This has been a big month for us.... On July 4th/5th we moved to IN! It's been crazy and exhausting and scary and exciting and sad and happy and, well, everything. Ross is loving his new job. He works "downtown" Indy (compared to Chi town, Indy is an tiny anthill). They seem to value him, and his work, so far, is at a slower pace with fewer projects to juggle at once, which he likes (multi-tasking isn't a huge strong suit of his so it works well for him to give lots of attention to just a few projects). He already went on his 1st overnight work trip to, wait for it, AURORA. Ha! How ridiculous is that?! I was hoping for Puerto Rico like his co-worker, or some exotic and wealthy middle eastern country, but apparently they start him small ;) He has had to "ready" his passport for possible international travel at some point, so we need to get the Ash-man a passport too just in case! You can bet that Ash and I will be joining him for a semi-free vacay on some of the more interesting trips!
Our house is under contract and they are just waiting for final permits to break ground. They should start any day actually! We visit the lot often and it's awesome to see the progress of the homes around us, it means ours is next!!! :) I CAN'T WAIT to be in the house. As much as I was impressed with these "luxury" apartments when we selected them, they are still very much apartments.
The weather here is wicked and fierce. It's how I remember the weather in central IL from when I was growing up. It's amazing the difference in weather a few weather bands can make! I warned Ross and he didn't believe me... he believes now. A week ago my sister's neighbor's home was struck by lightning when we were at my sister's. I heard it and it was crazy. It was 2 houses away and sounded like something exploded inside my sister's house. The noise we heard ended up being the lightning strike 2 doors down, but also the surge blowing up my sister's internet and home alarm system ;( The neighbor's house was fried but no fire which is a miracle. All their appliances were fried, along with all of the wiring in the house. It blew the floor trim off the wall it was so strong! Poor poor family :( Days later, lightning struck our apartment complex, 2 buildings down from us. This time it did cause a fire and crews were here all day dealing with it. It burned 5 units completely, and damaged 15 more, so the entire building was evacuated indefinitely. Only 1 minor injury which is great, but 20 displaced families now. crazy. what's even crazier???? WE were meant to live in that exact building that was struck and caught fire, and we were meant to live on the side (on the TOP) where it hit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No freaking joke. We originally selected a different (bigger) apt model, and that's where our unit was going to be. All of a sudden before moving I felt an intense urgency to switch models so we could get a quicker move-in date and to save a little on the bill since we had to pay a lot extra for a short-term lease, and since it's so temporary. In the moment I thought it was because we wanted to be able to move directly and not live a week at my sister's waiting on an apartment, and also because it would save money. Turns out it was God giving me the urgency because he wanted to save us from the fire, from losing all of our stuff, possibly getting hurt, and from being displaced in a new/strange place. THANK YOU JESUS FOR THIS!!!!!!!!!!! The apartment is nice, but small and not child-friendly. I'm already anxious to be done with it.
Asher is very sick right now, but overall he's doing very well. He is sick of the apartment too, but he now has 3 little cousins who are always eager to come see him ;) We escape to my sister's often too, SO thankful we chose to rent in the same neighborhood we'll be living so we are already so close to family. After much stress and a ton of research and multiple discouraging interviews, I found a fantastic pediatrician here for Asher! She's from Nigeria which I absolutely LOVE, has a ton of experience, and just so happens to have 2 kids with multiple and severe food allergies. Coincidence? I think not. She's fantastic and I'm psyched to be able to partner with her in the care of my son. Asher is SOOOOOOOOOO close to walking. He's totally strong enough to, but a little skeptical still. He won't try it, but I think it will be soon. He's kind of brilliant. His receptive language seems to be very high. He understands much of what we are saying. He's learning some signs. He LOVES to wave hi and bye now... He says "dada" and "mama" all day, every day. He recently started saying "yay" and "oooooooooo" and "nana". He tries to say "OH BOY", and can also enunciate "tuh tuh tuh" as well as "sssssssssssssssssss". He once said "monkey" as clear as a bell, but of course never again. For months when I would ask him to get a book to read he would give me one, but more recently he will find specific ones I ask for at times. He's insanely funny and laughs all day. He's a riot and we couldn't adore him any more than we do.
I've had some medical stuff myself that I won't go into until I get some test results back, but it's presentation is a bit concerning, so several tubes of blood were taken from me yesterday with the hopes of a lead on something. More on that later.
Despite my desperate efforts to be different and make my own choices and live my own life (and deliberately be unique), we have decided to attend my sister's church ;) It's a fantastic church, but I wanted to keep all of our options open and research and explore everything to make sure we made a good choice for our family, not one that was convenient and safe since we knew people there. It's a really really great church it seems. Seriously impressive teaching, some of the best I've ever heard... very solid with tons of depth every single week. They are ridiculously accommodating to young families, which is so so nice.
It's scary and at times lonely and very exhausting starting over. It's very exciting at the same time. It's going to take some time to make this place feel like "home", years I'm guessing, but I can see us being very happy here. A very nice couple has already reached out to us so we are excited about the possibility of friendship with them. We have met ALL of our neighbors. In a month. I've talked with them more than I did in over 5 years at our condo in Wheaton. I know we are only in central IN in the center of the country, but it feels like "the south" to us ;) People are kinder here... warmer, more friendly, less rushed, etc. Now, this is VERY annoying on the road, because they also drive SOOOOOOOOOOOO SLOW and have no sense of urgency or defensiveness (or awareness!) in driving.... but the culture is very welcoming :) Overall, despite some major stressors and exhaustion, we are doing well. Asher will be a whole YEAR old in over a month... it's surreal, really. We've come so far in this year. I am filled with anticipation, joy, happiness, sadness, fear, amazement, and surprise all at the same time regarding his upcoming milestone.
Asher learning to push his activity table as if it were a walker:
Asher discovering the door stops at the apartment which he LOVED, and which we had to promptly remove from the walls to avoid him choking:
Asher helping mama clean:
Asher delighted with himself for being able to rock the walker independently: ;)
