There is a local non-profit agency here in town called Casa Valentina. They help young women who have just "aged" out of foster care at the age of 18. Most of these ladies don't have anywhere to go or have any real support systems to speak of. Casa Valentina helps them find apartments and jobs, and provides some counseling and support. Our church, St. Philip's, participates in a project that spruces up these girls bedrooms so that at least they have a comfortable and inspirational place to come home to. So today we made over one of these rooms for a young lady named Misleny (pronounced Ma-Lane-e). She is a sweet, soft-spoken girl with amazing eyes. 
Misleny wants to become an attorney (lofty goals, I know!) and work in family court so that other young ladies that are in foster care will get to deal with an attorney that cares about them, not one that just treats them like another girl "in the system". A couple of weeks ago my friend and interior designer Teri D'Amico went to Misleny's apartment to figure out what we were going to do in her bedroom. Our mission, to provide her with a Morrocan themed bedroom with dark colors, that incorporated eastern design elements as well as her Buddah statue. (That's what she wanted!) Misleny with Baby Julia when we went to visit her the first time
A couple of shopping trips later (Ikea, Bed Bath and Beyond and several Coral Gables' garage sales) and we were set! Here are a couple of pictures of her bedroom before...typical teenager! Rather than being in the closet, most of the clothing was all over the floor. There is a floor under there, isn't there??
Thankfully, I had lots of help. St. Philip's Church provided most of the money for the project, and we got a generous donation from my dad as well. Of course, wonderful husband Lamar got to do fun things like paint, hang curtain rods, schlepp materials and supplies, etc. The morning shift also included friends Courtney Thompson and his girlfriend Jill, who is also an interior designer. Then my friend (and jazz great) Von Henry showed up, as did Joyce Myers and Maynel Lorie, my super duper administrative assistant.
Me, Misleny, Jill and Courtney
Maynel, Joyce, Misleny and Jill
Lamar should be Niecy Nash's Fix It Guy!
Von's in the kitchen, painting a desk, singing Aretha. Go figure.
Eventually everyone went home except Maynel. When she and I finished it was around 8:30 p.m. We went next door to get Misleny and led her to her bedroom door. When she opened it, her expression was worth every hour we had put into it. She couldn't believe the transformation. Of course the first thing out of her mouth was "Oh my gosh. Oh MY GOSH!!!!" I think it literally took her breath away.
The room was now this amazing peacock blue color with orange silk curtains. Curtains, lamps, bedspread and rug all from Ikea.
When we finished scraping all the paint off the floor there was this beautiful terrazo floor!! It gleamed a bright white with brown flecks in it, it was just beautiful. With several containers from Bed Bath and Beyond we totally reorganized her closet as well. We removed the wood accordian doors from her closet and put up more orange silk curtains.
Now, I had video-taped on my camera the precious first few minutes of her seeing her room for the first time. But apparently we were all giggling and laughing and crying with her that I pushed the button that made it stop taping. But here are the 9 seconds of it that I do have.
One happy girl!!
