Coast to Coast

It's been over a month since I even looked at this blog because since the last blog post we have taken finals and graduated from the Tax LLM (ok, just Quinn did that--YAY QUINN!!!), packed up our apartment in Virginia (I did that while Quinn did the first thing), driven across this entire country with Quinn in the moving truck and Cait and I in the car, been incredibly good little travelers (that was Cait), lived in a motel for a week and a half while we looked for an apartment, found an apartment, unpacked all our things into our new place, and started our first for-real job (Quinn again), all the while getting set up with new midwives since I'm 37 1/2 weeks pregnant now. Whew!

Here are some thoughts about all this:
First, there is nothing, nothing, nothing like family and good friends. Our friends in Virginia helped us so much on that end as we were getting ready to leave. We will miss them so much. I have a goal to be that kind of friend here in our new location. Once here, my family and Quinn's went way out of their way to help us get settled. I really don't know what we would have done without them.

Second...um, San Diego is paradise. I LOVE IT HERE!!!

Third, the Lord gives you strength to do what you need to do. Packing up and cleaning an apartment, sitting in a car driving for days on end, living in a motel with a 22 month old, uprooting from your prenatal care on one end of the country and getting all set up with prenatal care on the other side, and moving into a new apartment all in your last few weeks before giving birth? Not the easiest thing we've ever done. And yet somehow it all worked out and we're all still alive and happy!

Fourth, the Lord loves to grant the desires of our hearts in even the smallest ways to bring us joy. While we were still in school it was so scary to be graduating in this economy and not have any idea if and when we would find a job. We often joked that if we couldn't find a job maybe we'd move to San Diego and live in a tent on the beach--might as well be in paradise if you're going to be homeless, right? And then of all the places we could have found a job, here we are in San Diego. Then in our housing search we looked and looked and looked and looked and looked for a place we felt good about. We discussed the things that were most important to us in a home. Long story short, we found a condo within our price range that is everything we were looking for, and it's in a beautiful, peaceful, quiet little community outside of the city with a landlord who just bought this condo and is 300% excited about making sure it's in great condition for his tenants. I could turn this post into a novel writing all the little ways I feel like the Lord has shown us that He knows us and loves us, but I'll stop there. This is not to say we haven't had our share of tests and trials and mixed in with all this, or that EVERYTHING always works out just the way you want it to when you want it to, but that's just part of what this life is about. I'm so thankful that while we're learning and growing through tests and trials, the Lord finds big and small ways to bring us joy.

So San Diego, here we are! And now that I'm starting to feel a little more prepared for baby boy to join us, maybe the next post will be a birth announcement! :)


Cait in her favorite spot in our Virginia apartment -- "helping" Daddy study.


Cait modeling her self-constructed outfit at the motel where we stayed.


Cait and Pooh getting some fresh air and passing some time outside our motel room.


Cait writing in Daddy's journal on Sunday morning in our new apartment.