Moving Day & Etc

The whole moving process began on July 18th. Some of us went to Fort Wayne ahead of the moving truck so that the house could be prepped, nursery walls painted and kitchen unpacked. The large moving truck arrived the next day and some unloading was done. However, Saturday was the big day - unloading the moving truck, arranging furniture and beginning the adventure of unpacking.

We are so so thankful for all of the unloading and unpacking help we received. Moving can be quite a challenge...even more so with a newborn. Some wonderful people from our vicarage church helped as well as some good friends from seminary and family from Illinois. So thankful!

We are very blessed with our home this year. It is a cute house, close to the seminary and a short distance from several places we like to shop. (It is just about walking distance to Hobby Lobby! Dangerous, I know! ;-)) Our home has three bedrooms, which is wonderful! Isaac has his nursery and Adam is able to have a room for studying. There are built in shelves and desks, too. As many of you know, a seminarian can never have enough book shelves. ;-)

Here we are once again calling Fort Wayne "home"...but for only a year! The Call Service will take place in the spring and we are already doing the countdown. :-)

Baby Isaac

Nesting was in full force late June...painting Baby J's dresser, packing up my beloved craft room, paying bills extra early (just in case Baby J came early), coordinating housing for his baptism sponsors for during baptism weekend, verifying pre-registration with the hospital, putting together the moving weekend agenda, coordinating moving help, contacting a Fort Wayne pediatrician, organizing insurance paperwork for Isaac...the list goes on and on.

Perhaps nesting is an indicator of when a baby is about to arrive because Isaac Jacobsen entered the world on June 29th, 2012. He weighed 8 lbs, 6 oz and almost 22 inches long (and he was ten days early! Quite a good size for an early baby, the doctor said.).

Here were are on Isaac's baptism Sunday:

1 Samuel 1:27 I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.

Psalm 9:1, 2 I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; 

I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. 

² 

I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.

Baby J's Dresser & My Trip to Home Depot

We have been very blessed with nursery furniture. Some friends gave us their cute white changing table that they aren't using anymore. Our neighbors are doing some spring cleaning and getting rid of baby stuff they don't need - like an adorable white crib that happens to match the changing table.

Baby J will have a closet in his nursery next year. I must admit, baby clothes look so cute hanging up on their lil hangers all in a row in a closet...but it is a pain to fit hangers into those wee little clothes! Folding Baby J's outfits and fitting them easily into a dresser drawer would be better for my sanity. So the search for a dresser began.

We acquired this dresser recently...someone didn't want it anymore and I said, "Oooh, I'll take it!"

Our lil guy's nursery has a vintage airplane theme. The furniture is white, bedding cream, walls grey/blue and the curtains tba. There are accents of red here and there and I thought, "Oooh a distressed red dresser would look neat!" Adam wasn't so sure about that idea, he thought one big red piece in the room could look funny...perhaps a red side table or something would look better. He had a good point...and if I painted the dresser white, it would match the crib and changing table. Also, the white dresser would be gender neutral and easier to match with future furniture pieces and decor arrangements (there are lots of pros to choosing a neutral paint color). 

So off to Home Depot I went. I picked up two gallons of nursery wall paint and three cans of spray paint for the dresser. The Home Depot guy was very helpful, he helped me find satin white spray paint - primer and paint in one! (Oooh, and spray paint is getting pretty easy these days - they come with a trigger instead of some obnoxious knob that numbs your finger.) This worked like a charm - steady consistent stream of paint, dried quickly...and I'll be going back for the red paint as soon as we find that perfect side table. ;-)

While I was there I picked up some lovely blue/grey paint for Baby J's nursery walls. I got two gallons of low odor/zero VOC Behr "Blue Fox".... I think the white furniture will really pop against this wall color. :-)

Anywho, back to the dresser. After my two gallons of paint were mixed and ready go, I headed to aisle 11 - the hardware aisle. Part of recreating a piece's look is adding new hardware. If I wanted to go for the Pottery Barn look, I would've chosen white knobs...however, as some of you may know, I'm a sucker for dark metal vintagey hardware. This is what jumped into my cart:

When I was in the paint department, I had intended to get only two cans of spray paint for the dresser - good thing the Home Depot guy convinced me to get another can! I used all three cans and this is what the dresser looks like, knobs and all:

It looks like a totally different piece. I'm glad Adam convinced me to do white instead of red! The dresser will coordinate nicely with the white crib and white changing table.  I'm looking forward to seeing how everything will fit together once we move into our home late July. It will be great to finally assemble all of the nursery pieces and decor I've been accumulating over the past few months. :-)

It is the Lord who goes before you...

The other day a certain verse in Deuteronomy caught my eye. It's a verse that's found amidst a time of transition in the Old Testament, when Joshua succeeds Moses.  

Moses tells all of Israel, "Be strong and courageous... it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you" (Deut. 31:6).

Then Moses tells Joshua in front of  the Israelites: “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it.  It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed” (Deut. 31:7,8).


Note the peace and comfort that is given: "It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." Transitions can be tough, whether it be receiving a new leader, switching schools, moving 1,000 miles away for a year or coming back to a certain place in Indiana once called "home." Our Heavenly Father knows that transitions can be difficult, that's why the Israelites were given those sweet words of encouragement. Our Lord knows our hearts and sees our tears. That's why He gives us the comfort and confidence that He is with us, He won't leave us, we needn't fear in what lies ahead because "It is the Lord who goes before you."

Dinners, Brunches and Coffees Oh My!

The past couple weeks have been busy with social gatherings...fitting in lovely dinners, brunches, desserts and coffee dates here and there with friends. The baby will be here in about a month and then the big move is less than a couple weeks after the lil guy's due date. It's been wonderful to see old friends from college, nurture new friendships and continue to invest in older friendships during this time as we prepare for two huge life transitions.

What a blessing! :-)

Lately

The past several days have been busy. The days have flown by with family visiting, a lovely baby shower (what a huge blessing!), writing thank you notes for such wonderful baby gifts, fitting in last social engagements before the baby arrives and packing up our home. On Memorial Day we packed quite a few boxes and wrapped three wall hangings (things are beginning to look more and more bare!).

Our lil packing helper has been adding humor to the packing process, which makes wrapping up this chapter of our lives a bit easier. {Saying good-bye is not fun. :-/}




The lil robin babies have hatched!! They hatched middle of last week. They are growing oh so fast, but here is a photo of them when they are brand brand new. :-) Watching the cute lil robin family grow is such a neat experience.

 

Moving Box Mountain

With baby on the way and our moving date just a couple weeks after, we have been packing as much as possible.

Our mountain of boxes has been growing steadily! It'd be nice to store the boxes in the basement or guest bedroom (not such an eye sore)...but it's easier to keep them in the dining room, which is on the main level. We don't want to wear out our moving helpers by asking them to bring the boxes all the way from the basement or 2nd floor to the moving truck!

Ideally, I'd like to have most everything packed about two weeks before Baby J's due date...just in case he decides to arrive a bit early! Hopefully we're able to accomplish that and live with the essentials until we move in late July.



While we've been packing, another family has been moving in:

This robin family has parked itself on our front door's wreath. We've been trying to use the back door more often because the momma robin gets quite persnickety whenever we use the front door: she will fly off of the nest, sit in a nearby tree, then share with us her dismay by chirping "go away, go away!"

I plan on taking that wreath back to Fort Wayne with us...hopefully Mr. and Mrs. Robin are empty nesters by then. :-)