A Volunteer's Testimony - Shining as brightly as a neon sign!

Sue Koons' Testimony

One night, shortly after my 40th birthday, I started questioning things, such as where is my life going? Am I doing what God wants me to do? Am I needed by the people I thought needed me? Well, when I get like this, I start looking around, asking God, 'OK, what's next?' You see, God and I have this agreement that when I need my next set of instructions, He gives them to me in the big, neon lights, sort of way, because He knows the still, small voice doesn't get my attention.

I started looking at my favorite blogs. One of these blogs is written by one of my good friends, and she has links on her website that I like to visit. One of which is the Little French Garden House. This blog is written by a woman in California. This evening, I noticed on her blog she was talking about Terry Grahl, president of Enchanted Makeovers, who is an interior decorator. Terry creates peaceful havens for women and children in shelters. While I was reading this I wondered where this amazing woman was located. As I read further, I found out she is in Michigan! Really? I have to email her and tell her I'm here, I'm ready to work! Thank you, God, for the neon sign.

I wasted no time emailing Terry, and she wasted no time replying to me. I signed up for her newsletter, and on October 10th, I got the chance to meet Terry, and help her and other volunteers transform Vista Maria's Miriam House's living quarters.
As I walked up the stairs to where we would be working, the hallway was an institutional white, and the bedrooms were small, the paint was peeling, the beds, dressers, and medicine cabinets were covered in graffiti, negative messages everywhere.

The first thing we did was to clean the beds, then primed them. The primer was a light brownish pink, not the most attractive color, but even the primer was a huge improvement!

As we were working in the bedrooms, the hallways were being prepared for a soft, but cheery yellow paint.

When I left Vista Maria that day, I was on such a high, just from priming the beds. Imagine that, joy from priming!

The next week I came back with a couple of people from my church. I gave a ride down to Vista Maria to Kate, a junior in high school. When she got in the car, she told me she was doing this to get her community service hours in order to graduate. Kate had never painted before, so I showed her the finer points of painting. The color was spring green, and again, I was giddy with excitement, knowing that this was going to be huge for the girls. By the end of the day, Kate told me to call her the next time we would be at Vista Maria, she knew she would go over her 'required' number of hours, but this project, and these girls had gotten to her heart.


Once the beds were painted green, we moved on to the dressers. This week we had 50 volunteers! Lots of people for small spaces. We took all of the drawers outside and painted them white, while the dressers were painted the same green as the beds. Terry had another plan for the beds- polka dots! White polka dots of varying sizes were painted on the beds- hundreds of polka dots, but it was worth seeing spots, as they gave whimsy to the beds.

During the days we spent on the rooms, the hallways were being transformed into a fairy garden with life size fairies, flowers, and mushrooms so large and life like, you could almost touch and smell them.

Sunday, Nov. 15th was the makeover/reveal day, and let me tell you, I was so excited, I could not sleep. So many things running through my mind; How will the girls like their rooms? How big of an impact will this have on them? Will the girl who gets the chair I painted like it? When's it going to be reveal time? I was like a kid on Christmas Eve.

Sunday finally arrived, and I got to the Miriam House a little after noon, but people were there since 9:00. As I walked into the rooms, they were more beautiful than I could have imagined- and we weren't even done with all of the finishing touches yet. Each bed had its own quilt, and on each bed there was a robe, PJ's, handmade slippers, and an eye mask for each girl. There were handmade Hope chests in each room which held handmade quilts that the girls could take with them when they leave Vista Maria. There was also a handmade jewelry box complete with jewelry that was made or donated from people all over the country- some pieces were from a woman in Japan!

Instead of the plethora of negative messages, there were positive messages all around,such as 'Hold your head up, look people in the eyes' 'Love me when I least deserve it, because that's when I need it most', and ,my favorite, 'Be yourself, everyone else is taken'.

It was nearing 3:30, and the girls, the volunteers, and Terry were getting very excited for the big reveal. As the girls came up the stairs, and stood outside their door to their rooms, we said a blessing, and then the doors flew open, and squeals and laughter and tears filled this space. The girl whose room had the chair I painted said she loved it, and she loved the swirls, and when she sat in her chair, she was beaming.

These girls, who came here because of the hard lives they had led, were so happy, so grateful, and just girls enjoying and basking in the love of Terry and the volunteers. It was truly a blessed event, one that ranks up there with my wedding and the births of my children, something I don't think anyone who was present that day will ever forget!