The Long Road Home: HEEEEELLLO GEORGIA!

Yep, we are here and doing our very best to settle in...at least temporarily. We arrived about a week ago after a two day trip. The actual drive is only about 12-14 hours, but we knew there was no way Preston would hold up for such a trip, so we stopped in Jackson, Mississippi for a night to break up the drive. And, side note, don't stay in a La Quinta that allows dogs...or at least the one in Jackson. Good gosh, holy dirty hotel room! EEwwww! I know they allow pets, which we obviously needed since we made the drive with two of our four dogs, but, man oh man, was this place no bueno. I'm not even joking when I say that Preston's BLUE socks were literally turned dark dirty brown from him walking on the carpet for an hour before bed. Gross. And if any of you have gleaned anything from my writing, then you should know that a dirty house, and especially dirty floors is definitely not on the menu. That was a rough night. Not only was it dirty, but my sister was also with us, so she slept on a couch right beside our bed, and Preston slept in his pack n play beside the couch -- so we were all in the same room---with the two dogs, in a room right beside the highway and beside a main entry door to the hotel. Needless to say, it was loooud, and none of us slept. But we made it through, and we hit the road again as soon as we could.

We made it here to Georgia without incident other than the electric window in my new Pilot stopped working. Arg. ...But the main thing is that we all survived one another and all made it safe and sound. :) We are now in our temporary apartment for the next month. Our estimated closing date as of now on our house is November 22nd. Fingers crossed there are no delays and we can work on the other big aspect of moving: unpacking and getting resettled and moved-in, and doing our nursery!

Not too much has slowed down for us though in the one week we've been here. It seems when we complete one task, another is in line and needs to be handled. So it's been a slew of decisions, decisions, decisions, handling maintenance issues at our rental property back home here from Georgia, handling poor property manager issues with the rent house we moved out of back home, and just a slew of " administrative" stuff, as I like to call it. But there is just a lot involved in moving four states, breaking a lease, living in temporary housing, continuing to manage an owned rental property, starting a new job, preparing for a baby, taking care of a toddler, changing insurance ( especially while pregnant), finding new doctors pronto, and building and buying a house, and then handling everything that comes up in between. It'll slow down though! And it's still a ride and journey that we are so happy to be on. God has made his presence so known through every detail and in our spirits. It's been an incredible time for us to see more of His goodness, faithfulness, and ability to be in the details of our lives and truly meet us exactly where we are. He has orchestrated so many things for our good, well before we even knew we needed these things to work out the way they did. He's provided so many " yes's " at so many turns, big and small. I love seeing his brush strokes and knowing and loving Him enough to hand Him all the glory. He is the maker of all things good.

Kevin likes his new job and is getting his feet wet more and more each day. He really likes his coworkers, and I'm super excited that most of them seem to be in our same phase of life, young, married with little kids. Awesomeness! The same goes for our new house! Our next door neighbors are due with a baby in March! Super awesomenss! I really hope she's a stay at home mom, too. :)

Preston and I are getting out most days. We're at least going to lunch together or hitting up the park and giving him some outside time. Although it's already cold up here, at least to me, I still try to get P out and about to hes not couped up all day. Preston, for the most part, has been adjusting well, too. He's been a little off on his sleeping since he has to sleep in a pack n play, which is not great, and his eating has actually been horrendous, but, we're working through it all day by day. All in all, he is doing wonderfully! He is such and easy going dude. In other big news, although the timing is not ideal, I am just about out of frozen breast milk so we're in the process of transitioning P to his new milk. Total * sniff sniff*! Uhh! I knew this day would come, but it's still super sad for me. So as of right now he's taking 75% breastmilk and 25% of goat milk (with added things in it, like coconut and olive oil, blackstrap molasses....) to make it the closest nutritional profile to breast milk. So far, so good. It actually tastes really good! How can it not with all that molasses and coconut oil in it?! :) It's still surreal to see this phase leave for good though. But I give myself a big pat on the back. I worked my tail off to be able to keep him breastfed for these past 19 months, which is quite the task, so I'm going to relish in the good of it and be super proud of myself! Most don't make it this far, and being able to provide for Preston this way makes my heart happy.

Me and the baby are doing well, or so it seems, too. So far so good. I'm trying to be very conscious that this is the exact time that all of my problems with Preston began. I am 26 weeks now, and I went on bed rest at 25 weeks with Preston and remained that way until 32 or 34 weeks. So I'm being very aware of any Braxton Hicks contractions I get, drinking lots of water, and sitting down or taking a bath when I feel like I'm getting too many contractions. Regardless of what we have going on, or what needs to be done, none of it is worth potentially causing this baby to be born so premature. Far too many health issues to contend with, and it's just not fair to our sweet boy. So no worries, I'm being very mindful and will continue to be even as we start moving into the house. :)

We took Preston to a Fall Halloween Festival this past weekend at a local church. He had quite the time! He dressed up in his dragon costume and played and played. They had a " Toddler Town", full of age appropriate things for the little ones to do so they didn't get ran over by the big kids, and he had a blast. He actually wasn't interested in the cool animals, all he wanted to do was play with the push and riding toys, So funny. I had intention of making him a great, unique costume this year for Halloween, but with all that we have going on, that one just didn't make the list. So we went pretty generic, but that's okay, he still looked cuter than ever, of course! He was a dragon!

"Roar!!"

He LOOOVED this pink tricycle. He kept coming back to it.

" Big Hugs" as we say, for the baby goat. Preston loves to gives 'big hugs'.

Dad was so proud. He went straight for the golf club and ball and started putting. :)

The sweetest most beautiful dragon I've ever seen. :)

So there ya have it. A quick update. We will be headed out for a bit on Halloween, so I'll post pics after Thursday. We are alive and well, and things are moving along. Thank you for all of your prayers. They are certainly being honored. Love you guys.