A Little Personal Update

On our move, baby news, and prayer requests

In the early weeks of our move to Arizona, I would find myself blinking into the sun, surprised to find myself here.

You know the feeling. The “Wait, where am I?” feeling you can have while on a trip, and you wake up slightly disoriented in a hotel room.

It was an experience I’ve had before when we moved from Oregon to South Dakota in 2019. That was a more jarring move for our family because our roots were being left behind in Oregon, along with the majority of our extended family. But still, some of that surprised disorientation would hit me here and there this time around too, amazed to find myself in such a different environment. “Wow, we really did this! We moved to Arizona!”

This time around, I had an added blessing and complication, as we moved while in my early weeks of pregnancy, and dealing with high amounts of nausea. It has slowed down some of our plans for community building, yet we have been so thankful for the budding friendships we’ve gained despite that, and for the people who have so intentionally reached out to us as we’ve settled in.

I’m now 36 weeks along in my pregnancy, and officially starting our babywatch weeks. I’m still blinking into the sun, surprised to find myself here. I’m thankful for many things, including a lovely baby shower thrown for me last Sunday. I am still sorting through the wealth of gifts we were given, and we are very thankful for the practical care shown to us with so much love since we had nearly zero baby supplies left from our other children (it’s been eleven years!).

A little glimpse of the feast prepared (trying to preserve people’s privacy by not sharing other photos!).

With a baby expected so soon, I wanted to briefly share some of my experience transitioning to our new state, and also a few prayer requests.

What I’ve found so far:

The predictable unpredictability of transitions

In our second big transition as a family (our first being when we moved to South Dakota), I’ve again been reminded of the unpredictability of what would be easy and what would be hard about a transition. For example, when we moved to South Dakota, after hearing advice and experiences from other ministry families, we understood that we should expect the transition to be most difficult for our oldest and easiest for our youngest. In the end, it was switched! Our eldest quickly found her feet, and our youngest (who was only three) was really grieved by the move for some time and we had not seen that coming. This time around, in different ways, I’ve seen that same dynamic again. What I predicted or foresaw as being potentially difficult ended up being smooth, and what I thought would be smooth has been bumpy.

I’ve learned that transitions are unpredictable in many ways, and that you have to let go of your expectations and go with the flow.

Living in Arizona

Our view from the backyard of our house in South Dakota.

We moved during August, so it was still very hot when we moved. As it transitioned into fall and then winter, I grew to appreciate the sunny mild days. My new friends here don’t quite understand this aspect, but I do miss the snow. Living in our tiny South Dakota town up in the national forest that would get snow here and there was a Hallmark-y type of existence that I rather liked. I knew I would miss it, and moving while pregnant (and extra warm!) into the desert definitely amplified the warm weather for me. Despite missing the snow, and despite dreading the summer heat, I have greatly appreciated the sunshine. I noticed when we moved to South Dakota (we got a lot of sun there year round, despite it being cold in the winter), that the sun really impacted my sense of happiness. That surprised me, as I’ve always liked the rain. But I do think I feel happier in a sunnier climate, and I’ve appreciated the sun here. And the flowers in bloom year round. And the birds and hummingbirds too.

I’m still getting used to the dusty climate both in appearance and practically, but that will come in time.

Exploring a new city

We had to hit the ground running, between my husband’s new job, the kids’ new school, and my pregnancy. There has been, quite frankly, a lot of survival mode living since we moved, as it’s been a BUSY schedule. Because I haven’t been feeling the best, and it has been so busy, we haven’t had the opportunity to explore as much of our new city as we want to. But that just means we have time to do so in the months ahead. We have been able to explore, with recommendations from our new church, some lovely food places, including a delicious tea house and some of the most amazing Mexican food I’ve ever had. And we’ve been able to tiptoe into some of the beautiful hiking areas around here too. We’ve also put the better grocery stores in the area to good use since we moved!

My pregnancy and prayer requests:

At some point I hope to share some thoughts on what it’s looked like to be an older mom having a baby, and what has changed in the last twenty years of motherhood for me. The world has not slowed down, and I was struck many times by how different this experience was for me in some ways compared to past pregnancies. But right now, I am looking at my last couple of weeks of pregnancy and preparing for labor and delivery, and I so appreciate prayers.

Labor/Delivery and Recovery

I’ve had rather crazy birth experiences in the past, and I appreciate prayer for a smooth delivery without complications, and safety for our newborn as well as myself. I won’t go into the details, but let’s just say I don’t take a smooth delivery for granted! I’ve had very hard recoveries too, and it would be so lovely to have something a little smoother this time around. I also appreciate prayers for good health for everyone in the family as we go into the newborn stage. We caught the norovirus a week or so after my last child was born, and that wasn’t ideal!

While I wouldn’t label this pregnancy as easy, so far we have been incredibly thankful for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. I know that many, including many of my readers, have been praying with us, and I appreciate that more than you know. As we enter into the last weeks of this pregnancy, I appreciate the continued prayers and support.

Car Woes

Finally, way back in December, an older woman drove her car into the side of our car when Joel and a few of our kids were in it. We are so grateful that no one was seriously injured in the wreck, and that’s what matters most. It did create some chaos for us that has unfortunately continued. It took a long time for us to get our car repaired as they had to replace an entire door and send away for parts. In the aftermath of the wreck, a cup of tea was spilled in the car, which unfortunately caused some water damage in the car, and this must have caused some invisible mold in the interior of the car. As many of you know, I’m highly sensitive to mold, as is one of my kids. We were so excited to get our car back, only to find that it was making both me and one of my kids get sick, even on very short drives. We are following a protocol to clean it for the extremely mold-sensitive, and we greatly appreciate prayer that it works for us! This is the only car we own that can fit all of us, and it would be a huge blow for me to be unable to use it with a new baby in the house.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!