Surreal

The last two months have been some of the most interesting of my life. I haven't posted because I haven't been at home, and I didn't really know what to say. But six weeks and one day after we left for our family reunion, we are finally home.

We went on vacation to Maine, which was amazing. Unfortunately, the day after we left, Calgary suffered a major flood, and our neighbourhood was one of the more affected in the city. We had no way of "saving" our truck or storage room, and we knew our basement (where both of those things were) would likely be completely underwater. Since we were helpless, we decided to just enjoy our vacation and deal with it on our return.

Blowing bubbles in Maine

Our family reunion was great. We spent some quality time with people we normally only see once a year (and more time with Matante Kristen of course), and relaxed at a lakefront house. I will admit it was a little sad being pregnant and not enjoying the plethora of cocktails that were going around, but I did get my fair share of Polar Seltzer, so I was content.

As we began our return home, I started to get more and more anxious. I knew we were in for a big mess at home, and sure enough, it was chaos. We stayed with Matt's brother the first night, and in the morning went down to our place to check it out. It was crazy.

That was my work luggage and the entrance to our storage room

Baby swing totally flipped over (that was on the floor somewhere else) and the bassinet and stand all disheveled

We were lucky enough to have lots of help that day, and managed to clear out the room and salvage our bikes, bags of baby clothes, and a couple of other small things. Our truck (only three months old, sniff sniff) was a write off, being submerged almost completely. Some of my amazing friends came and took all the baby clothes and washed, folded and sorted them for me, and that was so appreciated since it probably would have taken me a month to do it all.

We spent the following week with Matt's brother, then moved in with my Mum. My 89 year old grandma, who lives around the corner from us, is also staying there (key word: IS) so it was a bit of a crazy house. My mum is used to living alone, so I'm sure having her mother, her daughter, son in law and granddaughter was a bit of an adjustment. I will say, she is the most patient person I have ever known, and she proved that during our entire stay. Zoey absolutely loved staying with Grams, and every morning she climbed up the stairs saying "Heyo Grams! Heyo GG! Heyo Wiyo!" (Willow is the cat, who is super mean and scratched her) and helped get GG (Great Granny) her breakfast, feed the cat, and learned how to peel and orange. I'm happy that she was so happy there, and I was also thankful for the help chasing her around since I am getting bigger and bigger.

Having fun in the hammock swing at her uncle's house

Our entire basement in our building was trashed, so all the electrical, furnace, hot water heater, fire alarm, elevator etc. all needed to be replaced. We got updates, but it became increasingly obvious that we would be gone for a while. I was getting so nervous about my approaching due date (August 20) and couldn't wrap my head around the idea of bringing home a new baby to my mums, never mind potentially giving birth in her basement with everyone present. (I had a quick labour last time, so that was a very real possibility).

A great photo snapped on my phone after our photo shoot I'll post about later

Anyway, weeks passed, and finally, six weeks later, the power came on, the fire alarm got replaced, and we came home!! We worked really hard all weekend to get our place cleaned and baby ready, and I'm so relieved that we did. I feel "ready" now for the baby to arrive!

First night back at home!!!

What I have learned from this is that people are extremely generous. I find it hard to describe, and am very overwhelmed. People gave their time, their things, and their money to us. Some people we know well, some we know a little, and some we don't know at all. I feel unworthy of all the generosity, but so appreciative. There are many people who lost their entire homes, and we, luckily, only lost a vehicle and some "extras", so we know others need more help than us. But people have still reached out to us and given a little or a lot, and all we can do is thank them. This whole experience has made me want to be more generous since we just feel so loved by everyone in our lives.

I'll leave it at that. I'm 38 weeks pregnant and ready! Thank you for reading, thank you for tweeting, thank you for emailing and thank you for thinking of our family. We are so lucky to have you all "in our lives" and we won't forget it.

This one is for Sandra. She looks like a Von Trapp!