I’ve been hiding HUGE news and I am about to burst!

I’ve been writing and rewriting this post in my head for MONTHS now. It’s a miracle I’ve held in all of the news for this long!

If you know me, you know I am not a super patient human being. I love sharing my story on the blog, and carefully hiding this news week after week has been slowly killing me inside! Thankfully, today is FINALLY the day I get to share it all with the world. I’m really not sure I could hold this all in one more day!

Okay, okay, I’m being a bit melodramatic here. But really, I have A LOT to share, friends. Many of you have noticed things have been a little quieter than usual on the blog these past few months, and I’m so grateful to even have loyal readers who noticed! This blog has become a huge part of who I am, and not being able to share things with you has been hard. I’ve learned that it is really tough for me to work on creative projects and write blog posts when I can’t share what I’m thinking, feeling and working on at that moment. Blogging really is my own form of therapy, and I normally write about what’s happening in the moment. So if you’ve noticed things being slower than usual around here, it’s because every time I sit down to write, all I want to do is shout my news from the rooftops!

So, what’s all this big news I’ve been hiding? I’m not even sure where to begin, so I guess I’ll just spill it all out!

We are pregnant.

We are moving.

We both have new jobs.

We closed our business.

We are starting a new chapter.

All in all, David and I have been consumed with a lot of change these past few months. Nearly every aspect of our life is in transition. I won’t pretend it’s all been sunshine and roses. Change isn’t always easy and I’ve experienced a tremendous amount of stress and worry as we’ve waited for everything to fall into place. I can tell you now that I am extremely excited for new beginnings! This quote has come to mind frequently over the past few months:

[blockquote source=”Meister Eckhart”]And suddenly you know… it’s time to start something new and trust the magic of new beginnings. [/blockquote]

There’s no way I could possibly tell you every detail in one blog post, but I’ll do my best to give you a quick rundown of life updates so you’re up to speed. I’m so excited to FINALLY spill the beans!!!

We are pregnant!

I am 25 weeks along, and it’s all seeming so much more real since we had our 20-week ultrasound. We are expecting a BABY GIRL October 25! That picture above is from a wedding this past weekend. My baby bump is getting to a point where I can’t hide it anymore (although it’s a bit disguised by that flowy dress)!

I was nauseous all day, every day, from week 6 through week 12. The term “morning sickness” is so misleading! As a first-time pregnant lady, I’ve been learning tons! Nausea and general exhaustion is a big part of why the blog nearly slowed to a halt a few months ago! I managed to eek out a post most weeks, but I was so tired and sick all the time that my day job took every ounce of energy I could muster most days.

Now that I’m past the halfway point (eek!), I’m feeling better and have more energy. Considering we’ve been working on house projects like crazy in preparation for listing it for sale, I’m glad I have my energy back! Though I don’t have nearly as much stamina for projects these days. Thankfully David has been a huge help!

Very very few people know how hard we prayed for this baby. Oh goodness, I’m already tearing up! We struggled with infertility for about two years, and it tested every ounce of patience I had in me. Every infertility journey is unique, and ours was thankfully short in comparison to many. But that didn’t make it easy. I didn’t really share it with anyone while we were going through it – it was too difficult for me to talk about in the thick of things. I’m really not great at opening up about my feelings and tend to hold it all in. I honestly just tried not the think about it.

After dozens of tests and ultrasounds and a few months of fertility drugs, we were blessed with a baby during the one month we took a break from our monthly routine of pills and follicle counts. It just goes to show that everything happens when it’s meant to. If you are battling infertility right now, know that my heart aches for you. The best advice I can offer, although I know it’s not enough, is to stay strong and don’t lose hope. Those tears of disappointment will turn to tears of joy one day.

We are moving!

After growing up on a farm between two tiny Iowa towns, living in our current town of 9,000 people has suited me perfectly. It feels plenty big to me, but it’s all about perspective. David has always wanted to get back to the Des Moines metro, which is where he grew up. We’d somewhat planned to move there in a couple years but, when we realized things weren’t great with either of our jobs, we decided to take it as a sign it was time to make the transition.

