Fireworks and fireflies for the nursery

So I have a terrific sister! She is a great artist and uses her gift to create meaningful gifts for so many. (She got all the artistic talent and for years I was really jealous of it, but now I'm grateful that one of us can do something beautiful with a box of crayons). This time I ~ well, really Kylie ~ was the recipient of her talent.

She took the theme of this blog (see this entry) and created a book for Kylie. It starts with Ian and I praying for a child and we send a little firefly across the ocean to find our little girl. The firefly watches her and strokes her hair as she waits for us to arrive. Then little firefly flies home to us to tell us the news of the beautiful little girl waiting in her crib in China. I cried as I read it for the first time at the shower Saturday night.

And to go along with the book, there were three large paintings for the nursery walls. They are simply larger versions of illustrations she painted for the book. This goes back to several months ago when Traci asked me what I would most want from her as a gift. I told her that I would love for her to paint pictures for Kylie's room. We spent an afternoon in Barnes and Noble looking at the children's books for inspiration. But Traci never found one that she really liked the characters of, so she looked at me and said, "I have an idea, but it will tie into the surprise I'm making for Kylie (the book) and I don't want to tell you what character I have in mind. Do you trust me?" And knowing what she's capable of doing, I said, "Of course."

Man am I glad I did! She needs to come show me exactly on the walls where she thinks the paintings should go, and I can't wait to get them up. But for now you'll just have to see us admiring them at the shower...

For more about the shower and the wonderful gifts we recieved from others, please see either this post, or this one! I just wanted to especially thank Traci for the HOURS of hard work to complete these paintings and the sweet book! I love you Traci!