the babies are everywhere!!! and i can’t help myself from laughing hysterically at all of this that seems to be flooding my little world right now. both paul and i have pregnant cousins (each preggers with a boy), our dear dear friends out in washington state had a baby boy this week (see attached peanut picture), and our sweet surrogate niece (another friend’s little one) turned 2 years old on friday!!! (again, see attached picture) it’s craziness, i tell ya, pure craziness!!!

on another note but equally crazy…. something that not everyone seems to be experiencing along with me, is this idea of us moving to japan next year. JAPAN!!!! talk about insanity!!! paul and i have known for weeks now, but as i was constructing our letter that will go out with our christmas card, i found myself struck with the reality of it. i had to put on paper that we’re moving to japan, and it hit me. paul and i will be on the other side of the world literally with only each other, our 6 month old baby, and possibly our dog (depending on how long he is quaranteened). over the past few weeks that we’ve known about this move, i’ve started to think about the logistics of actually moving around the world…. we’ll have to get rid of our cars because the japanese drive on the left hand side of the road and their steering wheel is on our passenger side of the car…. red will be locked up for who knows how long until all of his vaccines are cleared…. i guess we’ll find housing once we’re over there…. we will have no family support, no friends, and be in what i imagine is one of the most foreign nations for americans to be in. i can’t even fudge knowing how to speak japanese…. if we were at least going to europe (like friends of our’s who just left for italy) then i could figure some of the language out…. but this is a complete and total barrier. i know, i know, i’m only listing out the negatives, but at this point in time, after having this news for about 4 weeks, the negative side is really all i see. our families have already been talking about investing in video cameras so that they can see the baby while we’re gone…. the little man will grow and change immensely over the amount of time that we’re in japan, and they’re going to miss so much of that.

maybe that’s why the world is showing me all of these babies and all of this family-fun now… so that i can soak it up while i can. it just seems like the vast majority of our friends and family members are close to extended family (or at least in the US) and everyone can share in the joy that a growing baby brings. we won’t have that. sure, japan can be an adventure…. yada yada yada… in all honesty, this baby is enough of an adventure for us. paul and i are trying to settle ourselves down, create our own family, invest in each other…. we don’t want an adventure on the other side of the world.

i guess what i’m saying is…. if you read this and feel like emailing me about the positives of a multicultural life experience and referring to this move as “an adventure,” save yourself the trouble. i’m not at that place yet. i’m still angry. however, if you read this, and feel like emailing me and just saying “this sucks,” by all means feel free! ~