Thursday, March 22, 2018

2017 Snippeted: Part 1 - January 1 to May 15

Start of the Year:
Where: North Carolina - Children's Home - Girl's Cottage #4
Who/What: House parenting 8 young ladies; parenting Zander (age 3), and Charlotte (age 6 and starting kindergarten at home).

Overall impression of the year: This was the year of faith. Jumping without a parachute, in faith that God was going to catch us. And catch us He did. With style.

In writing and reviewing, I found this year broken into three distinct parts. The first part, January 1 to May 15, was the most "normal" in terms of what we had been experiencing the last few years.

May 15 to August 21: Change and more change.

August 21 - December 31 - The settling.

 January 2017
If you have been following the story summaries of the last two years, you will understand that January was a discouraging month for us. We had thought hope was in sight, and an end to the eternally-long schedule of no rest. Then the new couple who had been hired in November, quit in December. And we faced January with no time-off again.

However, in December--prior to the new couple quitting--I had gone to our director to triple-check that I was okay to book tickets to fly to Missouri to meet my nephew (at last--only five months later!). He had assured me we would have our week off in January and to go ahead and leave town. Of course when we were without relief again in January, there was a scramble to find someone to fill in for us that week. But they cobbled together some help, and we were able to (thankfully) take what should have been our regular scheduled week off.

Charlotte and I left Chris and Zander behind for a boy's week, and we got to meet my nephew, see my siblings, and generally have a sweet girls-week together. I also got to tell Charlotte about our secret baby, and tell my siblings in person (which was lovely). We didn't tell Zander for several more weeks, as I knew Charlotte would be able to keep the secret around campus better than he could.

I also started looking into birth centers (home birth is not well supported in North Carolina--disappointingly). There was a highly recommended birth center about 45 minutes drive away, and I wound up contacting them and getting set up there.






February 2017
Thanks to the planning of my sweet husband, we managed 2 days off this month! And another set of reliefs were hired; although, they wouldn't actually be in our cottage to give us time off until sometime in March. But hope was on the horizon--at last! And not one minute too soon as baby was quickly making her presence known in tiredness, nausea, and general early pregnancy symptoms.


We told the girls that we were having a baby. We bought Blueberry a shirt that said "Best Big Sister Ever" and Zander one that said "Just stuck in the middle." Sent them out into the cottage to "show off" their new shirts. Seven of the eight girls read Zander's shirt, had a discussion about middle children and babies, etc. Not one of them cluing into the fact that, as far as they knew, Zander WAS the baby--not a middle child. Took the eighth girl walking in, reading his shirt, looking at me, and when I confirmed with a nod, losing her mind in excitement, for the other girls to clue into what was happening. Ha ha.

Z-man turned 4 this month and we had a Lego birthday party for him. He had a blast.



March 2017
A break, at last. Or at least a normal shift. The general sigh of relief across campus was tangible.

We found out we were having a girl! Due around August 21st (the day of the Eclipse!). Z was initially hoping for a boy, but quickly changed his tune on finding out he was getting a sister. Blue was wanting a sister. And most of the kids on campus had cast their vote for one or the other; created a lot of fun competition for a few days.

And then the next wave hit. Our director, a man of God who both Chris and I hold in the highest respect (even with the craziness of the last few years!), was retiring. In a little over a month.

April 2017
Baby growing. I developed an obsession for all things seafood--particularly Thai Crab Fried rice (which I could not get in Concord, NC). Easter. Spring Break. The blessed relief of normalcy.


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