It has been a week since our sweet Naomi girl made her appearance in this world! So much has happened, and yet it all seems to have gone by so fast! Also I’m typing this on my phone, while I feed Naomi and it’s currently midnight, because when else is a good time to write a new blog? Just keep that in mind before you judge me for all of my rambling and grammatical errors.

When Nathan and I moved back from Vietnam one of the things I was craving was a sense of normalcy and slowing down. Well, it just so happened that Naomi decided to make us wait a week after her due date, and two days after she was born we moved across town. Apparently the De Pennings like to just combine all big life changes into a few days. At least the move was just across town with this child and not across the world- it makes things significantly easier.

I genuinely thought this week would be a disaster. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to get everything moved, I thought I would be so anxious and overwhelmed with organizing our new space. I worried about how Hez would transition to no longer being our only child. I was worried about how COVID would affect everything. After my last midwife appointment, maybe I cried on my way home just filled with worry about what the week would look like. I also maybe drove through Taco Bell and got a crunch wrap supreme and Baja blast at 10 in the morning. Maybe.

Anyways, we went ahead with our induction date of Wednesday (I’m going to write out Naomi’s birth story sometime if you’re into reading about that kind of stuff). She was born that evening, and we left the hospital on Friday. Saturday morning some friends and family showed up and within three hours we were all unloaded at our new duplex. We had friends who deep cleaned our duplex the night before we moved in and the people who were moving into our old house offered to clean it for us so we didn’t have to worry about it. I had my family literally unpack every box we had and organize our entire place for us. Guys, I literally sat all day on our couch and ate breakfast pizza while I nursed a hungry three day old. I told Nathan that I really thought I’d hide away in our room because it would all be so overwhelming and chaotic but in reality I just carb loaded and talked with my friends.

I just feel so thankful, for so much. I want to remember every single thing that has happened this week. I want to buy every person that has helped us a million puppies and a big cherry pie because that is what they all deserve! Anyways, here are a few things I am so thankful for just from this last week:

-the hospital staff

I know they’ve like written songs about how important the essential workers at the hospitals are. People have applauded and hit pots and pans for them (although probably not in Columbia since there aren’t a lot of houses close to the hospital) and they’ve shared probably about a million posts on Facebook just thanking those people that are still working.

All I have to say is that nurses and midwives and doctors and food service people and housekeepers…they deserve like whatever they want. They are the most incredible humans who are risking their health to make sure so many others are okay. Even in the little bit I talked with some of my old friends from work, you can see how much COVID has changed the “normal” work routine. From fearing being let go, to floating to different floors, to wearing a mask ALL day, they are incredible and I love them all. You’ll probably hear me talk more about them when I type out my birth story because I know I could not have birthed this child without them. They are the best. If you see a healthcare worker buy them a flower and a giant cup of coffee and tell them “thanks”.

-next up: the move in crew

I know I already talked about how I sat in the couch and ate breakfast pizza while everyone else moved us in but it was the easiest move I have ever been apart of. I owe so many thanks to our friends who gave up their Saturday morning to help us load our billions of boxes and furniture into their trailers and then move them into our new place. I did not even lift a single box. Not a single one! My mom kept telling me how we have such a good community here and I could not agree more. I am so thankful for our friends who love us so much, and are so willing to serve us in this way. If you helped us moved-you are the best and I wish I had more to give you then breakfast pizza but just know that I am so incredibly thankful for you!

-family

We had family drive four hours with two kids under five, and more family fly into Columbia to help us this weekend! They unloaded boxes and put things away and didn’t even care when they asked where I wanted something and I didn’t even know-they organized it for my indecisive self. They got us contact paper to put in our cabinets (didn’t even know that was a thing) and a fancy baby gate so Hez doesn’t take a tumble down the stairs. They didn’t judge me for my lack of organization and also were so content spending their weekend in Columbia organizing our house instead of doing actual fun things. I am so thankful for the family we have, and feel so blessed. Also I’m not even going to go into the fact that my mother in law has been here for almost three weeks because we really though Naomi would come before her due date (we were wrong) and so instead she just chased Hez around outside for hours in the hundred degree Missouri weather and packed 90% of our boxes for us. God bless mother in laws.

Anyways, I write all of this just to say “thanks”. Nathan and I feel so lucky and grateful to have such a supportive community when life gets kind of crazy. In the last two and a half years of marriage we have had two babies, moved overseas and back, and now moved into a new duplex. The saying “it takes a village” has taken in a whole new sense of relevancy in our lives this last week. We feel so lucky.

Also, I had very high hopes of taking pictures and documenting everything so this blog would be more “aesthetically pleasing to the eyes” but alas, I forgot. So here are some pictures of Hez and Naomi because they’re cute.

Stay tuned for Naomi’s birth story next week (maybe… I won’t make any guarantees).