Boxes, cleaning and paint

Whew! So much for my intentions of blogging once a week! This year has been a year of new challenges already! I spent much of January on the road with Joel, in PA with Mom and finally packing boxes up to move to our new home a town over from where we were. Early in the month we said goodbye to Grammy after several weeks of watching her in her final fight with cancer. While there were a myriad of details (and still are) that come with losing someone, it has been amazing to know where she is and that she's finally Whole.

On Saturday Joel and I were joined by some much-appreciated friends and siblings to help move all our belongings from our third floor, one bed-room apartment to our new home in Bloomfield, CT. Joel's grandparents raised their children and grandchildren there and had a great home set up. It's been sitting empty since his grandma passed away last year and it has been one more way God has provided for us as we look at starting our own family. His blessings are abundant and it's a little intimidating but mostly encouraging to be starting off in a place that already holds so many good memories for him and his family.

We've unpacked many boxes, set up most of the kitchen and are looking at painting sometime soon.

Pregnancy has brought on a whole new world of "Is Lysol safe for me to inhale?" and "fume free paint is HOW much?!"

In the midst of the bending, lifting and cleaning I found myself getting more nervous about whether the baby is okay or not. I've been taking it extremely easy compared to my normal 'moving' pace and Joel has stepped up to not only do the lifting but even cleaning the kitchen cabinets for me but there's still a part of me that wondered if I was in some way hurting our little one in this process. A few nights ago I managed to locate the heart monitor/doppler from my cousin Amy from our boxes. Nothing can describe the relief I felt in hearing the strong, steady swishing noise of the baby's heart at 148bpm. SO glad!