So although the decision to move did not exactly follow the timeline I had planned, I’m very excited! We’re both looking forward to a fresh start and settling into a new home before our baby arrives (fingers crossed!). And I’ll be honest – I’m giddy with excitement about house hunting! You all know I love houses, and perusing the listings has become a daily habit ;).

We’ve been working overtime on a laundry list of house projects that I want to finish up before any showings. Our house will be listed for sale in the next few days and it’s hard to know how long it will take to sell since we are in a smaller town. We’re planning to commute the hour to and from our new jobs until this house sells and we can make the move (thankfully we’ll be able to carpool most days).

We closed our business and shifted gears.

We opened a small retail store in our town about three years ago. It was a risk, but something we’d both always wanted to do and we knew it would be easier to give it a go when we were young and didn’t have kids or much to lose. David managed the store full-time, which was a welcome change from his hour-long commute to a corporate job every day. Unfortunately small town retail is tough and we couldn’t find a way to make the business sustainable long term. Although it was sad to close our business, I do not regret taking that risk. We both learned so much as business owners, and it taught us a lot about working as a team.

I have been working from home as a marketing consultant since last fall, but I was really craving being part of a larger team again. When I ended my work with my largest client, we decided it was an opportunity to make some big changes and start a new chapter. In the course of a couple days in early April, David and I made a series of huge life decisions. Decisions to leave our current jobs, close down our business, sell our home and move to a new city all while while preparing to start a family.

All of that change was stressful and scary at the time. But as it all began to sink in and we put our plans in motion, my mood quickly turned to excitement. I was ready for a fresh start and new challenges. I was ready to turn the page and start a new chapter in our life. We both began job hunting while putting in a lot of hours to close down and clean out our store.

We are both starting new jobs!

The months of May and June were filled with job searching for both of us. It’s been hard to keep myself from referencing this on the blog, but our schedules have certainly been different since we closed our business at the end of May. With both of us at home all day every day, we’ve been splitting our time between job hunting, preparing our house to sell, liquidating our leftover store inventory online and wrapping up projects for a few marketing clients.

I’ve been waiting and waiting to write this post because I didn’t want to share my pregnancy publicly while interviewing for jobs. Now that we’ve both accepted new positions, I can finally share! We both begin new jobs next week, David with his former corporate employer and me in marketing for a manufacturer. I’m really looking forward to growing in my career and tackling new challenges!

A year of growth

I never did blog about it in January, but my word of the year is GROWTH. I chose that word with a few meanings in mind. First and foremost, I hoped to grow our family. I also wanted to grow in my career and to grow this blog. All in all, I feel like I’m definitely living up to my word of the year and the year’s only half over!

I think I can safely say that 2017 is a year we will never forget! Change is scary but it can result in beautiful things. I am really looking forward to settling into a new home, new jobs and new routines as we prepare for our baby girl’s arrival in October. We have so many adventures ahead, and I am glad I can finally spill the beans and start sharing them with you!

If you are in a period of transition right now, know that it may not always be easy when you’re in the thick of things, but change can result in beautiful, magical beginnings.

So how will all of this affect the blog?

I don’t anticipate the blog changing too much except to continue to improve. Since we’ve been working on all sorts of house projects lately, I have a ton of projects to share with you this summer. I plan to share some posts about the house selling and buying process and expect our future home will have plenty of decorating and organizing projects in store! I am also excited to share some baby-related posts including a few crafty things like our gender reveal and a nursery makeover once we get moved. All in all, I have no plans to veer from the usual topics of organizing, decorating and DIY.

Wow! It feels so good to get that all off my chest. I have had literal dreams of typing this post. Thank you so much for following along on our adventures and I can’t wait to share more updates as things unfold! Stay tuned!

Happy Friday!