39 weeks

*written 3 months ago, kept forgetting to post*

It has been a long time since I posted.  I am going to attempt an update but not sure I can do the last 6 months justice!

Last I posted was about our driven point well, we worked and worked at it but it stopped moving, we hit some rock we couldn't get through.  So the pipe still sits there and we haul water.  It wouldn't be such an issue if we had a car.

To the car. It died at the end of May.  I won't go into the horrid details of those first weeks, it was ugly and really taxing and a true trial in survival.  Over the next month, Chip got a scooter and we found a driver who drives Amish who was willing to drive me to town too, he also let's me fill all the jugs and buckets I can from his well, truly a God send. 

We made it through the summer, our first with no electricity, and it wasn't as awful as we thought and didn't change our minds on power :).  Life without electricity is pretty nice and peaceful.     Frankly we miss Internet and long for it more than ever, but not electricity.Currently I just have a basic prepaid flip phone with mobile web.  Think 2005.  Add in having awful signal here and it is a challenge. I have my old smartphone which I update every other week with rides into town.  That is how I wrote this.  I am hoping it works so I can share pictures and such. 

Now for baby talk! I am technically 'due' November 9th, my birthday, but Paul was born at 43 weeks and Dolores at just under 42, I am feeling it'll be around the 18th, time will tell! (CharlotteBelle was born November 17th) This is also a surprise and I haven't had a good hunch either way, some days I think boy others girl. We shall see.  The kids, especially Paul, are so excited, tons of questions about the baby and how big it will be, where it will sleep.   Dolores can't wait until I can carry her more and for me to have a lap again! I am sometimes ready, others not.  I want to know what life with this new little one will be like, nervous about how I will get all my work done and keep up, but of course excited too.

I think the best thing about now is that life actually seems to finally be getting settled.  If you go and read the post http://where-is-julie.blogspot.com/2011/09/everything-changes-in-blink-of-eye.html you will be reminded of where this all started.  It still seems like yesterday.  Two and a half years, and still some people don't get it. Time stopped that day.  I realized a few weeks ago, while talking to the kids about the coming baby, that even in my mind they were still just a little over 4 and 1.5. It was that moment I realized all over again the gravity of what we have been through.  We aren't just losers, we really have had a really rough time.  In the end, we are in a better place now, even though it is hard and people think we are nuts or are disappointed in our choices.  It is where we want to be, well minus a well :) but in time that will come.

Picture is me at 39 weeks when this post was written.