This last two weeks has given Lady Hiva some familiar
experiences in our life’s journey, AND it has also given up some new
experiences.
Part of being in the Foreign Service means MOVING! Roots—in the
traditional sense—are fluid. Home is where your pillow is and family comes to
visit, not necessarily the building or city either of those happen.
Lady Hiva and I were able to move again—writing this blog I
counted, for the first time, how many times Lady and I have moved since we were
married: 7 and counting! We moved into our housing allotted to us while I am in
training for our next post. Madre flew out to help us get both this apartment
ready and to clean our condo that we purchased. The experience of moving into
the housing complex where we lived two years ago during training again was full
of de-ja vu-like experiences. The floor plan is the same, and the area is familiar.
We found ourselves discussing “where did we have this last time?”
The difference in housing is that we will not be able to
move into our condo. Long story short, when we left Manila we made a decision
to live in assigned housing and all of our household stuff—except clothes and
other basics—went to Europe to wait for our arrival. Being at the Condo is fun.
We have polished floors, cleaned cabinets, caulked bathrooms repaired fixtures
and shampooed carpets. Plenty of work, but now we will be ready for renters to
move in! (Sad when you think we own a 3-Bed/2-Bath and we had to stuff all our
things into a one bedroom apartment just down the road)
Madre has been such a help with the shipments that have arrived
and needed to be unloaded. So grateful that she is here to help while I am at
work—another similar experience.
On the family front Tau’aho and Lady Hiva are doing REALLY
well still. Being the 6th pregnancy it is a familiar experience to
have Lady pregnant and for us, the stress and emotions that comes with that
journey. HOWEVER—Tau’aho has not exceeded our expectations and wildest dreams
and has stayed cooking. At midnight tonight we will conclude 31 gestational weeks
and will be into 32 weeks~! Lady Hiva is still walking around moderately and is
not completely confined to bed…we are SO thankful. Tau’aho has cooked longer
than all of his siblings. We are hoping he can stay in there for much, much
longer. Another month at least.
Although pregnancy, and it quirks, are familiar to us,
having Lady this far along is a new experience. We constantly admire how her
body can stretch to fit Tau’aho as he grows. Lady also is experiencing all of
the discomforts of the third trimester that she has never experienced before:
hard to move, sleep, walk, and do anything
in general Yes, it is not great, but
they are discomforts that we are both thankful for. (Maybe a bit easier for me
to say than her---I breath, sleep and move as I always have…hehe)
So we conclude this week with plenty of new memories and
have reviewed and appreciated old ones.
Great to hear! God bless!
ReplyDeletewe wish you all the very best and pray for a healthy baby and mummy. not long now and this new spirit will enter this world with two loving parents who have been long awaiting his arrival. take care and we look forward to hearing seeing what comes next in your journey.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad things are going well! Hope to see you during training. HOw long are you there? We arrive Aug. 10
ReplyDeleteIt is a little sad to think about having a spacious condo down the road from your assigned housing. However, there is a positive in that, seeing as renting it out does generate some extra income. That said, I wish you, Hiva and Tau'aho all the best! -Lakisha@Joanne Davidow
ReplyDelete“Part of being in the foreign service means MOVING!” - Transferring from one house to another is very tiring. But when it's done for a beneficial cause, it becomes an interesting adventure to experience. You have a nice house and I'm pretty sure you've organized it more to make it feel homey. I hope you're enjoying your new place and the new things that you're learning along the way. :)
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