New Year, New Office!

I spent the week after Christmas painting my foyer a new color.  I love the way a room looks with a fresh coat of paint in a brand new color.  I wish it were a simple as slapping some paint on the walls in one day and admiring my efforts, but it is not.  In my house, the walls have been through a lot of love from all the kids who have grown up here.  On some walls, there is more spackle than there is dry wall.  I have become an expert at sanding a wall to perfect smoothness to erase all the dents and dings from a large family.  My foyer project began because a large hole in the wall, courtesy of my son, Jason.  He and a friend where wrestling upstairs and came crashing down the stairs to leave a large imprint of a shoulder in my wall.  The hole was substantial and I had to cut a new piece of drywall for a patch.  I had not repaired damage this large before so I headed to the Internet to learn how to do it.  The first video I watched began with this statement, "If you have teenagers in your house, then you need to know how to repair large holes in your drywall."  This is soooo true!!  The guy on the video repaired his wall in ten minutes and seven seconds.  It only took me three days and four coats of drywall mud.  After that I spent several more days filling in nicks, dents and holes.  When I came to the big ones, I found that it was a little bit of trip down memory lane.  This spot was where Michael punched the wall and learned never to do that again (it really hurt!).  That spot came from the race car smashing down the stairs and hitting the wall.  It took several more dents for Dylan to learn not to do that.  The corners are scuffed and chipped from people coming and going all the time.  It would make for a very funny scrap book page if I took a picture of my favorite dents and labeled them with the correct memory.

Hands Across the Water(HATW) made a giant move over Christmas and New Years to a brand new office.  HATW is the adoption/foster care agency that I work for but I do most of my work from home.  It is huge, and brand new, and very professional looking.  It is actually a little unbelievable that this small agency is now ready for this kind of space.  Click on this link to see the new address and cool pictures:  http://www.hatw.org/location2010.htm.  The old office had a very family kind of atmosphere to it.  The agency began in 1999 and the office had the look of a place where people were comfortable.  The space where meetings and classes were held often doubled as a collection room for Christmas presents or backpacks.  HATW is always collecting necessary items for orphanages, foster children, and families in need.  The new space for classes is huge and will take some time to get used to.

Anyway, all of this is leading up to the thought of "out with the old and in with the new".  It must be difficult for some people in the office to leave behind all the dents and dings acquired by years of serving families.  I love my smooth, new walls in my foyer too, but I can't help but miss the memories that I painted over.  However, I know I can count on my kids to start work right away on the fresh canvas and It won't look new for very long.  I think the same is true at the new office.  People are already filling up their beautiful new offices with work things.  Families will arrive for classes and meetings.  Soon the place will feel like home.  Stop in and visit our new offices.  It is an amazing place made even more special by the work that we do!