SHE BELIEVED SHE COULD SO SHE DID...

"She believed she could so she did." A sign that reads these words hangs above my 14 year old daughter's bed. Our eldest daughter Alia had a hard time with having to move away from her friends 2 years ago. My husband and I made the decision to move right before she entered middle school. We figured this would be the best time since middle school is a time when friends and interests tend to change. The move was extremely tough for all of us but more so for her. We knew it was the right thing to do since the middle school she had attended when she was in 6th grade wasn't the best option. So we put our house up on the market in April and hoped for the best. Long story short we sold our home and moved to a small town a few miles away.

 The move meant that our daughter would attend a new school in September. The first year was really difficult. She missed her friends and felt alone at her new school. I kept beating myself up over this decision even though I knew deep down that is was for the best.

One day she came home from school and broke down sobbing.  She missed her friends, her home and her old school even if it wasn't the best option. We talked and cried but eventually got through it together.  I thought to myself let me surprise her with a bedroom makeover. We had moved in and hadn't set up her new room other than placing her furniture in the room. Her old room was beautifully decorated with demask wall paper and hot pink walls and now she had this larger plain white boring room. She had mentioned to me that she always wanted a room the color of the Caribbean ocean so I drove over to our local Sherwin Williams after purchasing a teal color bedspread from Target and I picked out the most perfect ocean blue color I could find. She was going away to her father's house for the week so I took full advantage of her absence and got to work.

I cleared out the room and began working my magic. I painted the room a Tiffany blue color. I drove to a local furniture store and ordered a queen size bed and mattress and had it delivered a few days later. I centered the bed in the middle of the room.  I like to place beds on walls that are facing the doorway so that they are the main focus of the room. I layered the bed with coral colored throw pillows. At the foot of the bed I placed a white fluffy throw blanket which matched perfectly with the furry white throw pillows.
Throughout the room I used coral colored accents for the curtains, pillows, lamps and frames. The coral color pops against the shades of teal in the room. beautifully.

Since I needed my daughter to start feeling empowered and in charge of her destiny at her new school and home I decided to saturate the room with messages of empowerment. I also included pictures of her family and friends so that she felt a little more at home in this new unfamiliar space.

When Alia got home I blind folded her and brought her up to her room. I carefully untied the blindfold to reveal her new much older more mature room. She gasped with excitement didn't say anything for a moment and started to tear up. She hugged me so tightly and said it is gorgeous. I gave her time to take in her new space. She commented on how beautiful the room looked and how much she liked it. Then she looked up at the sign over her bed and read it out loud. "She believed she could so she did,"she murmured softly. At that moment I just knew that things were going to get better for her and I am happy to say that they did.

Today she is a freshman in high school and is thriving. She has excellent grades, kept her old friends and made many new friends. Sometimes you have to make tough decisions and pray that they will lead to happy endings. My hope is that she continues to read the sign above her bed when times get tough and will know that if she believes in herself the way I believe in her there will be no limit to what she can and will accomplish.