Well Hello, There!

I can't concentrate for anything these days.

There's a new baby coming in approximately 56 days.
Evelyn turns two exactly a month from today.
I'm coming up on my one year anniversary at the church.
And now, in a surprising turn of events, we're strongly considering putting an offer on a house here in Ripon.

For a while I had considered shutting down my blog.  It was just one more thing on my list of things to do and I thought it would be wise to just let it go.  But lately I've been thinking about how nice it would be to write out some thoughts now and then, and right now especially, since I am having so much trouble concentrating on some important Saturday evening to-dos (those are pastor code-words for sermon writing), I thought I'd take some time to write out some thoughts.

Appleton Timber Rattlers game

The last time I wrote, we hadn't announced that we were having another baby yet.  We found out just shortly after the new year, and waited until I was 12 weeks along to announce it publicly, which was in late February.  In that time, we learned that my brother and sister in law are also expecting their second baby, just two weeks before us.  We are both having little boys!

Little boy newborn clothes.  Thank God Evelyn's two best friends are boys with late summer/early fall birthdays!

This pregnancy has been harder than the first time around.  I'm sure it's because of chasing Evelyn around and my job is a different kind of physically exhausting than seminary was.  But I also feel a different kind of attachment to him.  I had a very deep spiritual connection with Evelyn throughout my pregnancy, but I don't have that now.  I think perhaps it's because I know what loving a child means now in a different way than I did then, and I worry (I know it's an irrational worry) that I can never love another child.  The attachment is growing and changing, though, especially as Evelyn gets more and more excited for him to come and when I see the excitement in her eyes my heart expands in a new way.  She doesn't understand the full reality of having a baby brother but she does know that he has things in our house, that he is inside me now and will someday come out, and that he is very, very special.  She talks about him all the time, whether it's provoked or not.  She likes to draw pictures of him and look at all his stuff.  She kisses my belly and sings to him.  If I ask her what he's doing she used to say sleeping, but now she says he's playing.  When I ask her what she wants to do when he comes out of mommy she says, "Go home."

A picture Evelyn drew of her baby brother. 

Before he is born, Evelyn will turn two.  Her language is exploding, especially since she spent a week with her cousin Zoey a month ago.  She has her own little personality that blows my mind every day.  Some of it is stuff that we taught her, but what's really crazy is the way that she comes up with stuff totally on her own.  She even makes jokes.  They aren't funny jokes, but she will for example tell us that she sees an elephant in the tree, then start cracking up and say, "NOOOO that's silly!" She also pretends to be different animals, usually a cat, but also dogs, penguins, cows, spiders.

At the Timber Rattlers game

In a fort with Nos. 

Okay, and then finally I want to talk about this house thing.  So we had originally thought that buying a house wasn't within our financial ability at this point in our lives.  But after talking to a banker and doing a ton, ton, ton of numbers crunching and talking with friends and family, we learned that it is actually a very wise financial decision for us to buy a house now.  While we're aware that the unexpected expenses of owning a house can be many, we are also tired of renting a house in a town we plan to continue living in for the foreseeable future.  This isn't the right decision for everyone, but here in Ripon the market is in our favor and with the right house, it's a no-brainer.  

There is one that we are strongly considering, and we will have some definite answers on whether or not we will place an offer by early next week.  We are hoping that if we decide to do this, we can do it very quickly so that we can be in the house before the baby comes.  That is, of course, two months away.  So it will be a very stressful couple of months.  The banker has offered to do her best to speed the process up.  Once I know more, I will share!