Monday thoughts

How is it that a week has gone by since I have been here last? Did Daniel and Bridgette really get married 10 days ago? It feels like yesterday.

Still no baby. And every time I get an inkling of a wish to have this little one, something steps in the way and I am grateful to be still pregnant.

We closed on our new house on Bainbridge Island on Thursday and immediately started ripping up two layers of carpet upstairs with the intent of refinishing the original fir floors underneath. But, as with any old house, you peel one layer of the onion back to find another and another that needs dealing with. In this case, it is nothing too overwhelming, but a few little setbacks feel monumental when you are simultaneously trying to fix up our current house for rent, building a busy photography career, having a baby, moving houses and taking care of little ones. Nick and I have divided and conquered this past week, and barely have a moment to say I love you before diving headfirst into a deep slumber at the end of the evening.

Which is why we haven't properly planned a two-day scout trip that Nick needed to make to Glacier National Park in Montana, a 9 hour drive away. (For the non-photographers, a scout trip is the necessary precursor to a commercial advertising photo shoot where the location is researched in person and all the angles, light and landscape studied in advance so the photo team and models etc can just show up to the exact location(s) and the shoot gets done).

So this morning, after several minutes of deliberations and complicated statistical analysis of when this baby may or may not make his or her debut, Nick hopped in the car and drove just far enough away to make both of our hearts skip a few beats. He is nine hours away from my call, and that is if he has cell service. Which as of this moment, he doesn't.

Before you pity me or us, I have to add, that we chose this life. I chose to marry a photographer, he chose to become one, and we chose to have a big family. And mostly life looks (and is) pretty amazing. We love our life and wouldn't trade it away, even if that means we have to take risks like him missing part of our third child's birth (for the record, I don't think he will, but ask me in 23 hours).

And, in all honesty, we couldn't do this without the huge network of people around us who are so willing to help when we need it. Today, for example, my dad took control of the contractors at our new house so I could stay in the city and take Inca to the vet, who is getting spayed tomorrow morning thanks to brother Ben who is taking care of her for us, while I commute to Bainbridge tomorrow AM so my mom can take Finn to preschool and my Dad can watch Poppie while I meet some more contractors at the house, so Nick can complete this scout trip and be back in time to help me welcome this baby into the world. Our friends are incredible and supportive, our family is sleeping with their phones on loud, and we have amazing neighbors who would drop anything and take the kids or come to the rescue day or night.

It takes a village and we certainly have one right now.