We finished our little girl's room a few weeks ago and she is due within the next couple of weeks. While I'm trying to keep my mind off of waiting for her arrival, I thought I'd share her nursery and the story behind the inspiration for it. 

All of my life, my grandmother had a matching bedroom set of curtains and bedspreads that had a beautiful, floral print. It never changed. This bedroom was the bedroom I always stayed in when we would visit her and my grandfather. When I got into my adult years I thought how that floral print would be really pretty in a little girl's nursery. Fast forward a few years and my husband and I find out our second-born is going to be a girl. Like any mother I start to design her nursery in my mind. I thought of those curtains and that bedspread at my grandmother's house, which she was still using at the time. I thought flowers for the nursery would be a good idea.

But when we found out it was a girl it was the end of October, you know, the start of the holiday chaos. We had our son's birthday, our Disney trip, Thanksgiving, and Christmas to focus on for the next couple of months, so the nursery got put on hold for a bit. Meanwhile, my grandmother's health was slowly declining. I didn't know it then, but we would lose her right after Christmas. 

Losing my memaw was a heartbreak I could never have prepared for. Even though we saw it coming soon, it was still devastating. We did get to visit with her one last time before she passed, and give her her Christmas present. We got her a little lamb that you could heat up in the microwave to help with muscle pain. Her back and legs were always hurting. I don't think she ever got to use it, but after she passed a few days later I brought it home.

After the funeral, my family had to start going through my grandmother's belongings and she had in her will that my parents got the furniture in that floral print bedroom I grew up staying in. I told my mom I'd love to have the curtain's for my baby girl's room. So I brought the curtains home and began to put things together after my sweet husband painted. I hung the curtains and just wept, thinking of my memaw. She had no idea what those floral print curtains meant to me. They will always remind me of a simpler time, when I was young and she was still here.

I had gotten everything situated like I wanted, including setting the little lamb we had given my grandmother for Christmas on the bottom corner shelf of the nursery. I had one last touch to make. I had three frames I was going to frame baby girl's initials in. But when I brought my husband in to see the almost finished room, he showed me an illustration he really wanted to put somewhere in the room. It's a drawing of Lucy and Aslan from C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. This really threw me off, because I had no idea how I was going to incorporate this picture with the rest of the room. But my husband had been very gracious to let me do my thing with most of the nursery, so I wanted to make it work. 

My husband has read the Narnia series many times and has a special appreciation for them. I've never read the series myself, but I have always appreciated Lewis' symbolism and imagery that he uses to tell the story of the gospel. My husband had told me of the quote "Courage, dear heart" from the series, but I discovered another that I knew would be perfectly fitting for our girl's room.

"Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight. At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more. When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death. And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again."

Spring. I love spring. It's my favorite season. I love the warmth, the colors, the freshness, the starting over. And when I read that quote it all just came around full circle. Our baby girl, Lottie Ruth Reed, is coming into this world just as spring begins. Every flower and greenery in her room represent the season. My sweet memaw's cold winter finally came to an end and she is enjoying her spring as she rests with Jesus. Her floral curtains that always meant so much to me now have even more meaning, and they hang in my little girl's room to remind me that spring is coming.

My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away,
for behold, the winter is past;
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
The fig tree ripens its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away.
Song of Solomon 2:10-13