I know you are probably thinking- BUT AREN'T YOU DUE SOON!? Who moves when they are 35 weeks pregnant? Well, this family does. :) We have been packing for awhile (don't worry I haven't lifted one single box) and have been wanting to wait to announce it until everything was 100% official.
I am SO PROUD to say that T.J. got a job with the US Fish and Wildlife service in Michigan and he will be a fish biologist! This is exactly what he came to Cornell for. He has spent the past 3 years working harder than I ever thought possible and pushing himself further than he knew he was able to push. He has had countless presentations, written hundreds of pages of work, logged hundreds of hours in the field... and he made it- he graduated with flying colors and I honestly COULD NOT be more proud of him. I'm not quite sure how he was able to balance it all. He is the smartest guy I know!
T.J. has been applying all over for different jobs... Maine, New York, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Wyoming, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Utah, Washington, Canada, Georgia, Arkansas, Minnesota, Colorado and Michigan! :) I'm sure I probably forgot another 10 states! We truly were giving EVERY opportunity to the Lord and just consistently asking Him to direct our path with T.J.'s career. Everyone asks us, "Are you coming back to Oklahoma??"... that is such a hard question. At this point, no, not right now, but who knows what God has for us in the future. The job in Michigan is clearly our next step. We feel so blessed that he got a federal job from the get go and we are hoping this makes the next step even easier. We have completely fallen in love with the northeast but T.J. definitely feels the west calling his name (Montana specifically I think...) so we'll see what happens after Michigan! No matter what, we will follow the Lord's leading. I could go on and on about how amazing the past 3 years of our lives have been with living here in New York and how much we have grown- but I'll spare you for now! :) Even though "starting over" is scary... we know how amazing it can be just from our move to New York so we are trying to stay as positive as possible.
T.J. starts July 30! We move July 24 and both of our last days of work will be July 20. Like I mentioned before, we have already started packing and so the move should be relatively "easy"... at least for me. ;) Remember... I'm not allowed to really do that much... :)
Holly, Michigan (where we will be moving) is about 8 1/2 hours away. We will get to Michigan on the 24th and we'll have a good 5-6 days of unpacking before T.J. starts his job. Thankfully, and graciously, Debbie, T.J.'s mom is flying out to Ithaca on the 22nd so she can help us move to Michigan. She is amazing like that!
In case you are worried... we already have our doctor and hospital lined up in Michigan. The hospital is AMAZING (West Bloomfield Henry Ford Hospital) and so much bigger than the one here in Ithaca. Not that it matters, but I'm happy I don't need to worry about anything.
Here is the best part... T.J. had a colleague at Cornell that moved back to Michigan (his home state) with his wife and little girl about a year and a half ago. T.J. will now be working with this guy in Michigan! They just had a little boy not too long ago and so the wife was able to give me all of the great advice on the hospital to go to, the doctors/midwives to use and all of that- word of mouth is the way to go! She had an amazing experience and it definitely eased my mind.
The crazy thing is, with all of the million things that are changing... I'm really not stressed (at least yet!) :) and I'm sure that has to do with all of the people praying for us. T.J. is so nervous I'm going to stress and now I'm stressed that he's stressing about me being stressed. ;) Ultimately... we just know that God is in control and He is taking care of us. We feel so great about the decisions we have made and are excited about the future. Our doctor is also not concerned about the move.. he just said "Don't stress!" We realize that everything doesn't have to go according to any particular plan. I HOPE that we have time to set up the house, get Teagan's nursery ready, and are as "prepared" as possible.. but I also realize that if I went into labor on our way to Michigan (which I obviously shouldn't!) that we would be fine. God will see us through it all. We do appreciate ALL of your prayers though! We are praying that Teagan will go full term and that I will continue to have an easy, non-complicated pregnancy.
I am planning to stay at home with Teagan. I am VERY excited about this. I'm sure we'll get our little eBay business up and running again like we have done in the past. :) I loved doing that and it would be nice to have another source of income. T.J.'s job will allow him to work 4 10 hr. days most weeks which is super nice because then we will have 3 day weekends together. Not to mention his office likes to start the work day early... AND I MEAN EARLY! It looks like a lot of days he will get off work around 3:30-4:30.
There are many more updates to come but I thought I would at least "spread the word"- we are moving... and we are moving to Michigan! Goodness gracious, who would have ever thought!? Not me!
This is the only picture I have available at the computer right now! I apologize for the terrible lighting! We were staying with our friends for the weekend in Michigan and I remembered we hadn't taken our 34 week picture... so we took an impromptu pic. :)
Oh, did I forget to mention that we drove there last weekend JUST to take all of T.J.'s mounts out there? :) I might have forgot to mention that... we didn't get weird looks or ANYTHING!
Our adventures continue :)
