Perhaps the title should say, “We Coming!” if you’re reading this from Croatia. There’s so much to say in this blog… here goes!

       These past few weeks I’ve felt like I’m just holding on for a somewhat wild ride. We are preparing to move to Croatia! Since we returned from New York and Michigan, we have been sorting, packing, and organizing ourselves as we saw God orchestrate and provide the final funds needed to go. We’re at my mom and Ron’s house until Dec. 4th, and we’ve been working on shipping boxes to California. So shortly after Thanksgiving we’re going to California to sort through our storage unit and repack it (making an inventory) for a shipping company that we hope will come Dec.11th to ship it all to Croatia. Since clothes, toiletries, baby items, etc. are more expensive in Croatia, we’re trying to think ahead to what we’ll need this next and shop whenever we get a chance (plus Christmas shopping . From California we’ll go to Croatia…! When this is real to us… we are SO excited!

      In the evenings I’m finishing my final psychology class for my masters, which is going well and somehow I’m getting it done with minimal stress. I will finish my class while we’re in California and graduate in the Dec.13th APU commencement ceremony! All of this seems like too much all at once sometimes, but playing with Ema during the day is so destressing…. if you ever need stress relief: tickle a toddler, jump out from behind coaches yelling ‘roar!’, play with playdough, sing “My Favorite Things” song from the sound of Music several times a day, and of course…. snuggle.

         Here is a picture of Ema and I sorting through baby clothes- her wardrobe from the past 16 months. We’re shipping all this baby clothes because, in case you haven’t heard, I’m pregnant and due June 26th! We’re very excited to have another little person in our lives. It was wonderful to get an ultrasound this past week because we saw the baby with little arm and leg buds moving and it became so real. We’ve been doing a lot each day and I don’t have many pregnancy symptoms…. so it was a joyful reminder that the next member of our family is with me right now, moving all over the house with me. We have a lot of girls clothes going to Croatia…. we’ll see if we’ll use them!

  I’m sure you can image how ‘helpful’ Ema has been these days of packing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Closure…. I don’t think I’m doing that very well because I don’t many moments of reflection to process this transition. I hope this Thanksgiving will be more focused for me in that way. One thing that helped was having Anna and Stephen visit because we had a wonderful time sitting over meals and coffee talking about life. We had three days to visit with our friends who came up from Charlestown. Here’s a few pictures taken on the grounds of Tanglewood right before it started to rain. 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Anna is a close friend from my years in Maryland. They’re actually moving back up north to Washington, D.C. soon from South Carolina! Changes and transitions are in their lives as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Lastly, I wanted to post a little video of Ema. She loves to talk on the phone and she’s been singing with me now too. Here’s a moment of her being the social girl that she is with her ‘friends’ on the other line. I  apologize that it is so dark.