months.

He has toys coming out the wazoo. My mom has a whole room filled with toys. Seriously. It was my step-brother's room growing up. It used to have a bunk bed with two dressers and all his stuff. Now it is all TOYS for Ike. Including a ball pit-you know like the ones they used to have a Mc Donald's when we were little?

He has 7 bathing suits! Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to take him out of the country till we are able to formally adopt him-6 months! This is already the longest I have been in the US in years. Then after Korea I will be stuck here again. However, we can still go to Puerto Rico! Which I love, love, love!

Can you see the "Mini" in the back ground?

I drive a red Mini. My parent's thought it would be funny if BIG Ike had his own Mini. It has lights, a horn and drives all around the house.

The chair was Luke's grandpa's favorite chair. He is 93! and gave it to Ike. It is clear no one loves him. :)

I know it looks bare here, but I'm getting a picture framed for this location. My grandpa painted it for me and after all these years I'm framing it for BIG Ike.

The frog is a piggy bank we started for him before we received our referral. Luke's a banker. Therefore, Ike needs his own savings account. We have to wait till we adopt him formally to start his I-39 (?) College thing??? I'm just worried about the day-to-day (notice the clothes....)

(I'm pretty sure I need to re-do his closet. The top shelf is way to tall for little ol' me.)

Anyway, his room doesn't really look that awesome from these pictures :( I didn't stage it. I just wanted to convey that he has a bunch of stuff! I guess that is what you do when you can't love on someone physically. We, in my circle, love with stuff. Fortunately I know of a few little boys that are about 10 months younger than BIG Ike and will be inheriting these things.

Sometimes I wish I was a more organized-photo shoot- kind of decorator . I showed a house the other day and this person was a great decorator. I'm/we are- just us?? We have lots of stuff and go lots of places and everything we own is from somewhere or someone and means something to us. We will be the old people that have things from around the world and one day Ike will want to pull out his hair because he won't know what to do with it. :)

So here we are. Today we have a room with lots of things for a little boy that we have 11 pictures and 12 minutes of video of. Soon, we will have that same little boy, running and screaming around the house. Breaking our "thing"riding our dogs and loving every minute of it. We honestly cannot wait. We've waited our whole lives. As long as I can remember and Luke from our first date 12+ years ago, and it is finally almost here.

Now we wonder "what are we going to do with him"?

*Please vote!