Virginia’s Christmas Nursery

One year ago I walked into this nursery for the first time. When I went into the hospital at 32 weeks I had nothing ready. And I mean nothing. What was going to become Ginny’s nursery was still set up as my office, all of my baby shower gifts were still in boxes in the front entry way of our house (our shower was one week before) and I the only thing I had bought was a carseat back in June (a story for another day). I kept saying I would switch to “baby mode” as soon as we shot our last wedding. Well, we shot our last wedding and 8 days later she was born! Not a lot of time to prepare.

When the day came that we knew I would be intubated, sedated and put on a ventilator I wrote a little note to my family and, knowing it could potentially be several weeks before I woke up, I added a message to my mom saying “go ham on the nursery”. And let me just say, she didn’t disappoint. 😉

When I woke up my mom and dan told me that she and my sisters had been working on it and it became the perfect surprise to look forward to. I thought about it the whole rest of the time I was in the hospital and every day at the rehabilitation hospital. In the 5 weeks between my message to my mom and my homecoming she was busting butt tearing town the office, turning it into a nursery, visiting Virginia (while I was in the coma she was able to take my place), helping with me up at the rehabilitation hospital, all while finishing editing and delivering all of our weddings. She’s a rockstar.

At the same time it feels like our whole community made this room happen. People were dropping off gifts, venmo-ing my sisters to contribute, clearing my registry, and filling in every gap. Almost everything I touched of Ginny’s for the first 5 months my family said “oh that’s from so-and-so”. There were so many gifts, cards, etc that we were never able to keep track of it all let alone send out thank you’s with everything going on. BUT, you know who you are, and your generosity to us…I just don’t have words for it. Also – you have to scroll down and hear the story behind the painting.

I came home to this magical little room. My mom said one day while she was visiting me “it’s simple, but it’s like it has a soul”, and I couldn’t have said it better myself. This sweet little room is…magical. It’s like the pink ceiling rains down glitter and joy and peace. We added a rocking chair (which came shortly after taking these pictures) and Ginny and I have had the same routine every day since we both came home from the hospital of morning bottle, cuddles and facetiming my mom from that rocking chair. I sit in that room and instantly feel at rest. It’s my favorite place to be. My mom said she wanted it to be a healing space for us and that it has. 100 times over. Okay, now for the pictures.

My sister in law Jenny is a phenomenal artist and my mom recruited her to paint this piece. Dan has always called me “bunny” and then I watched a bunny give birth in my front yard the day I found out I was pregnant. From then on bunnies were a thing. A sign of God’s kindness and the little representation of the joy knowing Ginny was on her way. My Mom asked Jen to paint a family of 3 bunnies walking. Jen did this. A family of bunnies, returning home together. There is so much symbolism in this piece. The candle in the window, the cards and gifts by the driveway. When I left in the ambulance in November the leaves were falling and my garden was full of squash, and I came home to a Christmas tree and holiday decor. This painting made me weep. Every time I look at it I’m reminded of the miracle of us all returning home together. I don’t have words for how much it means to me.