Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

 The past two months have brought about some major changes in our life (hence the lack of blogging)!  All of these changes started back in the beginning of May, but I feel to do this story justice I should really begin back in 2006 when Ben and I first graduated and got our real jobs.  I knew from the beginning that while a career with Otis Elevator would mean a ton of amazing benefits, it would also mean an inevitable move (or moves) in our future.  Otis has branches all over the US and in order for Ben to be promoted and move up in the company he would eventually be moved to different branches to expand his expertise.  

The first move took us from Cincinnati (where we started) back to Indianapolis - we were sad to leave Cincy, but elated to be moving closer to our family and friends.  We lived happily in Indy for five and a half years, but as the time got longer, I knew the impending next move was only getting closer.  Fortunately, over the past two years in particular, God had been working on my heart, getting me ready to leave everything that seemed familiar safe and good.  So when Ben mentioned a few opportunities within Otis this past winter, I was sad, but also at peace with the idea of leaving Indy.

So back to May... Ben came home one day from work and mentioned that his boss had called and told him about a manager position that was basically his, if he wanted it.  It sounded like a pretty sure deal, but because a few other opportunities had come and gone in the past, I was careful not to get my hopes up (or start the grieving process too early!) 

Well sure enough, the offer was just too good to pass up and after lots of prayer Ben accepted the offer to be manager of the Otis Akron branch.  While we don't know anyone in Akron, and probably never would have picked Akron as our top place to live, we did like that it is only about 5 hours from Indy and one of my sorority sisters who lived here for several years was able to get me lots of details on where to live, preschools to go to, doctors to see, etc.  Things could have been worse... 

Otis has also taken really good care of us along the way - paying for the entire move, a house hunting trip and for the temporary housing (where we are now!) we have while we wait for our new house to be ready to move into on July 8th.  Here's a sneak peek...

 So the months of May and June were kind of a whirlwind - we met with realtors, got the house staged to sell (which involved choosing and having carpet installed withing 3 days, and what felt like a lot of other time consuming changes), and then had 10 showings the first weekend we put it on the market (which could have been bad with 2 kids and a dog, but fortunately we missed about 6 of them while visiting friends in Cincinnati).

 We got an offer after 2 days on the market and went under contract immediately.  What a huge blessing! With that out of the way, we focused our attention on finding a place to live in Akron.  June consisted of a week house hunting in Akron (just Ben and I, the Wehners watched the kids... we were so thankful!), a week in Florida (just for fun!) and then a week getting packed up to move (well, that really just took a day... but it felt like a crazy week!)

 I think that mostly gets the blog caught up on our life over the past two months, oh and I should probably mention one other minor detail... I got one of these the week after we found out about the move to Akron...

 I love the above picture because it's actually the way Ben found out about the pregnancy.  We hadn't necessarily been planning to get pregnant (we wanted a third, but not for a couple months), but after a long day at the Children's Museum with the kids I just couldn't shake the idea that something funny was going on with my body.  My stomach had felt kind of bloated and I was having the slightest ligament pain when I would wake up in the morning - something I only had while I was pregnant with Luc and Hank, but something I didn't experience till late in pregnancy with both of them.  Needless to say, there wasn't much evidence, but we were meeting up with our Bible study for a Mexican-themed dinner that night and I wanted to feel totally comfortable having a margarita so I grabbed a 3 pack of pregnancy tests on our way home from the Museum (knowing I'd need to use the other 2 in the next few months when we actually started trying).  Obviously the picture says it all - I tried to call Ben (who had no idea I was even thinking I might be pregnant) but he didn't pick up, so I texted him the above picture and said "you might want to call me".  

Despite both of us being shocked (apparently even after the third time around we still don't fully understand how this whole baby making thing happens) we were both super excited and were even more excited when we got to see the little peanut and find out the due date would be December 31st - fitting perfectly with our other holiday babies! 

 (The above picture is actually at 12 weeks.)

Needless to say, being in my first trimester while going through all of the above was a little less than desirable.  So far, this pregnancy has been almost exactly the same as the other two - feeling nauseated but never getting sick, very tired, lots of salty food cravings, and feeling hungry round the clock.  And like the other two pregnancies most of those systems have gone away now that I am 13 weeks - but I do find myself ready to pass out every night at 9pm. 

While I felt pretty crappy during all of the moving prep, I was pretty thankful to still be in Indy during this time, where friends and family could love and support us and help care for our family in ways that I could have never imagined.

Can't believe this little guy is going to be a big brother! But at least he'll be older than Lucy was when she became a big sister :)