She's HOME!!!

Feb. 9, 2012 at noon, we picked up Emily at the airport!  What a happy reunion!  We are so glad she is back with us safe and sound.  It has been a little crazy the past few weeks wondering what was going to happen.  Her host dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer last October and long story short it just became too stressful for them to have Emily's well being on their mind while they were dealing with the stresses of his illness. Thanks to the sweet families who offered their homes to her. We decided it would be better for everyone to have her come back home.  She has been a trooper through all of this and really wished she could have stayed until June like she had planned on, but sometimes life happens and choices aren't in your court. The good-byes were so hard - as you could imagine.  We have great hope that her friends will come visit one day!  They are all welcome any time!!

So her Portuguese is beautiful!  Hope she can keep up on it.  She is doing remarkably well with the transition.  She started back to school four days after she returned.  You go girl!  She jumped right in with both feet 5 or so weeks into this new semester. 

I decided at the last minute to do a make-over with her bedroom.  We had picked out new paint before Brazil was even a thought last spring and hoped to do her room last summer. I had 24 hours to pull the whole thing off and I did it! :) It was so much fun.  I felt like I was on one of those TV shows running around town looking for the right lamp, rugs, etc.  It was a blast and I was thinking about her the entire time. 

Let's see if blogger will cooperate while I try to upload some photos....

Our infamous neighborhood bridge.

 Here is our first glimpse of her coming off the plane!  

We could hardly stand it! 

Do you ever wonder how many random photos you have been 

captured in that belong to other people??? 

 Long, tight hug from dad.

 Miss Molly and her adorable sign and balloons...
she was very excited about this 
and had been talking about for weeks!

 Don't you just lover her Brazilian attire...in SLC in early Feb!? Awesome.

We drove to Lindsey's house to wait for Camber who was taking two tests! (Nailed them BTW) And what a fun reunion that was! 

Thanks Lindsey, for the yummy warm Cinnamon Rolls!

Cold milk and cinnamon rolls were on her long list of 

"what I can't wait to eat when I get home"

***

The Room Make-Over

Luckily I thought to snap a few photo of her room right before 
we started to pull down the old shelves and trim.

 It was too pink for her liking from the get go, but she patiently lived with it for several years. Thanks to Davis, for taking everything down and helping me rearrange all the furniture - 
several times until we got things just right.

Very soft creamy butter color was what she had chosen last spring. That great Porter Paint from our favorite paint store did the trick in just one sweet coat!  

So Before:

And After:

All grown-up and beautiful, just like she is :)

She loves Audrey Hepburn so I decided to give her a retro-glam look. I found that love seat at a garage sale last year here and we thought it would be fun to recover one day.  For now we just settled it into it's new residence and looks perfect! The furniture was a great find at Savvy Brothers Consignment here in town, which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! (Both the store and these pieces.) I found them last fall and decided they would be great in her room since her sister had to "borrow" her one and only dresser to take to her apartment. I found the curtains and rug at Lowes, and the lamp shade, bulletin board and cute little sign at TJ Maxx. The clock was in our backroom and I found the birdie pillow on clearance at Smith's Marketplace.

 In her room in Matao, she had family photo's strung up on floss hanging with tiny little clothespins -I decided to make copies of her sweet family and friends from Brazil and place them on her dresser.

 The taller dresser has a mirror that lifts up and 

compartments to hold jewelry :)

One last look...

I love it! It turned out so much better than I thought it 

would in such a short amount of time.  It has the feel of a 

little apartment in NYC in the 50's.  

Welcome Home Emily!!!