It Has Begun!

Sorting.  Storing.  Purging.  It has begun: The Great Sift.  It's the beginning of the end of having all our own stuff in our own home, ready and available whenever we want or need it.  We're leaving Duluth in the fall, but we're not just moving to another house.  We're moving on with life, and eventually moving on to Africa!

We'll be taking very little with us, so now it's time to start sorting, storing, and/or purging.  Sifting.  Do we keep this?  Do we need it for daily living?  Do we put it in deep storage?  Do we get rid of it completely?  It's not as simple as boxing everything up and moving it from Point A to Point B.  We're not moving into another home where everything will get unpacked to be used again and/or dealt with at a later time.  A decision needs to be made over every single item in our possession.  Everything we choose to keep will be stored in someone else's space, and we want to be cognizant and careful of the space we're overtaking.  And many things we won't need to take with us.  Couches, tables, dishes, decor...none of that will be needed when we move on from here.  But we'll staying in this house through the end of September, so decisions need to be made not only in what to do with everything, but when to do it also.

We'll be slowly sifting through stuff this summer, in hopes of minimizing the work toward the end.  The reason is because we're on a deadline, and because I'm only getting more pregnant by the day and can't imagine doing this kind of work in earnest when I'll be barely able to move by that point.  Here's our timeline:

• Our landlord is putting the house on the market in August.
• Our baby is due in the middle of September.
• We'll be out of the house by October 1.
• We'll live at The Farm in Cambridge for a week-and-a-half.
• We'll attend our 10-year Reunion at Bethel the weekend of October 10-11.
• My parents will fly out and help us drive our cars and kids to Michigan.
• We'll move into my parents' lakehouse in Michigan and live there until we move to Africa.

So...lots of transitions ahead of us!  Life is busy and only getting busier.  It's gonna be a little crazy, we admit, and there's a bit of nervousness on my part, but we're praying and trusting that God will help us every step of the way through The Great Sift.

Trip to Utah

We met some wonderful friends in med school who helped us survive the insanity of those four years.  We stumbled upon Ben and Jamie during orientation at Loyola and clicked with them right away.  They love to play games, they love to read books, they love to travel, they appreciate history, they enjoy the great outdoors...  It was practically a match made in heaven.  We went on several trips with them during med school - to Washington D.C., Disney World, Springfield (IL), the Minnesota State Fair, and my parents' house in Michigan - and created many memories along the way.  We adore these people and were blessed with the chance to see them this past weekend.  They've spent the last year in Utah while Ben did a fellowship after residency and we snuck a chance to visit them before they move on.  What a joy and a blessing it was to see them again!

This was our first trip to Utah.  As we descended into Salt Lake City, we saw what looked like snow in the middle of June, but it was actually the salt flats.  The landscape kept changing and it was interesting and beautiful, like nothing we'd ever seen before.  What a welcome to Utah!

I didn't realize before we arrived that Salt Lake City (and Provo, where our friends live) is in the middle of the Wasatch Mountains.  It was picturesque to say the least.  We walked in a canyon one day and were rewarded with views like this:

It was fabulous!  The mountains greeted us everyday with their splendor and we enjoyed every moment of it.  We even had the chance to watch some paragliders jump off a mountain and sail away into the sky. 

Although the kids were also impressed with the waterfall and mountain creek, their favorite part of the weekend was playing in the splash pad in downtown Provo.  It was a hot and sunny day, and Eli and Ben played with all the kids in the water while Jamie and I stayed dry and ate snacks.  (She's pregnant too and we thoroughly relished every chance to relax and let our husbands tackle the kiddos.)  Caleb was hesitant at first, but eventually realized the joy of the splash pad and had a great time.  Kai couldn't get enough of it and was despondent when it was time to go.

We also tried drinks at Sodalicious, a popular spot in Provo with a unique variety of soda.  Eli got one called The Viking (of course).  Those Mormons love their soda, and so do we!  (They also love everything family-oriented, which is fabulous.  Jamie joked that playgrounds in Provo are like Starbucks in Seattle :)  It's definitely a family-friendly place to be!)  After quenching our thirst, Eli and Ben went ziplining through the mountains while Jamie and I napped with the kids, which sounded way better to me at the time than ziplining.  I slept for over an hour and it was amazing!

The weekend went too fast but we're so thankful we made it to Utah for a visit.  It's a beautiful place and we loved spending time with our friends again.  Despite the frumpy faces on our kids in the picture below, they also had a great time and did remarkably well with the time change and uprooting of their normal routine.

Surviving medical school together is a tie that binds and we're glad to be tied to these people!

O Sleep, Where Art Thou?

At my last prenatal appointment my doctor asked how I'm sleeping.  I paused, not quite sure how to answer such a simple question.  I assured her that the pregnancy wasn't causing much trouble yet.  "It's the other two," I said.  "Well, it's just Caleb," I clarified.  "Kai does great, but Caleb's never been a good sleeper."  My doctor looked at me with empathy, then moved on to other questions about the pregnancy.

Caleb.  Oh Caleb.  My sweet, sleep-averse little boy.  He exhausts me every day with his sleepless habits.  He wakes up between 5 and 5:30 almost every day no matter what time he goes to bed.  And he can't put himself back to sleep once he wakes up, even if he's still tired.  And because he hates being alone, he won't settle for playing in his room quietly until it's time for everyone else to get up.  He has to be in our room, playing around and whispering to himself while periodically asking if we can go downstairs.  If we ask him to go back to his room because it's too early, he does, but then stands just inside the door and cries painfully loud (as if playing with all the toys and books in his room by himself is the worst punishment ever).  Regardless of what happens, we're awake for the day during the 5 o'clock hour because Caleb is.

He only sleeps about 9 hours a night, which is how much I ideally need these days.  How is it possible that my barely 3-year old doesn't need any more sleep than I do?  And he still wakes up overnight at least half the time and has to be put back to bed.  So...I'm tired.  I nap every day when he does, which is most days, but his naps are not long.  He just doesn't seem to need as much sleep as other kids his age.

Sometimes I ask why I'm so tired because even Caleb's crazy sleep habits don't always warrant my level of exhaustion, and then Eli reminds me, "Krista, you're pregnant.  You're supposed to be tired."  So I feel validated.  But man oh man, I am tired these days.

I took this picture a couple months ago because his sweet face pulled my heartstrings.  I find myself looking at it occasionally to remind myself that our son does indeed sleep sometimes, and that rest is a wonderful thing not to be taken for granted.  Someday, someday, we won't be this exhausted all the time.  Even if I have to wait till that day when I see Jesus face to face, I know that REST will be awaiting me there!